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The Irish Traditional Music Tune Index

Tune ID#3327 (Big John's Reel)

Transcription of first 2 bars of Big John's Reel 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 IA (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):
Big John's Reel / Big John's (1st in set Big John's on Nms 2)
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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).
199312#3
[A IA] Altan. Island Angel. Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh (fiddle, vocals), Frankie Kennedy (flute, whistle, vocals), Mark Kelly (guitar, vocals), Ciaran Curran (bouzouki), Ciaran Tourish (fiddle, whistle, vocals), Dáithi Sproule (guitar, vocals).
~19965#1
[Nms 2] Nomos. Set You Free. Niall Vallely (concertina, keyboards), Vince Milne (fiddle), Gerry McKee (bouzouki), Frank Torpey (bodhrán), John Spillane (vocals, guitar, bass guitar).
~201012#1
[DShrdn 2] Dave Sheridan. Drivin' Leitrim Timber. Dave Sheridan (flute, guitar). For this tune: (Eb flute).
201310#2
[Friel1] The Friel Sisters. The Friel Sisters. Anna Friel (flute, whistle, vocals), Sheila Friel (pipes, flute, whistle, vocals), Clare Friel (fiddle, whistle, mouth organ, vocals).

Goes Well with . . .

In the above Discography, this tune is:

Played afterOn Albums
Pirrie Wirrie		A IA
Noon Lasses		Friel1
Played beforeOn Albums
Stony Steps		DShrdn 2
Kitty the Hare		Friel1

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.
As tune #141 in [CRE 5] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 5.
On page 98 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): 1966
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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