Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID#254 (Butterfly)
about these two barsThese two bars were transcribed by me from how this tune was played – the first time through – on the recording BB 1 (details in the Discography below).
| Rhythm ? | Bars | 8-bar phrase structure | Mode ? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slip jig | 24 | ABC | E Dorian |
Butterfly, The / Butterfly (1st in set The Red Admiral Butterfly on Ch JG) (also in C or G) (which is the traditional tune Skin the Peelers #3725 but with an additional 1st part attributed to Tommy Potts; nevertheless compare this 1st part with 1st part of The Butterfly #4736)
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.
Click 
to hear the first 12 seconds.
to hear the first 12 seconds.| Year Recorded |
Track #Tune? |
[Album code] Artist. Title. Performers (instruments). |
|---|---|---|
| 1971 | 6#1 | [TPtts] Tommy Potts. The Liffey Banks. Tommy Potts (fiddle). |
| 1975 | 13#1 | [BB 1] The Bothy Band. 1975. The First Album. Paddy Keenan (pipes, whistle), Matt Molloy (flute, whistle), Tommy Peoples (fiddle), Donal Lunny (bouzouki, vocals), Tríona Ni Dhomhnaill (harpsichord, bodhrán, vocals), Mícheál Ó Domhnaill (guitar, vocals). For this tune: starts Tríona (harpsichord). |
| 1978 | 2#1 | [BB 4] The Bothy Band. After Hours. Kevin Burke (fiddle), Paddy Keenan (pipes, whistle), Matt Molloy (flute), Dónal Lunny (vocals, bouzouki, guitar, bodhrán), Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill (vocals, keyboards, bodhrán), Mícheál Ó Domhnaill (vocals, guitar, keyboards). For this tune: 1st time Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill (clavinet). |
| 1986 | 7#1 | [Ch JG] James Galway and the Chieftains. In Ireland. James Galway (flute, whistle), Paddy Moloney (pipes, whistle), Seán Keane (fiddle), Martin Fay (fiddle, bones), Matt Molloy (flute, whistle), Kevin Conneff (bodhrán), Derek Bell (harp, tiompán, harpsichord). |
| ~1991 | 3#2 | [BT] Baal Tinne. . . . About Time. Noel Rice (flute, whistle), Kevin Rice (bodhrán, percussion), Cathleen Rice (fiddle), Matt Sundstrom (guitar), Paul Cienniwa (piano, keyboards). For this tune: Noel Rice (flute). |
| 1998 | 1#1 | [KB IC] Kevin Burke. In Concert. Kevin Burke (fiddle). |
| 2001 | 4#1 | [IBrgd 10] The Irish Brigade (and Friends). Live at the Half Time Rec. Mike Wallace (guitar, bodhrán, bass, vocals), Sean Conway (flute, whistle, guitar, vocals), John Wright (bass), Karie Oberg (vocals), Mike Ryan (dumbek). For this tune: Sean Conway (flute). |
Bibliography
Here are all transcriptions of this tune 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 tune #79 in volume 3 of [B&S] D[avid] Bulmer and N[eil] Sharpley. Music from Ireland. 4 vols. |
| As tune #91 in [DM 2] Dave Mallinson. 100 Enduring Irish Session Tunes. |
| On page 218 of [M2] Phil Rubenzer. Midwestern Irish Session Tunes. Millennium Edition. |
| As slipjig #3 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. |
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): 1971