Flower Of The Flock: A Song History

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“Flower Of The Flock” is an Irish reel, catalogued by irishtune.info in G major with two eight-bar parts.[1] The name is not attached to a single melody, however: irishtune.info indexes a second, distinct reel under the same title, whose listed sources are Francis Roche’s collection and a handful of recordings from about 2010 onward.[2]

Drawing of a shepherdess standing with a staff beside her flock of sheep in a field

Jean-François Millet, A Shepherdess with Her Flock, Conté crayon with stumping on laid paper, ca. 1852. Shown for its flock; it has no connection to the tune.

The first of these reels reached print through Francis O’Neill, who picked it up in the winter of 1875 from James Moore, a young musician from Limerick.[3] O’Neill published it in Music of Ireland (1903) and again in The Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems (1907), and the Traditional Tune Archive also lists a setting in Roche’s first volume (1913), pitched in A major rather than G.[3] Sources differ on where the Roche tune belongs, since irishtune.info files it under the second reel instead.[2] In the late 1940s the button accordionist Joe Derrane, with John Connors, recorded it on the Copley label as a medley with “Peter Feeney’s Dream.”[3][4]

The Bothy Band included it on their first album in 1975, and it appears in modern session collections such as Dave Mallinson’s 100 Evergreen Irish Session Tunes.[1] Mark Gilston includes it in Irish Tunes For Dulcimer, Volume 1, the first of a two-volume set of Irish tunes in sheet music, though its listing gives only the title, so the sources consulted here do not show which of the two reels he arranges.[5]

Our book that contains the song "Flower Of The Flock"

Sources

  1. irishtune.info: "Flower of the Flock" (tune #645).
  2. irishtune.info: "Flower of the Flock" (tune #7114).
  3. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Flower of the Flock (1) (The)".
  4. Boston College, John J. Burns Library: "Derrane, Joe with John Connors. Side A: John Kimmel's Favorite (An Accordion Fantasy), Copley 9-144-A; Side B: Peter Feeney's Dream and Flower of the Flock Medley of Reels, Copley 9-144-B, late 1940s".
  5. Mark Gilston: "Irish Tunes For Dulcimer, Volume 1".
  6. Image: Jean-François Millet, A Shepherdess with Her Flock, Conté crayon with stumping on laid paper, ca. 1852. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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