Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 1447 (Oh! The Britches Full of Stitches)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Polka32AABBA Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of Oh! The Britches Full of Stitches
 about these two bars

These two bars are the start of my transcription of how this tune was played – the first time through – on the recording JDSC (details in the Discography below).

Where do you get the tune titles?
Titles given to this tune in the sources listed below (plus notes of mine about this tune):
Oh! The Britches Full of Stitches / O the Britches Full of Stitches / O The Breeches Full of Stitches / Oh! The Breeches Full of Stitches / The Breeches Full of Stitches / Breeches full of Stitches / Brístí Breaca / The Britches Full of Stitches / The Britches (for 1st figure of Sliabh Luachra Set on MISD 7) (also in G, also as single jig)
What do the "track#tune" codes mean?

cd Discography

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. They are listed in order of when they were recorded.

Year
Recorded		 Track
#Tune		 [Album code] Artist. Title. Primary musicians (instruments). Album details
and contents
~19776#2[JDSC] Jackie Daly, Séamus Creagh. Jackie Daly. Séamus Creagh. Jackie Daly (accordion), Séamus Creagh (fiddle).View album details
~197710#2[Ch 7] The Chieftains. 7. Paddy Moloney (pipes, whistle), Seán Potts (whistle, bones), Seán Keane (fiddle, whistle), Martin Fay (fiddle, bones), Michael Tubridy (flute, concertina, whistle), Derek Bell (harp, tiompán, oboe), Kevin Conneff (bodhrán).View album details
199211#1[MH 1] Martin Hayes. Martin Hayes. Martin Hayes (fiddle).View album details
~19938#2[Shskn 6] Shaskeen. My Love Is in America. Tom Cussen (banjo), Benny O'Connor (drums, bodhrán), Sean Conway (flute, whistle, guitar, vocals), Charlie Harris (accordion), Kevin Rohan (fiddle, vocals).View album details
~1996A.1#2[MISD 7] Donncha Lynch Trio. The Magic of Irish Set Dancing. Vol. 7. Donncha Lynch (accordion), Aogán Lynch (concertina), Donncha Lynch Jr. (guitar).View album details

Bibliography

Here are all transcriptions of this tune under any title whatsoever – considering only the indexed books – listed in chronological order. I have discovered by careful comparison that these are very similar to this tune as played on the recordings listed above.

As tune #240 in volume 2 of [R] Francis Roche. The Roche Collection of Traditional Irish Music. 3 vols. [available]
As other #4 in [Ng] Alan Ng. Alan Ng's Transcriptions. [available]
As tune #2 in [IBPS] Pat Conway. Ireland's Best Polkas and Slides. [available]
On page 224 of [M2] Phil Rubenzer. Midwestern Irish Session Tunes. Millennium Edition.
As polka #6 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. [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 the recordings and transcriptions listed above (note that I concentrate on sources after 1900): 1927
Please cite your source when you use information from this document.
© 2000–2009 Alan Ng, agng@facstaff.wisc.edu. Questions? Comments? Please use the easy Feedback Form. Thank you!
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