# Music by Genre > Celtic, U.K., Nordic, Quebecois, European Folk >  Favorite Hornpipe?

## Sandy Beckler

What is your favorite Hornpipe?

I'm liking Galway Hornpipe right now.... :Wink: 
Sandy

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## neil argonaut

Was gonna say the Galway when I saw the thread title but you've beaten me to it;
Also fond of Staten Island, Harvest Home, and a couple that have come up the last two weeks in the Song-A-Week group, the Tailor's twist and the Golden Eagle.

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## Bertram Henze

my favourite hornpipe is always the one I play after the one before...  :Grin:

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## AlanN

Edsel's Tailpipe.

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## mritter

Fisher's

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## Denny Gies

I like Sailor's Hornpipe, probably 'cause it's the only one I can play.

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## neil argonaut

> I like Sailor's Hornpipe, probably 'cause it's the only one I can play.


Can you play it as fast as this guy?  :Smile:

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## chriss

Weeellllll - this is turning out to be a really difficult thread.
I was gonna say +1 to Galway.  Then to Staten Island and definitely Harvest Home too.  And then Sailor's as well (tho I play that more sorta like a reel with no good reason.  And Fishers is a winner too.

But then I'd have to add Kitty's Wedding, St Clairs, Off to California.  Boys of Bluehill, Derry.  And King of the Faeries has gotta be on any "great hornpipes" list.  There are GREAT words to King of the Faeries too if you don't know em, worth looking them up.

Let's face it guys (non-gender-specific "guys") you gotta look for a while to find a really BAD hornpipe.  I don't think I've found one.  It just makes you grin.  

For my money I think Bertram found the only answer that has a chance of standing the Test of Time



> my favourite hornpipe is always the one I play after the one before...


 :Mandosmiley: 

haha! get that axe out and get er goin' !

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## John Flynn

I know the the following is not a high-bound reason for chosing a tune, but when I was taking lessons with Curtis Buckhannon, on a whim I asked if he could teach me a tune that really sounds impressive, but is not that hard to play. He taught me Lamplighter's Hornpipe in A. The tune is traditionally in G, but he taught it in A. In A you can take advantage of some open strings and sound like you're SMOKIN' even though it is only moderately difficult.

One of my favorite hornpipes to listen to is "The Jim Crack" which is reportedly a tune that was a favorite of George Washington. Curtis does a great job with it on the B. Bros. CD "Little River Stomp." He taught it to me, but try as I might, I was never able to master it at anything like performance speed.

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## Jim Garber

> Can you play it as fast as this guy?


Yeah, he sounds like he wants to get it over with. Frankly he might sound much better on a typewriter. 

Speaking of hornpipes do any of you play these with hornpipe rhythms a little dotted. Some have become more like reels with the rhythms sort of smoothed out and speeded up. I love the Scottish and Cape Breton way of playing those, prob more old style.

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## Eddie Sheehy

Round The Horn, Chief O'Neill's

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## foldedpath

I like Chief O'Neill's Favourite; the way it shifts back and forth between C an C#. It also has that quirky F natural in the B part, which is fun for throwing off a guitar player backing the tune. They never hear it coming, and it's fun to watch their faces as they try to figure out what chord should be there.
 :Grin:

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## Jill McAuley

The Ebb Tide and The Plains of Boyle top my list.

Cheers,
Jill

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## Paul Kotapish

Some favorites:
An tSean Bhean Bhocht 
Home Ruler/Kitty's Wedding (commonly played together as a set)
Byrne's
Am Comhra Donn
Bantry Bay
Stack of Barley
Stack of Wheat
Peacock's Feather (Dm)
Peacock's Feater (D)

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## Gerry Cassidy

Hornpipes are always fun. I'd have to say my list of favorites are the last 10, or so that I've played... then again, there are always those 10 more to come that are on the list as well...

Especially when accompanying on the OM, or 'Zouk. It's always fun to throw in a twist or hitch of syncopation. These little ditties are custom made for them.  :Smile:

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## Avi Ziv

Eleanor Neary's has a beautiful melody. I like it in particular.

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## doc holiday

Huckleberry Hornpipe!!

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## Loretta Callahan

Right now, The Home Ruler Hornpipe.  Here's a lovely young lad doing Cathal Hayden's fiddle version.

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## Dave LaBoone

How about Patrick's Hornpipe (on the Gaudreau Mandolin album)?

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## Bertram Henze

> Right now, The Home Ruler Hornpipe.


How could I forget that one? So long ago.

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## Bertram Henze

> Originally Posted by neil argonaut
> 
> 
> Can you play it as fast as this guy? 
> 
> 
> Yeah, he sounds like he wants to get it over with. Frankly he might sound much better on a typewriter.


Playing fast can be a handicap - this guy frequents our sessions, and 3 weeks ago he had to stop in a set because the others played slower than he could.

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## Randi Gormley

There have been times I've gone through every book I own just playing the hornpipes. Our "after 10 p.m." group plays Honeysuckle/Cronin's/Galway as a set; I like Johnson's and (I think it's) Charlie Mulvihill's (in A) and a couple three others whose names escape me this sec -- I've played Kitty's Wedding/Plains of Boyle, which is another good set. My go-to warm up is Alexander's, usually, if I'm not playing scales or arpeggios.

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## Nigel Gatherer

I have soft spot for "The Showman's Fancy":

http://www.nigelgatherer.com/tunes/tab/tab13/showm.html

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## Martin Jonas

For me, Dermot Grogan's, hands down:

http://www.nigelgatherer.com/tunes/tab/tab1/derm.html

I see that since I last looked, Nigel has changed the tune name on his site to "The Echoing Strings", and the writing credit from Dermot Grogan to Owen Hackett.  Whoever wrote it, it's a great tune!

Martin

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## Jill McAuley

Johnny Cope is a good 'un as well.

Cheers,
Jill

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## whistler

There are too many tunes out there for me to have a favourite.  But, among the hornpipes I enjoy playing the most (in addition ot some of those malready mentioned) are:
Byrne's 



The Acrobat 



The Humours of Tullycrine 




Re: Sailor's Hornpipe at warp speed - No, I can't play it that fast and nor would I want to.  It's impressive, right enough, to be able to co-ordinate your left and right hands at that speed but, to my ear, there's not a lot of music in that clip, just a lot of notes.

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## neil argonaut

> Re: Sailor's Hornpipe at warp speed - No, I can't play it that fast and nor would I want to.  It's impressive, right enough, to be able to co-ordinate your left and right hands at that speed but, to my ear, there's not a lot of music in that clip, just a lot of notes.


Couldn't agree more, to me it's a nice party trick and nothing more.

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## kmmando

Sandy Bell's Hornpipe by Rob Smith of Lerwick is a cracker!

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## Loretta Callahan

That was awesome, Bertram!  I love your up the neck double stop boogie on the B part.  Makes me happy to listen to it.  Love the vids, Whistler ... and all the hornpipes folks listed I've never heard of.  Inspires me to go on a hornpipe quest.   

If you can't play a tune fast _and_ slow, well .... that seems like a there's an issue with that person and music in general. I'm no expert; just know what I like.   At a certain speed, the music simply goes away for me and it sounds like a hammer pounding nails, or a buzz saw at a construction site.  Woodpeckers have a rhythmic charm; just sayin'.   :Coffee:

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## allenhopkins

_Rights of Man._  No contest.

However, I always play it on the concertina.  On mandolin, could well be _Ricketts'._

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## citeog

Tuamgraney Castle. A close second is Chief O'Neill's because I'm so impressed with his biography and it's a nice tune. There's another I play that I know as "The Gorey" but it has another, more popular name that escapes me now.

Paul

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## Avi Ziv

> Tuamgraney Castle. .
> 
> Paul


Oh yeah. Nice one!

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## Bertram Henze

> double stop boogie


Thanks Loretta, it never occurred to me to call it that (had to look up what boogie style consists of), but there is certainly some truth to it - Paddy on the cotton fields?  :Confused:

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## Bertram Henze

> _Rights of Man._


...followed by Pride of Petravore, of course.

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## Goodin

My favorite is the Galtee Hunt.  Weve been playing that into Kitty's Wedding.  I also just learned a very nice G minor tune called The Princess Royal, which I think is a hornpipe but Im not sure.  It's an O'Carolan tune.

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## Jim Nollman

some of my favorites:

Walsh's
Garfields
Bouchard's
Rights of Man
Minnie Foster

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## Vigee

I must admit to loving a hornpipe Mr. MacLeod recorded: Sandy Bell's. Too bad no one else seems to know it.

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## Jacob

Alla Hornpipe

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## Jim Bevan

Dukie's, off Cían's Three Shouts From a Hill -- makes a nice intro to a set of better-known hornpipes.  :Wink:

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## Loretta Callahan

This thread just keeps getting better ~ I love looking up new tunes.  

Well, as an American lass who doesn't possess much of a proper musical vocabulary, nor having been across the pond ... I tend to make up adjectives based on my own empirical observations ... and try to convey a feeling.   I was going to call the up the neck action "who bee doos", but boogie seemed more descriptive (even tho' you ain't playin' the blues).  I'm delighted you got it ... kind of ..   If there's a proper term, I'd be delighted to expand my vocabulary   :Wink: 




> Thanks Loretta, it never occurred to me to call it that (had to look up what boogie style consists of), but there is certainly some truth to it - Paddy on the cotton fields?

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## Sandy Beckler

Belfast Hornpipe is another good one, and yes Ms. Loretta....new tunes are good.

Sandy

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## MikeyG

At the moment, my favorite is O'Mahony's.  Music/tab for it & another great 
hornpipe (Cronin's) can be found here

http://mandolinsessions.com/?p=469

Mike

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## JP07

Hornpipes are maybe the tunes I prefer paying. Nice thread that showing me beautiful tunes I did not know. For example Eleanor Neary's, that I learned from John Carty version.

I like playing The Smell of The Bog.

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## AlanN

Not titled as such, but been messing with Miller's Reel, has that hornpipe-y thing going on.

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## Trevor Thomas

'A little dotted'  Hornpipes should always be dotted or swung if youre playing for dancing.  The rhythm is to go with the type of dance, which is a step-hop dance.  If you speed it up and smooth it out, it stops sounding like a hornpipe. Its the rhythm thats the essential hornpipe ingredient.  Thats how we play them in the UK, and in Ireland.   There are tunes that work equally well as both, and sometimes people will play a tune as a hornpipe, then as a reel afterwards. 

I dont think the Princess Royal is an OCarolan tune, but I understand theres some different opinions on this matter.  

There are loads of good hornpipes  they dont get played as often as jigs and reels, but theyre still pretty common.  My current favourite is the version of the Galway by the great Orkney band Hom Bru, which features two mandolins doing a harmony part.  I also like the Liverpool, the Manchester, and the Sheffield.

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## Gelsenbury

> 'A little dotted' – Hornpipes should always be ‘dotted’ or ‘swung’ if you’re playing for dancing.  The rhythm is to go with the type of dance, which is a step-hop dance.  If you speed it up and smooth it out, it stops sounding like a hornpipe. It’s the rhythm that’s the essential hornpipe ingredient.


That's how I had always understood it too. I love hornpipes for that bouncy quality. 

My favourites? Currently the Galway (which I can play), Bobby Casey's/Humours of Tullycrine (which I'm learning) and Downfall of Paris (which I can't do).

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## Randi Gormley

Hmmm. Here's a question -- I thought Downfall of Paris was a set dance. And I've seen Madame Bonaparte listed as both a set dance and a hornpipe (in different books). When in doubt, I usually give a set dance a bit of a hornpipe bounce. Should I stop doing that?

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## JeffD

> If you speed it up and smooth it out, it stops sounding like a hornpipe. It’s the rhythm that’s the essential hornpipe ingredient..


This is exactly right, and very important. 

It changes the character of the tune to play it too fast and ignore the swing.

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## AnneFlies

I only know two hornpipes so far:  Off to California, and Harvest Home.  I love their rhythm and would like to learn a couple more (King of the Faeries and Chief O'Neill's Favorite are on the short list).  

I play them dotted, but for some reason I get hand cramps (right hand) when I do that.  I never get hand cramps playing them like a reel, or whenever I play a jig.  Does anyone else have this problem?  I'm not playing particularly fast, so that's not my issue.

Anne.

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## Jim Nollman

I second the opinion that Downfall of Paris is a set dance. Too slow for a reel, not bouncy enough for a hornpipe. It would work OK as a foxtrot. Speeding it up for a contra dance makes it lose all integrity. My favorite version is by Kevin Burke.

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## BBarton

I second Allen H -- although they're played a lot, I still like _Rights of Man_ and _Rickett's_ on either banjo or mandolin.  But there are so many...

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## Eddie Sheehy

My 3 favs right now are:

The Glengeigh Hornpipe
The Galway Hornpipe
The Belfast Hornpipe

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## mandocrucian

_Bantry Bay_ 
(favorite recorded rendition by Martin Byrnes)

also:
_Trumpet Hornpipe_ 
(have liked this since hearing on both an early High Level Ranters LP and on Fairport's _"Babbacome Lee"_ ; no doubt folk in the UK are really tired of it because it was used as a TV theme)

_Barrington Hornpipe_ 
(a Northumbrian tune (I suppose) off of Alaistair Anderson's "_Concertina Workshop"_ album

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## David Surette

Another vote for Byrne's, and how about The Stage? Great tune in G.

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## liestman

Belfast, The Acrobat, City of Savannah, and The Flowing Tide for me please.

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## Gelsenbury

You are right, Downfall of Paris seems to be listed as a set dance everywhere. I must admit that I don't really know what a set dance is. The piece always sounded hornpipey to me.

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## Randi Gormley

Gelsonbury, if nobody pipes up, I'll hit up some of the dancers in my group on Monday for a definition. I know we play a couple-three when we're playing for dancers (Sweets of May and St. Patrick's Day come immediately to mind) and they're very specific dances with very specific steps that start and end after a set time, that everybody always dances it exactly regardless of where they live, but there may be a much better definition.

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## Tosh Marshall

Because I'm from that side of the Pennines, I'd have to say Manchester Hornpipe aka Ricketts Hornpipe.  For my friends on t'other side I would choose the Sheffield Hornpipe..........

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## JeffD

> I'd have to say Manchester Hornpipe aka Ricketts Hornpipe. ...


I love that tune. I play it often.

I was at a jam in far western NY and brought that tune out innocently enough. One of the folks I was jamming with, who I was later to learn was Jim Kimball, the fiddler, musicologist, and music professor at SUNY Geneseo, was particularly delighted. He explained that the tune had kind of lost favor in local jams in upstate New York, which was and is a shame, because it is a great tune. Rickets Hornpipe was apparently a very very popular in this part of the country back in the way back.

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## Sandy Beckler

> I only know two hornpipes so far:  Off to California, and Harvest Home.  I love their rhythm and would like to learn a couple more (King of the Faeries and Chief O'Neill's Favorite are on the short list).  
> 
> I play them dotted, but for some reason I get hand cramps (right hand) when I do that.  I never get hand cramps playing them like a reel, or whenever I play a jig.  Does anyone else have this problem?  I'm not playing particularly fast, so that's not my issue.
> 
> Anne.


It may be too late Anne....you may be hooked!

Just finished "London Hornpipe" and really like it, before that "Ball and Chain Hornpipe" (another good one) and am about to start "Witch of the Glen" 

Sandy

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## Bertram Henze

> I play them dotted, but for some reason I get hand cramps (right hand) when I do that.  I never get hand cramps playing them like a reel, or whenever I play a jig.  Does anyone else have this problem?  I'm not playing particularly fast, so that's not my issue.


Sounds like an attempt at concious control vs. natural feel. It is important to put emphasis on the long notes and always pick them downwards if possible (it is even better to leave a short note out if it helps to maintain pick direction). I tend to feel a hornpipe like a jig, i.e. two eighth notes to the long, one eighth to the short note, despite its being written differently.

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## Eddie Sheehy

Set Dances are synchronized steps to a "set" of tunes - usually reels, jigs, polkas or hornpipes.  A Set dance is neither a type of tune nor a specific meter.  e.g. The Siege of Ennis (polkas), The Sweets of May (jigs) etc.

I have seen reels and hornpipes (4/4) that are played at a slower tempo and called Barndances... but I don't know that it is a specific "type" either...

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## wildpikr

Green Castle Hornpipe is a nice one.

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## Bertram Henze

> Set Dances are synchronized steps to a "set" of tunes - usually reels, jigs, polkas or hornpipes.  A Set dance is neither a type of tune nor a specific meter.  e.g. The Siege of Ennis (polkas), The Sweets of May (jigs) etc.
> 
> I have seen reels and hornpipes (4/4) that are played at a slower tempo and called Barndances... but I don't know that it is a specific "type" either...


I used to think Set Dance is an invention of thesession.org to provide a default class for tunes that don't fit any of the others.  :Grin:

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## Randi Gormley

It being Tuesday, I had a chance to ask one of our band members to define a set dance. She said it was a dance that was "set" in time/space/being. It had specific steps one uses all the time wherever you dance or wherever the tune is played and danced. So Sweets of May would be danced exactly the same in Connecticut as it is in Tipperary as it is in Brisbane. Now I recall, the head of the dance school that usually allows us to play for them at events tells the audience that "this dance is danced exactly the same all over the world," at which time we all whisper to each other, "remember play the A part three times and the B twice and stop!" ... or was it "play the B once and stop ..." shoot. Now I'll have to ask again!

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## Eddie Sheehy

Actually for the Sweets of May the first tune is always The Sweets of May - 3 parts.  The rest of the tunes are 6/8 jigs and there is no set tunes - and they are TWO parts with the 3rd part of the Sweets of May played as a 3rd part for each (the claps etc.)... When we play it we use:
The Sweets of May 3xA, 2xB, 2xC
Lannigans Ball 3xA, 2XB, 2xC sweets of May
Munster Buttermilk 3xA, 2xB, 2xC Sweets of May
Dingle Regatta 2xA,2xB,1xC, 1xC Sweets of May...
or something like that....

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## Jim Nollman

This discussion about  the definition of a set dance started in an attempt to classify "The Downfall of Paris. 

Kevin Burke's  recording is where  I first heard it. He plays it in three parts, and arranges the C part as a showcase for some very inspired harmonies. I had originally thought the tune was a reel, and that KB simply slowed it down to pursue his own arrangement. 

Like everyone who plays contra dances, our band often gathers tunes into sets of three. We don't pay much attention to the origin of a tune, but we do pay a lot of attention to choosing our sets to move the dance forward via mood, key, and melodic phrasing. 

Once in a while, a band member introduces a tune to the group that simply doesn't work when speeded up. I know the The Downfall of Paris as one of our most significant failures. We tried so hard to make it work as a reel at 110 bpm. It simply falls apart at that speed. 

In my failure to turn the tune into one part of a contra dance set, I realized that, as a dance tune, it works quite well on its own, as a fox trot. I am not saying it was written as a fox trot, but rather, that the lilt of the tune would make it an apt choice for some 1930's big band playing a slow lady's choice. 

I'm not really explaining it very well, so I'm hoping someone here can follow up with a better explanation. What dance within the European folk tradition is most "like" a fox trot?

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## allenhopkins

> ...I was at a jam in far western NY and brought that tune out innocently enough. One of the folks I was jamming with, who I was later to learn was Jim Kimball, the fiddler, musicologist, and music professor at SUNY Geneseo, was particularly delighted. He explained that the tune had kind of lost favor in local jams in upstate New York, which was and is a shame, because it is a great tune. Rickets Hornpipe was apparently a very very popular in this part of the country back in the way back.


Jim and I have played _Rickett's_ quite a few times at the Old-Time Fiddlers' Fair at Genesee Country Village.  There does seem to be some WNY disagreement as to which part is "A" and which "B"; some regional fiddlers start the tune with what _I_ think is the "B" part.

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## Miss Lonelyhearts

Some confusion here over "set dance."

For step dancers (girls in curls), a set dance is a tune that has a specific sequence of steps to it, such as Job of Journeywork or The Blackbird (both hornpipe in form). The term "set dance" doesn't tell you what type of tune it is--set dances can take any tune form, though jigs and hornpipes seem most common. They often have extra bars and/or repeat one part but not the other.

For set dancers (e.g. for ceilis), a set dance is a sequence of tunes, sometimes all of the same form (e.g., jigs), and sometimes changing form (e.g., jigs to hornpipes to polkas). Two different things.

Favorite hornpipes? The Hangman's Rope, written by Frank McCollum (who also wrote Home Ruler). Galway Bay, in Gm. Sherlock's. And Job of Journeywork.

There's more to hornpipes than a slight swing or dotted rhythm (not everyone swings them, even in Ireland, even for dancers). The form hinges on the three quarter-note ending (oom pah pah), and runs of folded triplets (e.g.: (3efe (3dcB (3ABA (3GFE ). Also, many though not all hornpipes tend to feature a B part that states a new motif once, then restates the motif from the A part. Hornpipes do this more than any other tune form. As was mentioned above, the tune fits a particular type of dance. For step dancers, the more accomplished the dancer, the slower they want the pace so they can fit in a flurry of fancy footwork. In contrast, ceili dancers often like their hornpipes fast.

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## RobP

I like one called New Century Hornpipe.... Norman Blake recorded it on one of his albums, but I learned it from "The Mandolin Player's Pastime" book from Voyager Records.

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## JCook

The Pumpherston Hornpipe, learned from a Gerald Trimble LP.

Jack

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## Donzen

Alexander's Hornpipe is another great one.......

and to the point of this posting, does anybody have a book of Hornpipes they might recommend in standard notation..?

Many thanks,
Don

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## Dave Weiss

I picked up a book called Favorite American Hornpipes for Fiddle (Mel Bay), by Stacy Phillips. It's got a hundred plus tunes, all in standard notation. I really like it, but many of the tunes mentioned in this thread aren't there... Still, chock full of good, easy to read and play hornpipes.

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## zoukboy

"The Last of the Twins" in O'Neill's

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## Gelsenbury

> I picked up a book called Favorite *American Hornpipes* for Fiddle (Mel Bay), by Stacy Phillips. It's got a hundred plus tunes, all in standard notation. I really like it, but many of the tunes mentioned in this thread aren't there... Still, chock full of good, easy to read and play hornpipes.


Could the information in bold print be the reason, perhaps? Many of the ones mentioned here are Irish. I couldn't even name an American hornpipe, but I'm sure some of them have been mentioned already.

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## Dave Weiss

That _could_ be the reason, there are lots of Irish Hornpipes also. Perhaps different names for the tunes to _Americanize_ them, dunno. They sound like hornpipes to me...

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## Sandy Beckler

I am currently...re-visiting "Big Sciota" the Bush version from Mandozine.  I like it...

Sandy

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## Jimdalf

The sunshine hornpipe is my all time favourite

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## Sandy Beckler

> I am currently...re-visiting "Big Sciota" the Bush version from Mandozine.  I like it...
> 
> Sandy


Well..........pardon me.  I just realized I posted this in the wrong thread...what a dummy!

Sandy :Laughing:

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## epicentre

The Brown Chest

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