Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 653 (Flowing Tide)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Hornpipe32AABBG Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of Flowing Tide
 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 EI 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):
Flowing Tide / The Flowing Tide / Higgins' Best / The Bunch of Ferns / The Picnic Reel (also in A) (compare 2nd part with 2nd part of reel The Picnic #1580)
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
~19916#1[TC] various. Turas Cheoil. A Musical Odyssey: A compilation of music from the traditional musicians of Toronto. View album details
~19941#1[EI 1] Eileen Ivers. Eileen Ivers. Traditional Irish Music. Eileen Ivers (fiddle, mandolin, rainstick).View album details
~9999[2] various. Alan's other personal audiocassettes.

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 #1750 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #66 in volume 1 of [B&S] D[avid] Bulmer and N[eil] Sharpley. Music from Ireland. 4 vols.
On page 209 of [Krsn] Miles Krassen. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. New and Revised. [available]
As tune #83 in [DM 2] Dave Mallinson. 100 Enduring Irish Session Tunes. [available]
As hp #24 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #252 in [Raff] Lesl Harker. 300 Tunes from Mike Rafferty. [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