Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 988 (Johnny Cope)

RhythmBarsMode
Hornpipe96A Dorian
Transcription of first 2 bars of Johnny Cope
 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 5 (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):
Johnny Cope / Jonny Cope / Johnnie Cope (also as 2-part march or as song) (compare distantly #3741)
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
19788#1[NHTL] Noel Hill and Tony Linnane. Noel Hill and Tony Linnane. Noel Hill (concertina), Tony Linnane (fiddle).View album details
~19788#1[SE 5] Seamus Ennis. The Fox Chase. Seamus Ennis (pipes).View album details
~198710#2[TW] Tannahill Weavers. The Best of the Tannahill Weavers 1979-1989. View album details
~199610#1[MOB] Mick O' Brien. May Morning Dew. Mick O' Brien (pipes, whistle).View album details
~20003#1[COC] Connie O'Connell. Ceol Cill na Martra (Music from Cill Na Martra). Connie O'Connell (fiddle).View album details
~200710#1[RdOnly] Brian McNamara and Tim Collins. Reed Only. Brian McNamara (pipes), Tim Collins (concertina).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 #1812 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #202 in volume 3 of [R] Francis Roche. The Roche Collection of Traditional Irish Music. 3 vols. [available]
As tune #285 in [JOL] Terry Moylan. Johnny O'Leary of Sliabh Luachra. Dance Music from the Cork-Kerry Border. [available]
As hp #29 in [HN] Henrik Norbeck. Henrik Norbeck's Abc Tunes. [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