Annotation:Dancing Master (1) (The)

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DANCING MASTER, THE ("An Muinteoir-Rince" or "An Maigistir-Rinnce"). AKA and see "Dromey's Fancy," "Swallow Tail," "The Swallow's Nest [1]," "Swallowtail Jig," "From the Next/New Country." Irish, Double Jig. A Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. An 'A' Dorian setting of the familiar "Swallowtail Jig." Bayard (1981) identifies this tune as belonging to the "protean 'Welcome Home (Oro)' family." Brendan Breathnach wrote an article about Irish dancing masters for the publication Ceol (III, 3 & 4, 1969/70), republished in The Man and His Music (1996). Itinerant dancing masters in Ireland held territories or districts of ten miles or so in which they plied their trade, and had friendly rivalries with neighboring dancing masters, according to Brendan Breathnach. When they met at fairs or sporting events they would vie with each other by dancing in public, to the pleasure of the spectators and the honor of the moment. Often the outcomes of these contests were moot, however, "occasionally the event demanded a victor as when a Kerry dancing master vanquished a Cork dancing master in a contest as to who should 'own' Clonmel" (p. 2). Breathnach also relates the anecdote of a stranger at Sneem who happened on a crowd attending a contest between rival dancing masters who were alternately performing on the head of an upturned soaped barrel. When he inquired, he was told that the two were "wieing" for the parish. "Dromey's Fancy" is a related tune.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; p. 47. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 960, p. 178. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907; No. 183, p. 44. Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 100.

Recorded sources: Tara Records 4008, "Josephine Marsh" (1996).

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