@Fiddlerman- You are most welcome, and Amen! 

@Late bloomer- I hear you! Glad you are enjoying them! I like how many of them have alternate versions/ names, and even the no-named and Gaelic-named ones. Petrie's classification, in particular, is fabulous! These guys went around and literally collected tunes, notated and categorized them by type, location, and similarity- impressive task! I haven't seen any modern collections that rival these. 

If I find any more treasures, I'll post them (:

Worth mentioning too: There is the IMSLP, Petrucci Music Library, which has public domain scores/parts which can be searched by composer, instrument, etc. They also have the classic etude books.   

Mad_Wed said:

Thank you, QuicheLoraine!

But could you tell, what mean those "+" above the notes in The Complete Collection of Irish Music by George Petrie, in 3 parts

(page 274 (IIIrd part) – song 1080 and 1083 for example?) 

I'm not good at note-reading, and i haven't seen alot of things yet, but those seems strange  ..

 

Vol 3, p. 274, tune no. 1083, the "+" means that you can alternately play a G# instead of G natural- see the note underneath (: Petrie was indicating that he came across the same tune, but the only difference was a G# instead of G natural.

With a lot of Irish music, you will find alternate notes like this, and really it is just up to the player's preference. Since Irish reels, in particular, are typically 2 or three parts played in turns, where you play the first part twice, then second part twice, etc., I have heard some players do one part with for ex. a natural, and then the next part a sharp or vice versa. 

Usually when you need to repeat a part, you will see a symbol like this  at the end of a part, last measure, to repeat from wherever you see |: -hopefully that makes sense.  

Hope that helps (:

Robyn.fnq said:

Ok, I've had a problem with downloading ...

O'Neill's comes up with unknown,

Glen's has a linked page, but I can't find the download link, same with Skye.

What am I missing?

@Robyn- Hmm. Weird! Not sure what the problem would be with O'Neill's- you might try right clicking the link and "Save link as". I downloaded it recently. The Glen's and Skye are on Google Books. If you go to the link I posted, and then look up in the right hand corner window of both, you should see "PDF" with a down pointing arrow, click it, then after you type in the Captcha thingy, it should download. Hope this helps (: