Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 551 (Drunken Tailor)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Reel32AABBE Dorian
Transcription of first 2 bars of Drunken Tailor
 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 IDM 1 (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):
Drunken Tailor, The / The Drinking Reel (compare 1st part with 1st part of Pigeon on the Gate #1581)
What do the "track#tune" codes mean?

cd Discography

Here is the sole recording of this tune considering only the indexed recordings.

Year
Recorded
Track
#Tune
[Album code] Artist. Title. Primary musicians (instruments). Album details
and contents
19469#1[IDM 1] various. Irish Dance Music. 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 recording listed above.

As reel #160 in [MM] Martin Mulvihill. First Collection of Traditional Irish Music.
As reel #48 in [JKg 3] Josephine Keegan. A Drop in the Ocean. Traditional Irish Tunes Collected by Josephine Keegan. [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): 1946