Thanks to a private email and a bit of fiddling, I have created a complete list of the names of tunes in the archive here. This may already exist somewhere on-site, if so I don't know how to find it.
The "Members" link can be used to display tunes by popularity.
Click members (& without entering a member name) click on the "Tunebook" tab. It will display tune names along with the number of times each has been added to individual tunebooks. Here are the top 9.
Drowsy Maggie ~ 1557 times
The Kesh ~ 1277 times
The Butterfly ~ 1115 times
Cooley's ~ 960 times
The Banshee ~ 904 times
Morrison's ~ 903 times
Banish Misfortune ~ 862 times
The Silver Spear ~860 times
The Maid Behind The Bar ~ 831 times
Thanks for the reminder about this feature. I wanted a comprehensive list of all tune names on this site.
The motivation for this arose from a previous thread that proposed a game with tune names: the first word of one tune had to be the last word of the next tune -- the game was to see how long a chain could be built. For my own amusement, I wrote a computer program to build these chains.
This list is the only part of that game (and subsequent computer program) that I think may have more general value.
If you're staggered by the 17164 lines in Eliot's file, remember that it's 17164 titles for about 7900 tunes (and some of those are duplicates). There are lots of variant spellings of titles that appear in the complete list.
Very cool. I'm wondering if you could write another program that would filter out minor spelling/punctuation variants, like:
# 1444: Bill Collin's
# 1445: Bill Collins'
# 1446: Bill Collins
or
# 69: Aandowin At Da Bow
# 70: Aandowin' At Da Bow
# 71: Aandowin At Da Bowe
# 72: Aandowin' At Da Bowe
# 73: Aandowin At The Bow
# 74: Aandowin' At The Bow
or
# 1406: Big John MacNeil
# 1407: Big John MacNeill
# 1409: Big John McNeil
# 1410: Big John McNeill
# 1411: Big John Mcneill's
# 1412: Big John McNeill's
# 1413: Big John McNeil's
# 1414: Big John NcNeill
I regret that I don't know how to write a program that will combine minor differences in spelling between names of the same tune into one single spelling (correct or not).
As for multiple names for the same tune, I think the point of this exercise was to list all the different names, to give a sense overall for "The Naming of Tunes." Which reminds me of this poem, which expresses a similar theme about cats:
I would have to disagree with vboyd 100's statement -
'i figure.personally, about 200 tunes about covers what you need , everything else is a variation, key change, time signature change, style change'.
For any session other that your local one you would really need the 200 most popular tunes just to get by. I checked the top 100 tunes as an experiment to see how many of them were played at the session I was at yesterday. The session lasted about four hours and despite most people knowing almost all these tunes only four of the 100 were actually played. And the majority of tunes played were still pretty well known.
I enjoy playing the old standards but sessions where people play them week in week out without attempting to learn the tunes of others are tedious in the extreme.
"i figure.personally, about 200 tunes about covers what you need , everything else is a variation, key change, time signature change, style change."
There are two issues rolled into one there. One is the question of the minimum size of repertoire necessary to join in with most sessions. The other is the question of relationships between tunes, when a version becomes another tune etc. If we're tracing tunes back to common origins, the number could be condensed down to much less than 200 (Martin Hayes reckons there are about 5 basic tune families in Irish music). But if you were to learn only those five ur-tunes, you wouldn't make many friends in a session. As Bogman says, even with the 'top 200' there's no guarantee of one of them coming up - unless you start it. Believe it or not, there are players in parts of Ireland whose 1000+ repertoires do not contain The Maid Behind the Bar or Morrison's Jig.
The vast majority of tunes I hear that I don't know are inferior versions of those I do know. Occasionally I'll hear a tune which is similar but which knocks the socks off one I already know. I deliberatly don't learn the first example, but relish the second. But the ones that are completely new to me and bare no relation to one I already know, and crucially, are still tunes that sit comfortably in the tradition are the real joys. These are very very rare. But I never doubt for obne minute that I will ever get to a stage where I'll never hear another
Banjodano, is your request so that you will then be able to play it? Many people here would tell you you to listen to that track until it is in your head. Then you'll be in a position to play it without needing the dots.
All tune names listed here...
All tune names listed here...
Thanks to a private email and a bit of fiddling, I have created a complete list of the names of tunes in the archive here. This may already exist somewhere on-site, if so I don't know how to find it.
This list is temporarily available at:
http://www.cs.ucsb.edu/~teliot/AllTunes.html
I'll probably take it down pretty soon (unless I forget).
Enjoy
# Posted on October 27th 2007 by Eliot
Re: All tune names listed here...
The "Members" link can be used to display tunes by popularity.
Click members (& without entering a member name) click on the "Tunebook" tab. It will display tune names along with the number of times each has been added to individual tunebooks. Here are the top 9.
Drowsy Maggie ~ 1557 times
The Kesh ~ 1277 times
The Butterfly ~ 1115 times
Cooley's ~ 960 times
The Banshee ~ 904 times
Morrison's ~ 903 times
Banish Misfortune ~ 862 times
The Silver Spear ~860 times
The Maid Behind The Bar ~ 831 times
# Posted on October 27th 2007 by Tonya
Re: All tune names listed here...
Thanks for the reminder about this feature. I wanted a comprehensive list of all tune names on this site.
The motivation for this arose from a previous thread that proposed a game with tune names: the first word of one tune had to be the last word of the next tune -- the game was to see how long a chain could be built. For my own amusement, I wrote a computer program to build these chains.
This list is the only part of that game (and subsequent computer program) that I think may have more general value.
# Posted on October 27th 2007 by Eliot
Re: All tune names listed here...
& from the bottom of the page ~ 7 tunes currently added 1 time into a tunebook;
http://www.thesession.org/members/index.php/tunebook?countstart=7100
Elmer'sTune
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/4657
Mon Papa
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/6659
Men An Tol
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/7894
Invercald's Rant
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/6685
Coogan's Barn
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/7902
Farewell To Castlehyde
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/7824
Gan Ainm
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/4413
# Posted on October 27th 2007 by Tonya
Re: All tune names listed here...
That's an amazing number of tunes; I was staggered!
# Posted on October 28th 2007 by Rob
Re: All tune names listed here...
If you're staggered by the 17164 lines in Eliot's file, remember that it's 17164 titles for about 7900 tunes (and some of those are duplicates). There are lots of variant spellings of titles that appear in the complete list.
# Posted on October 28th 2007 by GaryAMartin
Re: All tune names listed here...
I flashed the ABC of all the 7900+ tunes before my eyes while creating this list -- just name a tune, I'll play it brilliantly.
# Posted on October 28th 2007 by Eliot
Re: All tune names listed here...
Well, all tunes except 7310 ...
# Posted on October 28th 2007 by Eliot
Re: All tune names listed here...
Thats a lot of tunes.
# Posted on October 28th 2007 by the wicked hacker
Re: All tune names listed here...
Very cool. I'm wondering if you could write another program that would filter out minor spelling/punctuation variants, like:
# 1444: Bill Collin's
# 1445: Bill Collins'
# 1446: Bill Collins
or
# 69: Aandowin At Da Bow
# 70: Aandowin' At Da Bow
# 71: Aandowin At Da Bowe
# 72: Aandowin' At Da Bowe
# 73: Aandowin At The Bow
# 74: Aandowin' At The Bow
or
# 1406: Big John MacNeil
# 1407: Big John MacNeill
# 1409: Big John McNeil
# 1410: Big John McNeill
# 1411: Big John Mcneill's
# 1412: Big John McNeill's
# 1413: Big John McNeil's
# 1414: Big John NcNeill
I look forward to your list of "chained" names.
# Posted on October 28th 2007 by boxist
Re: All tune names listed here...
then, outside of spellings, theres also complete name alternates, like PADDY AND THE TURNPIKE ALIAS MERRY BLACKSMITH
your noted 8 versions of big j mcneil illustrates well the conundrum
i figure.personally, about 200 tunes about covers what you need , everything else is a variation, key change, time signature change, style change,
but it is lov3ly indeed to witness the enthusiasm of the collections
# Posted on October 28th 2007 by vboyd100
Re: All tune names listed here...
I regret that I don't know how to write a program that will combine minor differences in spelling between names of the same tune into one single spelling (correct or not).
As for multiple names for the same tune, I think the point of this exercise was to list all the different names, to give a sense overall for "The Naming of Tunes." Which reminds me of this poem, which expresses a similar theme about cats:
http://www.heatercats.com/poems/naming.html
# Posted on October 28th 2007 by Eliot
Re: All tune names listed here...
Nice to see so many An Dros, Hanter Dros, Laridés, Gavottes and Rondes! There must be some Breton fans lurking...
# Posted on October 28th 2007 by mehitabel23
Re: All tune names listed here...
I would have to disagree with vboyd 100's statement -
'i figure.personally, about 200 tunes about covers what you need , everything else is a variation, key change, time signature change, style change'.
For any session other that your local one you would really need the 200 most popular tunes just to get by. I checked the top 100 tunes as an experiment to see how many of them were played at the session I was at yesterday. The session lasted about four hours and despite most people knowing almost all these tunes only four of the 100 were actually played. And the majority of tunes played were still pretty well known.
I enjoy playing the old standards but sessions where people play them week in week out without attempting to learn the tunes of others are tedious in the extreme.
# Posted on October 29th 2007 by bogman
Re: All tune names listed here...
"i figure.personally, about 200 tunes about covers what you need , everything else is a variation, key change, time signature change, style change."
There are two issues rolled into one there. One is the question of the minimum size of repertoire necessary to join in with most sessions. The other is the question of relationships between tunes, when a version becomes another tune etc. If we're tracing tunes back to common origins, the number could be condensed down to much less than 200 (Martin Hayes reckons there are about 5 basic tune families in Irish music). But if you were to learn only those five ur-tunes, you wouldn't make many friends in a session. As Bogman says, even with the 'top 200' there's no guarantee of one of them coming up - unless you start it. Believe it or not, there are players in parts of Ireland whose 1000+ repertoires do not contain The Maid Behind the Bar or Morrison's Jig.
# Posted on October 29th 2007 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: All tune names listed here...
The vast majority of tunes I hear that I don't know are inferior versions of those I do know. Occasionally I'll hear a tune which is similar but which knocks the socks off one I already know. I deliberatly don't learn the first example, but relish the second. But the ones that are completely new to me and bare no relation to one I already know, and crucially, are still tunes that sit comfortably in the tradition are the real joys. These are very very rare. But I never doubt for obne minute that I will ever get to a stage where I'll never hear another
# Posted on October 29th 2007 by llig leahcim
Re: All tune names listed here...
hi does anyone know were i can get free sheet music for gallipoli by the fureys
# Posted on October 29th 2007 by banjodano
Re: All tune names listed here...
Banjodano, is your request so that you will then be able to play it? Many people here would tell you you to listen to that track until it is in your head. Then you'll be in a position to play it without needing the dots.
# Posted on October 29th 2007 by lazyhound