Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 1976 (Tripping Up the Stairs)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Double jig32AABBD Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of Tripping Up the Stairs
 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 Dbl (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):
Tripping Up the Stairs / Tripping Upstairs / Trip it Upstairs / Sacko's Jig / Sackow's / The Jew Jig / Syriacus / The Pride of Kildare
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
~19785#1[Dbl] Paddy Glackin and Paddy Keenan. Doublin'. Paddy Glackin (fiddle, viola), Paddy Keenan (pipes).View album details
~19967#2[JB 3] Joe Burke, Charlie Lennon. The Bucks of Oranmore. Joe Burke (accordion), Charlie Lennon (piano).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 jig #53 in [MM] Martin Mulvihill. First Collection of Traditional Irish Music.
As tune #1 in [Cr] Matt Cranitch. The Irish Fiddle Book. [available]
As tune #94 in [DM 1] Dave Mallinson. 100 Essential Irish Session Tunes. [available]
On page 112 of [M] Phil Rubenzer. Midwestern Irish Session Tunes. 3rd Edition.
On page 192 of [M2] Phil Rubenzer. Midwestern Irish Session Tunes. Millennium Edition.
As jig #135 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. [available]
In [LM] L[arry]. E. McCullough. ? [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): 1978
Please cite your source when you use information from this document.
© 2000–2008 Alan Ng, agng@facstaff.wisc.edu. Questions? Comments? Please use the easy Feedback Form. Thank you!
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