erm.
exactly how unreasonable is a predilection for hornpipes? there are a couple of waltzes and jigs sneaking in, (and some slow stuff for the big whistle) but by and large it’s hornpipes. Some bouncy as all get out (ta TUM ta TUM ta tum ta TUM; TUM ta TUM ta TUM ta TUM, TUM ta TUM ta tum ta tum ta TUM, TUM TUM!) and some a bit less ridiculous, but all hornpipey. It’s even infected “les poules huppees” (crested hens), which is borderline silly, and now requires actual thinking to play it straight.
is this just a stage on the way to competence, or is it weird?
Seriously, there’s a lot more to hornpipes than simply ta-TUM ta-TUM. You can play HPs perfectly straight and even, and they’re still hornpipes. Or play reels very “dotted” and they’re still reels. So experiment, listen, and mix things up.
What interests me is the way some some come out as near parodies and some come out quite straight, and I can’t put my finger on why. (I have actually been trying to play more reels, I find them tricky, and I think they’re good for me. But hornpipes are what I keep playing right now, as far as traditional goes.)
but I’ll settle for weird and useful Thank you.
that sounds fun. I’m not, it has to be said, wedded to ITM, or any particular tradition. I like music, and I like music I can play; the first gives me a bit more scope than the second, but I’ll play the waltz from Sleeping Beauty as happily as anything else (and les poules huppees is clearly not Irish
I actually thought a lot of hornpipes were English and Northumbrian anyway… A quick search on the session for 3/2 time brought me one tune (when the boat comes in) that I know; I am now off to play with others. I think it was you that suggested The Sailor’s followed by the Trumpet Hornpipe when I said I’d been playing Barnacle Bill, anyway!
That were me indeed. Glad to know somebody looked at that material.
I only put it into abc because the book was out of print. Good to know that “John of the Green; The Cheshire Way” is now back in print. Copies may be obtained from the author, John Offord, at www.johnofthegreen.co.uk/
I gather from both the recordings and the way they’re notated that these three-twos are usually counted in 3, though there might be room for some hemiola-type ambiguity. And usually played fairly straight, though if they’re swung a bit they almost shade toward a hop jig feel. Interesting.
The Wikipedia entry on Hornpipes is pretty good, O Guru.
There are 3/2 hornpipes in Playford etc, and there are similar tunes in the Welsh tradition. Indeed, I suspect many older tunes in all the British and Irish traditions now written out in 3/4 but which are distinctly not waltzes (either in melodic pattern/rhythmic feel or, by reason of their pre-dating the dissemination of the waltz) nor minuets, may be at least cognate with, derived from or reflective of the 3/2 hornpipe (e.g. some O’Carolan). I’ve no dance-history source for this, but working from Ceri Rhys Matthews’s speculative theory regarding certain Welsh tunes, there may be a connection with or even derivation from the Renaissance galliard form.
I rather suspect you’ll find some (classily played) renditions of 3/2 hornpipes somewhere in Kathryn Tickell’s back-catalogue (don’t ask me for specifics, though - cf Discography and her own website) and also of other Northumbrian Pipes players (and other Northumbrian music specialists) - there’s plenty out there. I think there may be some Playford ones represented on 1651’s album Cast a Bell, but I don’t have full track info available and no time now to cross check the tune titles from the track listings to see what forms they are. Mind you, that album is not about dance-playing, but it is superb (as anything involving Andy Cutting always is)! (It is readily available as CD or download.)
P.S. For any ITM tend-to-be exclusivists who aren’t familiar with Kathryn’s output, there are 12 full tracks streamed on her website - lovely!
