I don’t know enough hornpipes (only 4 or 5) but I’m trying to fix that situation by learning more. However, what annoys me is that pipers play hornpipes very fast, almost the same speed as a reel.
A few years ago I was asked to play from some step dancers. When they asked me to play a hornpipe, I found that the rhythm and speed of the tune was not at all like what they were dancing. I ended up playing a jig at slow speed and that worked out fine for everyone.
I’ve since come to the conclusion that hornpipes should be played VERY slowly (maybe played as 12/8 instead of 4/4). As a dance tune, it’s got to be able to fit in with the rhythm of the dancers.
You probably already know it already but if not ‘Boys of Bluehill’ is a standard and just seems to naturally fall under the fingers and is easy to play up tempo
This is a modern interpretation of the hornpipe. Hornpipes aren’t supposed to be played at such a dead slow speed, they are supposed to have life in them. The slowing down of hornpipes is a result of the dance being made more complicated for competition. 100 years ago or even 50 years ago the hornpipe wasn’t as it is today. The dancers then would have an embelishment that they’d throw in here and there but the dance has developed into one long embelishment and to allow the dancers to get all their steps in the music gradually slowed down over the years.
Play your hornpipes with vigour (within reason now!) … let the dancers figure it out!
I have to retract that statement. I hadn’t heard that piece in along time but just gave it a listen and see that it’s very slow. It seems Brian was trying to make a piece out of it. If it was being played as a hornpipe it’d be faster and with a daycent dose of spirit - I am in the jaunty camp… but not overly so
Thanks for the information. I was not aware of the development of the hornpipe dance over the last 50-100 years. This makes a lot of sense.
The Boys of Bluehill is one of the few hornpipes that I play. I agree that it sounds and plays well when the tempo is more relaxed.
By the by, the hornpipes played by Waterford pipers (JOBM and DP) seem to me to be at a relaxed pace but are packed with tight triplets. Tight triplets really come into their own with hornpipes - they sound much more natural in a hornpipe than in a reel or jig (IMHO).
(Solo) stepdancers like hornpipes played very slowly so that they can do all the embellishments, as mentioned.
Set dancers, on the other hand, seem to like them played faster than I can manage to play even a reel . I fall back on the Ennis defence when anyone enquires about playing for dancers.
On my Highland pipes our pipe band played Boys of Bluehill in compition and we played it just a hair slower than a reel. Obviously a heavy first beat adds the feel and flavor of the hornpipe.
These are the tempos I’d consider ideal aswell. I have had to play hornpipes so slow that the melody would get lost completely… or maybe that was just my playing
I don’t play many of them, but I love hornpipes because I don’t unconsciously feel compelled to play (and thus butcher) them at reel speed, they sound good at a brisk and bouncy pace that allows for the unhurried articulation of ornaments. Sometimes I sort of swing 'em in a kind of syncopated way (my musical vocabulary fails me - like the way Ennis attacks The Pleasures of Hope), depending on tune or mood. Other nice ones are Tomgraney Castle, Chief O’Neill’s Favorite, and the Plains of Boyle / Cronin’s set.
Did the hornpipes of old, in the hands of the old masters, have a lot more swing to them? (longer on the dotted eighth notes/shorter on the sixteenths)?
I’m pretty sure most people are familiar with the tune, The Sailor’s Hornpipe, though it’s not part of the Irish tradition (and doesn’t sit comfortably on the pipes). It’s a good example of just how fast hornpipes can be played at. For myself, I always think of an oom-pah band; that D A, D A, bass line sits comfortably with most hornpipes.
Depended on the player, in general I’d say musicians of past generations were more swingin’, maybe as a result of playing more for dancers, or less with guitarists.
There’s a great track on the Topic CD Past Masters of Irish Dance of Pat Roche’s Harp and Shamrock Orchestra playing the Boys of Bluehill/Stack of Wheat, where Pat dances a step - he was a dancing teacher, influencing many including the Lord of the Dance himself. Tempo is brisk enough. To see the modern tempo at work there’s a bit of a girl stepping to the Harvest Home in the Come West Along the Road Vol. 2 DVD.
I play The Sailor’s Hornpipe as well, in D with lotsa crans. You can go up to the third octave D if you’re inclined, some settings don’t have that - it’s why fiddlers play the tune in Bb, where a high Bb is no problem. I used to leave out the G# notes but they’re actually quite easy to include with a bit of practice.
There are various fiddle hornpipes I’m fond of, some of them fiendishly tricky. Chief O’Neill’s is a classic tune but I always scowl when players of lesser instruments throw in that awful F natural in the second part.
. I fall back on the Ennis defence when anyone enquires about playing for dancers.
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