Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 681 (Frost Is All Over)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Double jig32AABBD Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of Frost Is All Over
 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 SE 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):
Frost Is All Over, The / The Praties Are Dug and the Frost Is All Over / What Would You Do? / What Would You Do If the Kettle Boiled Over? / What'll I Do If the Kettle Boils Over / Young Tim Murphy / Paddy's Return / Patsy McCann's / Kitty Lie Over (for 1st figure of Taille Mhara Jig Set on MISD 7) (also sung with text, and compare with text of #682)
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
~195130#1[AL] various. World Library of Folk and Primitive Music: Ireland. View album details
~19775#1[SE 4] Séamus Ennis. Forty Years of Irish Piping. Seamus Ennis (pipes except where whistle or vocals noted).View album details
~19795#2[Plx 4] Planxty. Collection. Unidentified on this reissue.View album details
~19826#1[KB Pt] Kevin Burke and Mícheál Ó Domhnaill. Portland. Kevin Burke (fiddle), Mícheál Ó Domhnaill (vocals, guitar, harmonium).View album details
~1996B.1#1[MISD 7] Donncha Lynch Trio. The Magic of Irish Set Dancing. Vol. 7. Donncha Lynch (accordion), Aogán Lynch (concertina), Donncha Lynch Jr. (guitar).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 #883 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #134 in [1001] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. The Dance Music of Ireland. 1001 Gems. [available]
On page 38 of [Krsn] Miles Krassen. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. New and Revised. [available]
As jig #11 in [Ng] Alan Ng. Alan Ng's Transcriptions. [available]
As tune #139 in [JOL] Terry Moylan. Johnny O'Leary of Sliabh Luachra. Dance Music from the Cork-Kerry Border. [available]
In [L] Alan's private loose music.
In [FMH] Tom Hastings. The Feis Musicians Handbook [sic].
As jig #37 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #179 in [Raff] Lesl Harker. 300 Tunes from Mike Rafferty. [available]
On page 32 of [RM] Randy Miller and Jack Perron. Irish Traditional Fiddle Music. [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