Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 500 (Dever the Dancer)

RhythmBarsMode
Slip jig16E Dorian
Transcription of first 2 bars of Dever the Dancer
 about these two bars

These two bars are the start of my transcription of how this tune was played – the first time through – on the recording Ch 4 (details in the Discography below).

Where do you get the tune titles?
Titles given to this tune in the sources listed below (plus notes of mine about this tune):
Dever the Dancer / Deel of the Dance / The Humours of Whiskey / Pléaraca an Fuisce / The Humours of Derry / The Crossroads' Frolic / Dillon's Fancy / The Peeler's Return / The Policeman's Return / Barranna Móra Chlann Donncha / The Bridge of Athlone (4th in set Drowsey Maggie on Ch 4; 1st interlude in Farmer Michael Hayes on FtE; 1st in set Packie Duignan's on Drv 4)
What do the "track#tune" codes mean?

cd Discography

Here are all recordings of this tune considering only the indexed recordings. I have discovered by careful listening that these sources are in fact musically the same tune, regardless of the tune titles they use, key changes, retuning, etc. They are listed in order of when they were recorded.

Year
Recorded		 Track
#Tune		 [Album code] Artist. Title. Primary musicians (instruments). Album details
and contents
~19731(1:43)#4[Ch 4] The Chieftains. 4. Michael Tubridy (flute, concertina, whistle), Seán Potts (whistle), Paddy Moloney (pipes, whistle), Martin Fay (fiddle), Seán Keane (fiddle), Peadar Mercier (bodhrán, bones).View album details
19807#2[FtE] Dolores Keane and John Faulkner with Eamonn Curran. Farewell to Erin (Farewell to Éirinn). Instruments not specified: Dolores Keane (vocals, etc.), John Faulkner (vocals, etc.), Eamonn Curran (pipes, etc.).View album details
19971.1#1[Drv 4] Dervish. Live in Palma. Cathy Jordan (vocals), Liam Kelly (flute), Shane McAleer (fiddle), Shane Mitchell (accordion), Brian McDonagh (mandola, guitar), Micheal Holmes (bouzouki).View album details
~19995#1[Trc] Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin and Patrick Ourceau. Tracin'. Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin (concertina), Patrick Ourceau (fiddle).View album details

Bibliography

Here are all transcriptions of this tune under any title whatsoever – considering only the indexed books – listed in chronological order. I have discovered by careful comparison that these are very similar to this tune as played on the recordings listed above.

As tune #1147 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #431 in [1001] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. The Dance Music of Ireland. 1001 Gems. [available]
As tune #100 in [CRE 2] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 2.
On page 83 of [Krsn] Miles Krassen. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. New and Revised. [available]
On page 14 of [SK] Sean Keane. Fifty Fiddle Solos. [available]
In [FMH] Tom Hastings. The Feis Musicians Handbook [sic].
On page 218 of [M2] Phil Rubenzer. Midwestern Irish Session Tunes. Millennium Edition.
As slipjig #6 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. [available]

If you are considering using the above transcriptions to help you learn this tune, I invite you to check these practical Tips for Learning Irish Traditional Music. See also: So why do you bother indexing books and abc?

Year of the oldest source for this tune, considering the recordings and transcriptions listed above (note that I concentrate on sources after 1900): 1903
Please cite your source when you use information from this document.
© 2000–2008 Alan Ng, agng@facstaff.wisc.edu. Questions? Comments? Please use the easy Feedback Form. Thank you!
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