Swallowtail Fiddlers

Curriculum for The Swallowtail Fiddlers

This club was formed in the fall of 2002 with four members and decided to call ourselves the Swallowtail Fiddlers after our favorite Irish jig, "Swallowtail Jig." The Swallowtail Fiddlers have grown in number and meets during the school day. Every year, we expand our repertoire, building upon the previous year's tunes. The Swallowtail Fiddlers have over an hour's worth of tunes that are performance ready. Some of the tunes are learned in the traditional manner by rote but the printed music is also provided for all the tunes. We play toe tapping jigs, hornpipes, reels, polkas, slip jigs, slides, and slow airs from Ireland, Scotland, and America.

We serve the community through our performances.

Three CDs of The Swallowtail Fiddlers have been created and sold as service learning projects to help families in need.

Venues and events where the Swallowtail Fiddlers have performed include:

  • Legacy of the Arts-College of the Atlantic and the Village Green, BH Chamber of Commerce

  • The Grand Auditorium, Ellsworth - Harney's Blarneys, a DEAN fund-raiser

  • the Southwest Harbor Centennial Celebration on the Pemetic Green

  • Jaspar's Restaurant - the Hancock County Retired Teachers meeting

  • St. Saviour's Church - Scottish concert with the SeaGaels

  • Kebo Golf Course - retirement party

  • Sue Leiter Library - a staff party

  • Birch Bay Village

  • Malvern Belmont

  • Sonogee

  • school concerts

  • Channel 5 Morning News

  • The Early Show

  • the maiden voyage of the Queen Victory luxury liner at Agamont Park

  • Seal Cove Auto Museum

  • MMEA All-State Conference 2010

  • the Assistant Principals Conference at the Samoset Resort & Conference Center in the fall of 2013

Volume III of the Swallowtail Fiddlers was released in 2010 and the proceeds went to a former student who is battling cancer

Announcing ~ Volume II ~ a brand new Fiddler CD. Order your CD today from Mrs. Edmondson or purchase one at Song of the Sea or Reel Pizza. Please click on track 8, Lord Inchiquin, to hear a sample.

Volume II playlist:

1. Oh the Britches/Swallowtail/Kesh Irish tune and two jigs

2 Innisheer Turlough O'Carolan, 1670-1738

3. Liberty Hornpipe American

4. Si Bheag Si Mhor Irish air

5. 69th Street/Padraig O'Keefe's Irish polkas

6. Cillcias Waltz from Tipperary, lament for Irish timber, 1798

7. Tom Billy Murphy's/Culruagh Irish polkas

8. Lord Inchiquin Turlough O'Carolan

9. The Old Man /The Bellharbour Irish jig and reel

10. Give Me Your Hand Rory Dall O'Caghan, 1603

11. Ceol an Mala Irish jig

12. Mountain Spring Waltz Edmondson

In May 2006, the Swallowtail Fiddlers recorded their first CD and sold 96. All of the proceeds from the sales of this CD, which totaled $960, went to a local "family in need."

Volume I playlist:

1. Oh the Britches/Swallowtail Jig/Kesh Jig Irish

2. St. Anne's Reel/Staten Island Hornpipe New England/Mid-Atlantic

3. Old Joe Clark/Road to Boston American

4. Bile 'em Cabbage Down/Cripple Creek American

5. Eleanor Plunkett O'Carolan

6. O'Carolan's Concerto O'Carolan

7. Planxty Fanny Powers O'Carolan

8. Carolan's Draught O'Carolan

9. Lannigan's Ball/Off She Goes Irish

10. Greensleeves English

11. Mairi's Wedding Scottish

12. Finnegan's Wake Irish

13. Mountain Spring Waltz Edmondson