Source for ITM: "The Session"

[McDouglas]

I know this website must have been around for a while but just today I've discovered a great source for ITM tunes:  The Session.

 

https://thesession.org/tunes

 

Ability to search by tune type (reels, jigs, hornpipes, etc) and by keys.

 

 

[Rich C R]

Thanks for posting, I am sure I will use it.

[Wolf Molkentin]

of course not at all restricted to ITM

[gcoover]

Yes, the site has a lot of tunes, and even more comments and opinions (some more helpful than others), but unfortunately a lot of folks have posted tunes that they've admittedly altered. So beware. Better to learn tunes from players you like or go deep into original sources like O'Neill, Roche, Joyce, Walsh, Comhaltas, etc.!

 

Gary

[Wolf Molkentin]

yes, you need good judgement to find an appropriate version amongst all the variants, but it can be done mostly...

[RAc]

Here's another (though quite different) huge collection but focussing on English dance tunes (no ITM):

 

https://www.vwml.org/topics/historic-dance-and-tune-books

 

It's a vast collection of scans of originally published dance tune collections, sometimes converted to ABCs/MIDI. Be careful: It's easy to get lost there, it's so large.

 

[Wolf Molkentin]

1 hour ago, RAc said:

Here's another (though quite different) huge collection but focussing on English dance tunes (no ITM):

 

https://www.vwml.org/topics/historic-dance-and-tune-books

 

It's a vast collection of scans of originally published dance tune collections, sometimes converted to ABCs/MIDI. Be careful: It's easy to get lost there, it's so large.

 

 

Wow - that's awesome Rüdiger - I will get lost I reckon...

 

Best wishes - ?

[endgrainguy]

This site :    https://www.irishtune.info/  

has transformed the way I learn tunes. You can search by tune name, and get a list with a listenable snippet, of many , many recordings going back decades.  And you can sample tracks on any recording in their data base as well.

 

[McDouglas]

On 12/28/2018 at 7:22 AM, RAc said:

English dance tunes

Thank you.  Very helpful.

[McDouglas]

On 12/27/2018 at 4:41 PM, gcoover said:

original sources like O'Neill, Roche, Joyce, Walsh, Comhaltas

Gcoover, will you say more about these "original sources"? 

[gcoover]

I'll preface by saying these are some of the primary and first printed sources for traditional Irish tunes, which we know change and adapt over the years (though not usually as deliberately as on thesession.org):

 

Captain Francis O'Neill - the original collection of 1850 tunes "Music of Ireland" (1903), 1001 tunes in "Dance Music of Ireland" (1907) and 365 tunes in "Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody" (1922).

 

George Petrie - "The Complete Collection of Irish Music as Noted by George Petrie" (1902-1905).

 

P.W. Joyce - "Old Irish Folk Music and Songs" (1909).

 

Edward Bunting - "General Collection of Ancient Irish Music" (1796).

 

Honoria Galwey - "Old Irish Croonauns and Other Tunes" (1910), 72 tunes.

 

Francis Roche - "The Roche Collection of Traditional Irish Music (1912, 1927), 3 volumes, 566 tunes.

 

More recently, Comhaltas has published three volumes of the "Foinn Seisiun Book" by Brian Prior.

 

Also, "Ceol Rince na hEireann" is up to 5 volumes edited by Breandan Breathnach and Jackie Small.

 

 

I'm sure others will chime in with more early publications. From personal experience I will warn you the sheer mass of tunes will drive you crazy. Although it is often fun to open one up randomly and see what tunes might be of interest, it's far more sane to start with recorded tunes you like, or ones common to your local session. But who knows, maybe you'll discover a hidden gem or two buried in all those books that you can bring back to life!

 

Gary

[McDouglas]

Gary,

 

Thanks.  It's great to see a list like this.  Thanks so much!

 

McDouglas

[Halifax]

On 12/27/2018 at 3:53 PM, McDouglas said:

I know this website must have been around for a while but just today I've discovered a great source for ITM tunes:  The Session.

 

https://thesession.org/tunes

 

Ability to search by tune type (reels, jigs, hornpipes, etc) and by keys.

 

 

I use this resource all the time. I also use an app called Tunepal. In a session when I don't know a tune, I can have my phone "listen" to it and Tunepal will tell me what it thinks the tune is. It's so cool. Developed (so I'm told) by a prof at UCD. Super handy.

 

cdm

[Ken_Coles]

It is irrelevant but I can't help asking: UCD = University College Dublin? University of California Davis? or?

 

Ken

[Halifax]

1 hour ago, Ken_Coles said:

It is irrelevant but I can't help asking: UCD = University College Dublin? University of California Davis? or?

 

Ken

It's a good question, as it prompted me to fact check my post. As it turns out, the author of Tunepal is Bryan Duggan who's a lecturer in the School of Computing in the Dublin Institute of Technology. (But I did mean University College Dublin.)

[mac ponc]

I like the Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) a lot. The whole site is fascinating to browse, but in particular the scores and notated collections are great. The scores are interactive, in that it will play the tune for you (albeit in generic piano tones) while highlighting the notes on the score as they are played, and you can slow down the playback (lower the BPM) if needed. Tunes from a few of the sources that have been mentioned above are included, and there are quite a few sources that I've never heard of, but love to explore.

 

Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1050 Reels and Jigs, Hornpipes, Clogs, Walk-arounds, Essences, Strathspeys, Highland Flings and Contra Dances, with Figures) is another great tune book that I don't think has been mentioned yet. It's from the 1880s, and as implied in the ridiculously long subtitle, not all of the tunes are Irish. Unlike many of the most cherished tune books though, this one is still widely available (Mel Bay has a facsimile edition that is relatively cheap). Many of the mammoth tunes are available as ITMA scores.

 

Gary's list of sources is awesome, and endgrainguy mentioned irishtune.info, a site that I use daily as well. Here is the bibliography, listing sources that Alan Ng indexes on irishtune.info (many of them have already been mentioned by Gary above, but many others here are also worth a look). Here is a subset of the bibliography that Ng highlights as the "Best Session Tunebooks." Ng prefaces this bibliography with some words about the benefits of learning by ear rather than books. I usually need both to learn. One of the great things about Foinn Seisiun books (mentioned by Gary) is that you can get CDs with every tune in the books. There are now 4 volumes, and while I can't find the 4th volume on Comhaltas website, if you email or call them they do have it, and they can tell you about discounts for buying sets of 3 or 4 volumes with the CDs. I guess I should mention, I don't work for them, or Mel Bay, or Alan Ng, or ITMA!

 

I don't disagree with anything that's been said about The Session so far in this thread, but I have to admit that I often go there first for convenience. I tend to compare with other sources later if I'm 'serious' about learning a tune, or if it is just not sounding right.

 

My apologies for rambling on, and for resurrecting an oldish thread (not sure if that's bad form or not, but I am a newbie after all).

 

 

Edited October 31, 2019 by mac ponc
fix a URL

[Mudchutney]

On 12/27/2018 at 9:41 PM, gcoover said:

Yes, the site has a lot of tunes, and even more comments and opinions (some more helpful than others), but unfortunately a lot of folks have posted tunes that they've admittedly altered. So beware. Better to learn tunes from players you like or go deep into original sources like O'Neill, Roche, Joyce, Walsh, Comhaltas, etc.!

 

Gary

 

Surely "altering" tunes is how they evolve / have evolved over the centuries?  I personally find a tune / version of a tune I like then thesession.org is really useful for filling in the gaps where I can't work out what the notes are.  I still end up playing the version I like though.  Comhaltas is a favourite of mine for new tunes.

[Peter Laban]

Quote

Surely "altering" tunes is how they evolve / have evolved over the centuries? 

 

In the hands of well grounded traditional musicians. Surely. A lot of versions on thesession.org wouldn't fall ion that category though so a caveat emptor is appropriate.  That said, I wouldn't perhaps lift versions verbatim O'Neill et al either.