Often in Irish music, newly-composed song texts are set to pre-existing tunes, which explains why sometimes a tune comes to be known by different names. Also, tunes can change as they pass through the tradition. One type of change that we often see is where a tune has come through the hands of someone who does not understand the harmonic structure of the tune. They can subtly and unknowingly change the shape of the tune to conform to a different harmonic structure.

In this class, we will be looking at Bunting's unpublished field transcription of Uilleacán Dubh Ó, from the playing of the harper, Denis O'Hampsey. While the transcription is incomplete, ambiguous and edited, there is still a lot of detail that is worth noticing and thinking about, to inform our setting. We can also compare this tune with a version in the living tradition which, ironically, is much more similar to Bunting's published piano arrangement, and may have come into the tradition from there.

(part 1 of a two-part session)