Preview Swallowtail Jig:
About Swallowtail Jig:
Swallowtail Jig according to Tradition Tune Archive
A once-popular tune in Ireland, Britain and North America, useful for beginners although often considered too hackneyed for session play. The provenance is unknown, but generally credited as Irish. The “Swallowtail” title (in conjunction with the alternate title in O’Neill’s, “The Dancing Master”) may possibly refer to the type of coat with tails typically worn by early 19th century dancing masters. Bayard (1981) identifies the melody as another member of his “protean” “Welcome Home” tune family. Ken Perlman (1979) dates “Swallowtail Jig” to the mid-nineteenth century (perhaps on the strength of its appearance in Ryan’s Mammoth and Kerr’s Merry Melodies collections, published in the 1880’s), and says it is often used as the vehicle for Northumbrian sword dancing (for five dancers with two handled swords). See also O’Neill’s related tune “Dromey’s Fancy.” French-Canadian fiddler Joseph Allard (1873-1947) recorded the tune as “Gigue de Barnabé” in 1931 in the key of A minor, perhaps in honor of Barnabé Morin, one of his neighbors in Ville St-Pierre, Quebec[1].
