St. Patrick’s Day Dance Tune
“Happy St. Patrick’s Day!”
is the greeting you hear as one person greets another on the roads of Ireland at this time of year.
St Patrick is the patron saint of both Ireland and Nigeria.
He was a bishop who is credited with introducing Christianity to Ireland, and with banishing snakes, lizards and serpents out of Ireland.
Shamrock
He is also famous for using the shamrock plant to demonstrate the idea of the Blessed Trinity as being three divine persons in one God,
or as three leaves on one stem. Because of this, the green shamrock is a symbol associated with St Patrick, St Patrick’s Day and Ireland.
Since the shamrock is green and a grass plant like clover, it is also associated with abundance and good fortune.
Each year on the 17th of March, the Irish people celebrate their national day with parades in many villages, towns and cities all over Ireland.
As the Irish people are spread throughout the world, there are many celebratory parades organised in cities such as Boston, New York, Budapest, Moscow, Tokyo and many others.
The Irish Dance Tune: St Patrick’s Day
There is also a well-known Irish dance tune titled St Patrick’s Day. The dance is a long dance or a set dance. This infers that there is a recognised choreography associated with this tune. All Irish dancers should do similar steps to this music, allowing for subtle differences due to regional styles and embellishments.
The tune has two sections. The first is 8 bars long and the second is 14 bars long. The 14 bars is unusual as one might expect 16 bars.
The sections are repeated to afford dancers to perform the steps, firstly, leading on the right foot and then, secondly, repeating the steps leading on the left foot.
While musicians will play the tune with some variation and ornamentation, the outline is presented in music notation below.
With sincere wishes for a Happy St. Patrick’s Day from all at Playright Music Ltd.
Clicking on the graphic should download the PDF version which will print at high quality.
