Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID#254 (Butterfly)
| Rhythm ? | Bars | 8-bar phrase structure | Mode ? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slip jig | 24 | ABC | E Dorian |
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 BB 1 (details in the Discography below).
Titles given to this tune in the sources listed below (plus notes of mine about this tune):
Butterfly, The / Butterfly / The Red Admiral Butterfly (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. They are listed in order of when they were recorded.
| Year Recorded |
Track #Tune? |
[Album code] Artist. Title. Primary musicians (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). |
| 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). |
| ~1987 | [Ch JG] The Chieftains / James Galway. In Ireland. | |
| ~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). |
| 1998 | 1#1 | [KB IC] Kevin Burke. In Concert. Kevin Burke (fiddle). |
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 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