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The Irish Traditional Music Tune Index

Tune ID#1325 (Mary O'the Wisp)

Transcription of first 2 bars of Mary O'the Wisp about these two bars
These two bars were transcribed by me from how this tune was played – the first time through – on the recording A HH (details in the Discography below).
Basic musical information on this tune.
Rhythm ?Bars8-bar phrase structureMode ?
Reel32AABBD Major
Titles ? given to this tune in the sources listed below (plus notes of mine about this tune):
Mary O'the Wisp / Mary o' the Wisp / Mary o' the Wisps / Máire na Sop / Mol an Tiarna / Moll and Tiarna / Moll & Tiarna / Biddy from Muckross
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Discography cd

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.

Click play below to hear the first 12 seconds.
Year
Recorded		 Track
#Tune?		 [Album code] Artist. Title (Link to Album Info page). Performers (instruments).
19883#3
[A HH] Altan. Horse with a Heart. Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh (fiddle, vocals), Frankie Kennedy (flute), Paul O'Shaughnessy (fiddle), Ciaran Curran (bouzouki), Mark Kelly (guitar).
~19974#2
[BBg 2] Brendan Begley. We Won't Go Home 'til Morning. Brendan Begley (accordion, melodeon, vocals). For this tune: (accordion), with Dermot McLaughlin (fiddle).
~20091.43#1
[VCbl] Vincent Campbell. The Purple Heather. Vincent Campbell (fiddle).
20111#3
[FullSt 1] FullSet. Notes at Liberty. Seán McCarthy (pipes, whistle), Michael Harrison (fiddle), Janine Redmond (accordion), Teresa Horgan (vocals, flute), Eamonn Moloney (bodhrán), Andrew Meaney (guitar).

Goes Well with . . .

In the above Discography, this tune is:

Played afterOn Albums
Watchmaker		A HH
Con McGinley's		BBg 2
Laurel Tree		FullSt 1
Played beforeOn Albums
Sweeney's Favorite Reel		A HH

Bibliography

Here are all transcriptions of this tune considering only the indexed books, listed in chronological order. I have discovered by careful comparison that these are musical matches to this tune as played on the recordings listed above.

Listing of published transcriptions of this tune.
On page 164 of [NF] Allen Feldman. The Northern Fiddler. [available]
On page 40 of [Altan] Martin Tourish. Altan. The 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 only the recordings and transcriptions listed above (note that I concentrate on sources after 1900): 1977
Please cite your source when you use information from this document.
© 2000–2025 Alan Ng. Questions? Comments? Please use the easy Feedback Form. Thank you!
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