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The Irish Traditional Music Tune Index

Tune ID#1784 (Small Hills of Offaly)

Transcription of first 2 bars of Small Hills of Offaly about these two bars
These two bars were transcribed by me from how this tune was played – the first time through – on the recording KOS (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):
Small Hills of Offaly, The / Small Hills of Offaly / Cnocáin Uíbh Fhailí / Hills of Offaly (composed by Paddy O'Brien the younger, of Offaly, in 1967)
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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).
~19817#1
[KOS] James Kelly, Paddy O'Brien, Daithi Sproule. Traditional Music of Ireland. James Kelly (fiddle), Paddy O'Brien (accordion), Daithi Sproule (vocals, guitar).
~198511#2
[IT 3] The Irish Tradition. The Times We've Had. Billy McComiskey (accordion), Brendan Mulvihill (fiddle), Andy O'Brien (guitar, vocals).
~19863#3
[SEgn 1] Seamus Egan. Traditional Music of Ireland. Seamus Egan (flute, banjo, mandolin, whistle, pipes, tres). For this tune: (banjo).
199911#3
[Dnu 2] Danú. Think before You Think. Tom Doorley (flute, whistle), Eamon Doorley (bouzouki, mandola), Brendan McCarthy (accordion), Jesse Smith (fiddle, viola), Noel Ryan (guitar), Donnchadh Gough (bodhrán, pipes), Ciarán Ó Gealbháin (vocals).
~20007#3
[LLses 1] The London Lasses and Pete Quinn. The London Lasses and Pete Quinn. Bernie Conneely (banjo), Elaine Conwell (fiddle), Karen Ryan (fiddle, whistle), Sharon Whelton (flute, whistle).
~20071#2
[RdOnly] Brian McNamara and Tim Collins. Reed Only. Brian McNamara (pipes), Tim Collins (concertina).
20111#1
[ChiReel] Chicago Reel. Chicago Reel. Gerry Carey (accordion), Pauline Conneely (banjo, guitar), Rose Duffy (fiddle), Devin Shepherd (fiddle), Denis O'Sullivan (vocals), Jonathan Whitall (piano).

Goes Well with . . .

In the above Discography, this tune is:

Played afterOn Albums
Lad O'Beirne's		IT 3
[untitled]		SEgn 1
Tommy Peoples		Dnu 2
Harvest Moon		LLses 1
Aggie Whyte's		RdOnly
Played beforeOn Albums
Widow's Daughter		RdOnly, ChiReel
Farewell to Old Decency		KOS
Fintan McManus's		SEgn 1

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 39 of [L] Alan's private loose music.
As reel #223 in [JKg 3] Josephine Keegan. A Drop in the Ocean. Traditional Irish Tunes Collected by Josephine Keegan.

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): 1981
Please cite your source when you use information from this document.
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