Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 647 (Flowers of Edinburgh)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Hornpipe32AABBG Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of Flowers of Edinburgh
 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 JCt 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):
Flowers of Edinburgh / The Flower of Edinburgh / Flower of Donnybrook / The Flower of Donnybrook / Flowers of Donnybrook / Cois lasadh / My Love Was Once a Bonnie Lad / My Love was Once a Bonny Lad / Rossaviel / To the Battle Men of Erin / To the Battle, Men of Erin (also as barndance or reel)
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
~19746#1[KCB 3] [The Kilfenora Ceili Band]. [The Kilfenora Céilí Band]. View album details
~19943#1[JCt 1] John Carty and Brian McGrath. The Cat that Ate the Candle. John Carty (banjo, fiddle), Brian McGrath (piano, banjo).View album details
~19989#1[FFH] Far From Home. Tri. Turner Collins (accordion, whistle, vocals), Bob Newton (octave mandolin, mandocello, bodhrán, vocals), Daithi Wolfe (fiddle).View album details
20007#2[MOR] Mícheál Ó Raghallaigh. The Nervous Man. Traditional Irish Music on Concertina. Mícheál Ó Raghallaigh (concertina).View album details
~20058#2[CTrsh] Ciaran Tourish. Down the Line. Ciaran Tourish (fiddle, 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 #1746 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #920 in [1001] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. The Dance Music of Ireland. 1001 Gems. [available]
As tune #88 in [WC] Pat Mitchell. The Dance Music of Willie Clancy. [available]
On page 208 of [Krsn] Miles Krassen. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. New and Revised. [available]
On page 16 of [Ba] Betty M. Barlow. Fiddle Tunes for the Violinist. [available]
On page 109 of [FF] David Brody. The Fiddler's Fakebook. [available]
As tune #19 in [DM 2] Dave Mallinson. 100 Enduring Irish Session Tunes. [available]
On page 202 of [M2] Phil Rubenzer. Midwestern Irish Session Tunes. Millennium Edition.
As hp #23 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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