Tripping Down The Stairs reel

This tune is closely associated with Tommy Peoples b/c he recorded it on one of his CCE albums (60’s or 70’s). Eileen Iver’s plays it both as a Jig & a reel on “Wild Blue”. This tune came up last Sunday & Chris McGrath broke his G-String, (keep your snickers to yourselves) thickest & hardest string to break - playing this tune, he retuned with three strings than went into the Humours of Westport, but in the key of G instead of the usual F. I think they made a good set. This tune sounds best on the fast side.

hey. just doing some research for a c.d. and need to know if any one could tell me if “tripping down the stairs” aka “the green fields of antrim” is traditional or does anybody know anything about the source of it? the second part would suggest that it is not traditional as would the suggestion that it only seems to have been recorded as of late by eileen ivers etc.

any info you have would be appreciated. thanks.

mairtin.

Is this the jig and reel that also go by Green Hills of Tyrol?

It’s on Natalie MacMaster’s 2nd cassette album, Road to the Isle, which came out sometime around 1991, but not on the Compilation CD, which was selections from her two cassettes. There’s no mention on the insert whether it’s traditional or not. Natalie could well have learned it from Eileen Ivers.

Natalie lists it as Green Fields of Antrim, though when Wendy MacIsaac was here a few weeks ago, she asked me about it and called it Tripping Up [sic] the Stairs. That prompted us to search for it on the old cassettes.

How’s that for a roundabout way of saying “I don’t know”?

The comments section for this tune also sheds some light, namely that Tommy Peoples recorded it early in his career.

A Google search for Green Hills of Tyrol leads to
http://www.ibiblio.org/folkindex/g09.htm which says it’s in Cole’s One Thousand Fiddle Tunes (1940). I suppose one should check to see if it’s the same tune. It seems there’s also a waltz, a song, and a highland pipe tune by that title, as well as a jig version of the reel.

I just looked it up in my copy of Cole’s (page 18) and it is indeed the same tune--the reel, not the jig. And the copyright is 1940.

Which doesn’t mean that the composer is necessarily lost to the mists of time, but leans me in the direction that it’s “traditional,” rather than post-modern. 🙂

Thanks, Will. Let’s hope Mairtin finds this after Jeremy moved it to where it belongs.

yeah, jeremy sent me an email so i could find your comments. that’s exactly the information i needed and as copyright lasts generally 60 years, i’d be happy to call the tune traditional aswell. it’s just always important to do the reseach into music that you’re about to record so i’ll let ye know when it comes out - hopefully in late april.

thanks again!

martin.

Submitted on September 24th 2004 by Will Harmon.
https://thesession.org/tunes/3590

Tommy Peoples’ source is said to be Ryan’s Mammoth Collection:

X: 1
T: The Green Hills of Tyrol
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
S: Ryan’s Mammoth Collection
K: Gmaj
dc|BGFG BGAc|BGDC DB,DC|B,G,B,D ECEG|FDEF GBdc|
BGFG BGAc|BGDC B,G,DC|B,G,B,D ECEG|FDEF G2:|
|:(3gfg|bgfg egdg|caBg AfGe|FdEc DBCA|B,GA,F G,B,DF|
GABc dBGB|ABcA BGDC|B,G,B,D ECEG|FDEF G2:|

BTW I was surprised to find how common this tune was in sessions in England and Scotland. It seemed like every session I went to over there people were playing this tune.

The spaces are still there in the alternate titles… That seems to cause problems with searches… ? 😏

I’ve dropped a line to Mad Baloney, maybe eliminating those spaces will make the difference?

I am slowly going mad?! 😏

I like to play the jig and the reel together, on top of each other. If someone plays the reel, I’ll play the jig or vice versa. It always amazes me when people don’t notice, but if they do, you can immediatly slip back into their timing so as not to put them off.

Don’t knock it till you try it.

A friend of mine e-mailed me his transcription of Tommy Peoples’ version of this tune to post here. Compare with the setting in Ryan’s Mammoth Collection.

X: 1
T: Green Hills of Tyrol
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
S: Tommy Peoples
|: BG G/2G/2G BGAd | BGDC B,G,DC | B,/2B,/2B, B,D ECEG | FDEF GAdc |
BG G/2G/2G BGAd | BGDC B,G,DC | B,/2B,/2B, B,D ECEG |1 FDEF G2GA :|2 FDEF G2ga ||
|: bg~g2 egdb | caBg AfGe | FdEc DBCA | B,GA,F G,A,B,D |
GABc dBGB | ABcA BGDC | B,/2B,/2B, B,D ECEG |1 FDEF G2ga :|2 FDEF G2GA ||

going over every note on every string of the fiddle without tripping down this ladder… You can call this particular rendition a program piece…

Played by Brendan Larrissey, with “Arcady”…………………..

https://youtu.be/_EVZ_pBC7V8

play video

FYI Cole’s 1000 Fiddle Tunes is a reprint of Ryan’s Mammoth Collection, published in Boston in 1883. Cole’s was published in 1940 and was named for the publishing company M. M. Cole Publishing Co. of Chicago.

a perfect match of tune and title 🙂