This tune’s been wandering through my head, and I don’t know where it came from. Can anyone identify it? And is there another part to it?
X:25
T:Mystery Tune
R:Air
M:2/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=80
K:Em
Bd|e2e2|f/e/d|e2e2|fedB/A/|G2AB|D4|
EFGA/G/|F2E2|B2e2|d2BA|F2AB|E4|
I built the ABC by hand, but I think it’s pretty close.
Thanks.
One possibility is that I heard it on an old Bothy Band LP–one with a dark red/maroon album cover, perhaps. I think that’s the only ITM LP I’ve ever owned, and I haven’t seen it in 8-10 years. The LP cover was heavy paper, rather than cardboard, and there was a small, square picture in the middle of the field of maroon. Ring any bells with anyone?
Another possibility is that I wrote it in my dreams, and now I need to write a B part. 
It sounds familiar, but I can’t quite place where I’ve heard it, and don’t know the name.
Looks like you did a good job with the ABC. I got a really nice, clean notated copy from Concertina.net using your ABC notation. Unfortunately, I can’t link directly to the image.
Redwolf
It was an interesting experience. I only learned about ABC from reading C&F, and I just got a Mac ABC player, called BarFly.
I started out by copying the header from one of the tunes I already had. Then I figured out the note time values by looking at several tunes that I had downloaded.
I’ve always had a terrible time figuring out timing, so I just wrote out all the notes and started changing the timing on various notes until it sounded right, then added the bar divisions. It was neat to hear it develop until it sounded like what I was playing on the whistle.
I’ve put up a Web page at http://www.coastalfog.net/whistles/mysterytune.html that has music notation, MIDI, QuickTime, and ABC.
Hope this tune eventually clicks with someone. If not, maybe I’ll write a B part and claim that I wrote the whole thing.
I’m pretty sure it’s an O’Carolan tune; it’s not exactly the same as in the Ossian book, but really close. I’m not sure which tune, but I go through the book pretty regularly, will post the title soon if someone else doesn’t.
Edit: The tune I’m thinking of is Lord Galway’s Lamentation. It’s #208. It sounds pretty similar to this, but it’s in 3/4.
Thanks. The only MP3 I could find of Lord Galway’s Lamentation on the Web doesn’t sound much like mine. Of course, it’s played excruciatingly slowly on the harp and has ocean sounds in the background…
I found a Web page with the Bothy Band album that I had (and maybe still have, buried somewhere out in the garage). It’s at http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSUB040401182019142448&sql=Aogjieay14xf7
None of the song names there do much for me, though.
As far as the timing goes, it’s odd. It feels like alternating 2/8 and 4/8 measures, with the heaviest beat on the start of each 4/8 measure. Could that be 12/8? I know it’s not a jig.