|
|
email: matt mcConeghy Rhode Island Music Comment What is a Hornpipe? Roots Music in Rhode Island, Eastern Connecticut, and Southeastern Massachusetts, USA
Return to Home Page of RI MUSIC
|
What is a Hornpipe?
At a recent jam we played the tune "Flowers of Edinburgh" and had a brief discussion about what speed the tune "should" be played. The music book that some of the folks were using described it, amusingly, as an "Irish reel." Some of us held out for the idea that it might be a Scottish hornpipe. So, what is a hornpipe anyway?
|
A traditional double hornpipe from Brittany |
A hornpipe is a small musical instrument that has a mouthpiece with a reed (like a clarinet or chanter) and a wooden barrel with holes like a recorder, and an animal horn as the sound bell opening at the end of the barrel. These instruments were probably used throughout Europe in Medieval times but notably in Scotland, Wales and the north of England in early modern times. Over the centuries there came to be some particular styles of dance tunes associated with and named for these pipes. The classic hornpipe tunes may originally have been in 3/2 or 3/4 time group dances (e.g. Dick's Maggot of 1703 and Mr Isaac's Maggot of 1695 in Peter Barnes' English Country Dance book).
There were
some classical composers who wrote hornpipes (e.g. Handel) and eventually
the hornpipe tunes went through a transformation and became solo dance
tunes in 2/4 or 4/4 (e.g. Fisher's -or Fishar's - hornpipe of about 1770)
that were slower than reels and had a tendency to 'dotted' rhythms. There
are some elaborate scholarly discussions of these matters online for those
who wish to google them out. Apparently the slower hornpipe rhythms (say, around 80 -90) were used in the 18th century for dancers who were entertainers on stage, or for amateurs who danced solo in small spaces. That would be ideal for sailors crowded into tiny spaces on their interminably long and boring voyages, so to some extent hornpipes became associated with sailors, and, hornpipes and clogs (dances named after the heavy shoes worn by laborers and miners) were show-off dances in pubs or at parties. The slower rhythms allowed the dancers to do more elaborate steps than could be done with faster reels. When competitive dancing before judges evolved, dancers of hornpipes wore sailor costumes and did a lot of steps that postured stage sailors, yo-ho-hoing with their hands shading their eyes, and rocking on their ankles and whatnot. So, there is the competitive dance tradition of hornpipes as rather over-the-top costumed exhibitions. The tradition of composed hornpipes after 1800 seems to follow this aesthetic as they are more elaborate and deliberately arcane in the twists and turns of their melodies, and tend to be played in F, Bb or even more exotic keys -- so that they are deliberately exhibition pieces and only the most accomplished show fiddlers can handle them (e.g. The High Level Hornpipe, or The Bee's Wing, both composed by Newcastle virtuoso fiddler James Hill around 1850).
On the other hand, some tunes that many of us recognize as "hornpipes" are commonly played at reel speed of 110 or greater in easy keys by any neighborhood fiddler. That would include Soldier's Joy, Morpeth Rant and Fisher's in D, and Flowers of Edinburgh in G, among others. So, how do we recognize them as hornpipes? The English dance authority Colin Hume gives an amusing clue -- he says that hornpipes, or as English players may call them, rants, have tunes that end "dubber-diddy-dubber-diddy dum boom boom!" Try that with Soldier's Joy? Perfect. It works for the others as well. These tunes can be slowed down to a speed of 80 - 90 and still are interesting and listenable. In tune books they might be written in 2/4, or 4/4 and with dotted notation for the emphasized first and third beats, or with no dots, intending the reader to supply the accenting and ornamentations. They work both ways and have been played fast or slow literally for centuries. At this point it is just a matter of momentary preference, not correctness, which way you will play them. Some great examples of recorded hornpipes from the early days of sound recording are at a website called the Virtual Gramophone. It is a searchable online compendium of audio files and data for 78rpm disks recorded and issued in Canada between the 1910s - 1940s. Some changes, or at least differences of opinion, are illustrated by disks including a medley recorded in 1918 by Jose Zafiro that includes Fisher's, Liverpool, New Century, Durangs and Vinton's played at about 90. Also, medleys by J.B. Roy (College, Mountain, Harvest Home, Devil's Dream, Soldier's Joy, Speed the Plough, Ricketts and Bridge of Lodi) and Philip Presner in 1920 at faster tempos, and by Wade George who labels his 1930s recording "Old Time Reel Medley - Flowers of Edinburgh - Richetts(sic) Hornpipe - Money Musk" and plays at 120. So, have fun trying to decide whether a tune is a hornpipe, and playing as fast or slow as you like! Matt |
|
|
