Tripping Up The Stairs: A Song History

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"Tripping Up the Stairs" is an Irish double jig in D major, usually played in two repeated eight-bar parts[1][2]. It also goes by "Tripping Upstairs," "Trip It Upstairs," "Sacho's Jig" or "Sackow's," "Syriacus" and "The Pride of Kildare"[1][2]. It should not be confused with "Trip up Stairs," a much older single jig that John Johnson published in 1748 and that Francis O'Neill later included in The Music of Ireland (1903, No. 817) and The Dance Music of Ireland (1907, No. 372)[3]; in the sources consulted here, no O'Neill printing of the double jig was found. Its origin is uncertain. The Traditional Tune Archive reports that David Taylor (1992), drawing on conversations with a nephew, credited it to John McGrath (1900–1955), a fiddler from County Mayo who settled in New York, but the Archive considers this unlikely, noting that people close to McGrath knew of only one tune he composed and that the jig was already on record in 1921[1]. Another Archive entry says the McGrath attribution still "awaits verification"[4].

Rodolphe Bresdin etching of a shadowy interior with a staircase rising behind small figures

Rodolphe Bresdin, L’Escalier (The Staircase), etching, 19th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Shown for its staircase; it has no connection to the tune.

According to the Tune Archive, the jig was first recorded in 1921, in New York, by Frank Quinn[1][4]. Quinn, born in County Longford in 1893, was a New York policeman whose early discs often billed him as "Patrolman Frank Quinn"[5]. The Discography of American Historical Recordings lists an accordion solo by him with piano, titled "Trip it up the stairs," recorded on 9 May 1921 and issued on Columbia A3567 with "Heathery Breeze" on the other side[6]; this is apparently the recording the Archive means. Later recordings include De Danann's 1975 album De Danann[1] and Doublin' (1978) by fiddler Paddy Glackin and piper Paddy Keenan[1][2].

Today it appears in tune collections such as Dave Mallinson's 100 Essential Irish Session Tunes and Matt Cranitch's The Irish Fiddle Book, and in Sue Songer's The Portland Collection under the "Tripping Up the Stairs" title[1][2]. In the sets indexed by irishtune.info it follows tunes such as "Munster Buttermilk," "Kitty's Rambles" and "Out on the Ocean," and leads into "The Mist on the Meadow" or "Fraher's"[2].

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Sources

  1. Traditional Tune Archive: "Tripping Upstairs (2)".
  2. irishtune.info (Alan Ng): "Tripping Up the Stairs".
  3. Traditional Tune Archive: "Trip up Stairs (1)".
  4. Traditional Tune Archive: "Sackows".
  5. Irish Traditional Music Archive (From the Bridge): "Frank Quinn".
  6. Discography of American Historical Recordings (UCSB): "Columbia A3567 (10-in. double-faced)".