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    The Semantic Index of North American, British and Irish
 traditional instrumental music with annotations, formerly known as
                          The Fiddler's Companion.
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Giordani undoubtedly contributed to the spread of Italian music in Britain and Ireland, leaving the most significant expressions of his intense compositional activity in the theatrical field.
Queen Mary’s Lamentation

Played by: John Gibbons
Source: Soundcloud
Image: Tommaso Giordani (Napoli c. 1730 – Dublin 1806).

Queen Mary’s Lamentation


Scottish, Air (3/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle).

AAB. The air was published in several late 18th century sources, including Benjamin Carr’s The Caledonian Muse (Philadelphia, 1798).

It was a composition of Tommaso Giordani (1730–1806), a Neapolitan composer who spent much of his mature career in London and Dublin.

He came to London with his father’s opera company, where he presented his first opera in 1756.

In the next twenty years, still based in London, he composed three other operas, plus arranged other works; he then removed to Dublin and produced seven more operas.

His output included sacred music, songs, cantatas, canzonets and chamber music, and his keyboard music was very popular in his time, rivaling J.C. Bach’s, particularly with amateur musicians.

...more at: Queen Mary’s Lamentation - full Score(s) and Annotations



X:1 T:Queen Mary's Lamentation M:3/4 L:1/16 R:Air Q:"Slow" B:Aird - Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 4 (1796, No. 52, p. 20) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G V:1 clef=treble name="0." [V:1] G2B2|d8 B2G2|(A4B4c4)|c4B4 b3g|eg3 g4 (e2c2)|A6 f2a2c'2|bd'3gb3 eg3| dB3BG3 TA4|G8 G2B2|d8 B2G2|A4B4c4|c2 B8G2|d8 e3d| dB3BG3 TA4|G8 d3e|=f8 d2B2|A4 A6Bc|{c}B8 G2B2|d8 e3d| dB3BG3 TA4|G8 b2g2|eg3 g2f2a2c'2|bd'3gb3 eg3|(dB3)(BG3) TA4| G8 d3e|=f8 d2B2|A4 A6 (Bc)|{c}B8 G4|d8 B2G2|D8 d3B| {B}A8 (G2B2)|d8 B2G2|e4f4g4|f8 g3e|d8 e3d|dB3BG3 TA4| G8 (d'3b)|ea3 a4 e2A2|A6 (d2B2d2)|eg3dB3 A3B|G8||

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Who Builds the TTA

Who Builds the TTA

Although we are not trained musicologists and make no pretense to the profession, we have tried to apply such professional rigors to this Semantic Abc Web as we have internalized through our own formal and informal education.
This demands the gathering of as much information as possible about folk pieces to attempt to trace tune families, determine origins, influences and patterns of aural/oral transmittal, and to study individual and regional styles of performance.
Many musicians, like ourselves, are simply curious about titles, origins, sources and anecdotes regarding the music they play. Who, for example, can resist the urge to know where the title Blowzabella came from or what it means, or speculating on the motivations for naming a perfectly respectable tune Bloody Oul' Hag, is it Tay Ye Want?
Knowing the history of the melody we play, or at least to have a sense of its historical and social context, makes the tune 'present' in the here and now, and enhances our rendering of it.
Andrew Kuntz & Valerio Pelliccioni

Please register as a user to make the most of the many functions of the TTA, and enjoy the many ways that information about traditional tunes can be elicited and combined, from simple to complex situations. Users may make contributions, which, when reviewed by an editor, become part of this community project. Serious user/contributors may become editors through the TTA's promotion process, in which quantity and quality of entries allows increased levels of permission to edit and review the entire index.
Above all, the developers wish you joy in the use of the TTA.

Help Getting started

Navigation: Registered users can navigate the Traditional Tune Archive for information in a number of ways.

  • Search. The Search function is located at the top right, and can be used to search the entire index for any key word. See Search help pages
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  • Query the Archive. The “Query the Archive” function under “The Archive” in the sidebar can be used to draw down reports from the TTA in either in single items or in a number of combinations. One might, for example, use a single item query to run a report in the TTA for a particular composer/core source. Clicking on the arrow at the right of the bar draws down a list of composer/core sources, or one may be typed in. For example, clicking on “Bill Pigg” and then the “Run Query” tab at the bottom left will result in a list of all compositions listed in the TTA that the Northumbrian piper either composed or is the core source for. Reports may also be run in combinations, as, for example, by selecting “William Marshall” as a composer/core source, “Three Flats” for the number of accidentals, and “Major” for the Key/Mode. This will result in a report of all Eb Major compositions of Scottish fiddler/composer William Marshall that are indexed in the TTA.
  • Tune Books/Magazines in the TTA can be accessed under “Publications” in the left side bar. These are reproductions of publications for which access has been granted to the TTA by the copyright holder, under the Creative Commons license.