Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 635 (New Town Bridge)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Reel32AABBG Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of New Town Bridge
 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 CmA 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):
New Town Bridge / Newtown Bridge / The Rough Road / Fisherman's Farewell / The Sailor's Farewell / Slán an Mhairnéalaigh / The Sailor's Return / Doocastle / Dillons / Bell Harbour / The Belharbour Reel / McGuinnesse's Frolics / Reynold's Reel (composed by Paddy O'Brien or Raymond Roland or Chris Droney)
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
~194910#1[CmA 1] various. The Coleman Archive Vol. 1: The Living Tradition. View album details
~19801#3[JKn 1] James Keane. Roll Away the Reel World. James Keane (accordion).View album details
~19918#1[Tri 1] Trian. Trian. Liz Carroll (fiddle), Billy McComiskey (accordion), Daithi Sproule (guitar, vocals).View album details
~19955#1[KC 1] Kevin Crawford. 'D' Flute Album. Kevin Crawford (flute, whistle, bodhrán).View album details
199816#1[JWh] John Whelan. Come to Dance. John Whelan (accordion).View album details
~20021#1[Fns] Feenish. Rabharta. P.J. Hernon (accordion), Marcus Hernon (flute, whistle), Don Stiffe (vocals, guitar, whistle).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 #146 in [CRE 2] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 2.
As reel #217 in [MM] Martin Mulvihill. First Collection of Traditional Irish Music.
As reel #193 in [HN] Henrik Norbeck. Henrik Norbeck's Abc Tunes. [available]
As reel #12 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. [available]
As reel #46 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): 1949