Hornpipe

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The Hornpipe by Andries Both

The hornpipe is any of several dance forms and their associated tunes, played and danced in Great Britain and Ireland and elsewhere from the 16th century until the present day. The dance is still performed in competition. George Frideric Handel's hornpipe from Water Music is one of his most famous compositions.

History

British naval cadets dancing the sailor's hornpipe in 1928
"Grown Gentlemen Taught to Dance" (1767) depicts the teaching of country dance. A book of hornpipes is visible at the fiddler's feet.

Hornpipes are a class of wind instruments. One candidate for the specific hornpipe that might have leant its name to the dance is the pib-corn.<ref name=Chap/>Template:Rp There is no clear evidence the dance was named after any instrument, and many alternative etymologies have been proposed.<ref name=ONeill/><ref name=Grove>Dean-Smith, Margaret. "Hornpipe (ii)." Grove Music Online. 2001. Oxford University Press.</ref>

References to hornpipes abound in literature. Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th century translation of The Romaunt of the Rose mentions the hornpipe as a Cornish instrument.<ref>Chaucer, Geoffrey, and Nicolas, Nicholas Harris. Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose, Troilus and Creseide, and the Minor Poems; with life of the poet by Sir Harris Nicolas. William Pickering, 1846. 127.</ref><ref>Balfour, Henry. "The Old British ‘Pibcorn’ or ‘Hornpipe’ and Its Affinities", The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 20, 1891. 142–54.</ref>Template:Rp In a 1609 pamphlet titled Old Meg of Hereford-shire, the hornpipe dance is described as a product of Lancashire.<ref>Old Meg of Hereford-shire, for a Mayd-Marian: And Hereford Towne for a Morris-daunce. London: John Budge, 1609. 4.</ref> Michael Drayton dwells on "Lancastrian nymphs" dancing the hornpipe in Poly-Olbion (1612).<ref>Drayton, Michael. The Complete Works of Michael Drayton: Polyolbion and The harmony of the church. United Kingdom, J.R. Smith, 1876. 174ff.</ref><ref name="itgo.com">Inglehearn, Madeleine. "The Hornpipe - 'Our National Dance'". Conference paper. Cambridge: National Early Music Association, 1993.</ref> In The King's Entertainment at Welbeck (1633), Ben Jonson describes it as a dance native to Nottingham and Darbishire.<ref name=Chap>Chappell, William. The Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time: a History of the Ancient Songs, Ballads, and of the Dance Tunes of England, Volume II. London: Chappel & Co., 1871.</ref>Template:Rp

The hornpipe became a regular feature of English theater. Dancers would perform hornpipes between the acts of larger stage works. Many tunes were named after the dancers who performed them: Fishar's Hornpipe, Aldridge's Hornpipe, Richar's Hornpipe, Miss Baker's Hornpipe, West's Hornpipe, Durang's Hornpipe, etc.<ref name=FMJ>Emmerson, George S. "The Hornpipe", Folk Music Journal, vol. 2, no. 1, 1970.</ref>Template:Rp One of the standard dances became the "sailor's hornpipe", where the performer would appear as Jack Tar and emulate the life aboard ship.<ref>Knowles, Mark. Tap Roots: The Early History of Tap Dancing. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers, 2002. 17.</ref> By the 19th century, the ability to dance a hornpipe was a basic part of an entertainer's toolkit.<ref>Bratton, J(acqueline). S. "Dancing a Hornpipe in Fetters", Folk Music Journal, vol. 6, no. 1, 1990. 82.</ref>

A legend took hold that reversed the origin of the hornpipe. In some tellings it was invented by sailors stuck in the doldrums.<ref>Tolman, Beth and Ralph Page. The Country Dance Book. Countryman Press, 1937. 119.</ref> In fact, the popular dance was adopted by sailors like Captain Cook who recognized it as an effective exercise routine aboard ships which have limited space.<ref>Durang, Charles. "The Ball-room Bijou, and Art of Dancing. Philadelphia: Fisher & Brother, 185-. 19f.</ref> It soon became a popular pastime and an official part of Royal Navy training.<ref name=rmg>"The sailor's hornpipe dance", Royal Museums Greenwich. Accessed July 21, 2023.</ref><ref>Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. The Encyclopedia of World Folk Dance. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2016. 140.</ref>

Charles Dickens mentions the hornpipe in Dombey & Son and Martin Chuzzlewit.<ref>Dickens, Charles. Dombey and Son. Macmillan and Company, 1892. 11.</ref><ref>Dickens, Charles. The Works of Charles Dickens: Martin Chuzzlewit. Harper & Brothers, 1872. 77.</ref> He was also a skilled dancer of the sailor's hornpipe.<ref>Dolby, George. Charles Dickens as I Knew Him: The Story of the Reading Tours in Great Britain and America (1866-1870). Everett, 1912. 34.</ref> Thomas Hardy describes country dances in the seventh chapter of Under the Greenwood Tree (1872). In a 1926 letter, he recalls that he must have had in mind the "College Hornpipe", among other dances. He also included his notation of the hornpipe as he recalled it six decades later.<ref>MacMillan, W.E.F. "Dances Mentioned by Thomas Hardy in Under the Greenwood Tree", English Dance & Song, September 1926. 384–5.</ref><ref>Radford, Andrew. Thomas Hardy and the Survivals of Time. Taylor & Francis Group, 2003. 262.</ref>

Dance

Beauchamp-Feuillet notation for "The Richmond", a modified hornpipe dance (1706).<ref>Isaac, Mr, John Weaver, and James Paisible. A Collection of Ball-Dances perform'd at Court. London: Printed for the author, and sold by J. Vaillant, 1706. Retrieved from the Library of Congress. 12ff.</ref>

The country dance form of the hornpipe differs from the solo step dance.<ref>Wilson, Thomas. The Complete System of English Country Dancing. Sherwood, Neeley and Jones, 1820. 256.</ref> Couples execute a series of steps and turns in an endless variety of combinations.<ref>Willcox, Asa. Asa Willcox's Book of Figures. N.p., 1793. 4f.</ref> In an 1816 dance manual, the "College Hornpipe" requires, among other movements, the "top couple to swing with the right hand round the second couple, then swing with the left hand".<ref>Wilson, Thomas. The Treasures of Terpsichore: Or, A Companion for the Ball-room. Being a Collection of All the Most Popular English Country Dances, Arrange Alphabetically, with Proper Figures to Each Dance. Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, 1816. 16.</ref> In the 18th century, dancing masters were widely employed to teach these dances to English gentility.<ref name=Routl>The Routledge Companion to English Folk Performance. Edited by Peter Harrop, and Steve Roud. Taylor & Francis Group, 2023.</ref>Template:Rp There are hornpipes in Beauchamp-Feuillet notation.<ref>When Men Dance:Choreographing Masculinities Across Borders. Oxford University Press, USA, 2009. 211.</ref><ref>Richard, Ralph. The life and works of John Weaver: an account of his life and theatrical productions, with an annotated reprint of his complete publications. London, Dance Books, Ltd. 309.</ref>

Solo hornpipes were typically danced with folded arms as a display of strength. One dance historian described the posture as a demonstration of the English spirit, "The upper part of the body is kept in a state of calm repose, while the lower limbs are executing the most complicated, rapid, and difficult move-ments. Is not all this typical of an ideally English trait? To appear calm and collected amid circumstances calculated to induce a condition of physical and mental agitation."<ref>Scott, Edward. Dancing as an Art and Pastime. G. Bell and sons, 1892. 113.</ref>

A travelogue from 1798 described hornpipes being danced at a ball in Wales, "The ball was concluded by a contest of agility between two brothers, who danced two distinct hornpipes with so much power and muscle, variety of step and inflexible perseverance, as exceeded everything we had seen."<ref>Jaffé, Nigel Allenby. Folk Dance of Europe. Folk Dance Enterprises, 1990. 294f.</ref> A typical response from female dancers would be something like a cotillion.<ref>Budworth, Joseph. A Fortnight's Ramble to the Lakes in Westmoreland, Lancashire, and Cumberland. London: John Nichols & Son, 1810. 25.</ref>

Competition

In competition, the hornpipe is a hard shoe dance, which enables judges to hear the steps.<ref>Wulff, Helena. Dancing at the Crossroads: Memory and Mobility in Ireland. Berghahn Books, 2008. 95.</ref> In Ireland, the dance is traditionally performed by men. Dancers will use slower tempi to show off their virtuosity.<ref>Foley, Catherine E. Step Dancing in Ireland: Culture and History. Taylor & Francis, 2016. 234f.</ref> An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha requires a minimum tempo in competition of 76 beats per minute, and the standard tempo is 113 bpm.<ref>Official Rulebook For Teachers and Adjudicators, V.3. An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha, September 2025.</ref>

Music

Hornpipes were originally in triple meters like Template:Music, Template:Music, Template:Music, or Template:Music.<ref name=ONeill>O'Neill, Francis. Irish Folk Music: A Fascinating Hobby, with Some Account of Allied Subjects Including O'Farrell's Treatise on the Irish Or Union Pipes and Touhey's Hints to Amateur Pipers. Regan Printing House, 1910.</ref> In 1776, John Hawkins explained, "The measure of the Hornpipe is triple time of six crotchets in a bar, four whereof are to be beat with a down, and two with an up hand."<ref>Hawkins, John. A General History of the Science and Practice of Music, A New Edition, with the Author's Posthumous Notes. Volume II. London: Novello, 1853. 705.</ref>

In 1853, William Stenhouse enthused that tunes like "Wee Totum Fogg", "The Dusty Miller", "Go to Berwick, Johnnie", "Mount your Baggage", "Robin Shure in Har'est" have been played in Scotland "time out of mind".<ref>Stenhouse, William. Illustrations of the Lyric Poetry and Music of Scotland. William Blackwood and Sons, 1853. 456.</ref> Tunes that were catalogued in the 18th century in collections like the William Dixon manuscript remained virtually unchanged when transcribed by 20th century practitioners like Tom Clough.<ref>Seattle, Matt. "Interview: Jock Agnew", Common Stock. The Lowland and Border Pipers' Society. December 1997. 23–32.</ref>

By the time John Playford was anthologizing hornpipes in collections like Apollo's Banquet (1669), the melodies could be categorized into subgenres like bagpipe-hornpipes, jig-hornpipes, or hornpipe-jigs. An important feature of hornpipes were the divisions in the tune which enabled repetition and variation.<ref name=Chap/>Template:Rp A Template:Music hornpipe, or slip jig, like "Mad Moll" went through several manifestations. It turns up in John Gay's ballad opera Polly (1729). It was anthologized twice in The Dancing Master, once as "Mad Moll" and again as "The Virgin Queen".<ref name=Chap/>Template:Rp

Template:Listen The hornpipe was often used in dance suites by Baroque composers like Guillaume de Morlaye, Antony Holborne, William Byrd, and Thomas Arne.<ref name=Grove/> Hugh Aston's Hornepype of 1522 is one of the earliest known examples of a composer writing for the dance form. Henry Purcell and George Frideric Handel composed hornpipes and considered the rhythm as characteristically English.<ref name=Rantin>Emmerson, George S. Rantin' Pipe and Tremblin' String : A History of Scottish Dance Music. McGill-Queen's University Press, 1971.</ref>Template:Rp

Purcell's "Hornpipe No. 8" from the incidental music for Abdelazer (1695) was anthologized by Playford.<ref>Holman, Peter, and White, Bryan. The Purcell Compendium. Boydell & Brewer, Limited, 2025. 49.</ref> The hornpipe also provided the vehicle for one of classical music's most famous melodies in Handel's Water Music (1717).<ref>Buelow, George J. A History of Baroque Music. Indiana University Press, 2004. 496.</ref> The movement is titled "Alla Hornpipe", a marking Handel also used in Semele (1744).<ref name=Grove/> By that time, hornpipes had become shorthand for carefree quirkiness in classical music.<ref>Hogwood, Christopher. Handel: Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. Cambridge University Press, 2005. 26f.</ref>

By the 19th century, the hornpipe definitively evolved into common time (Template:Music) and its variants.<ref name=Chappell>Chappell, William. Popular Music of the Olden Time: A Collection of Ancient Songs, Ballads, and Dance Tunes, Illustrative of the National Music of England, Volume II. Cramer, Beale, & Chappell, 1855. 740f.</ref> "The Sailor's Hornpipe" is the most widely known melody from this latter style. Its even rhythm is distinct from the dotted rhythms of hornpipes like "The Harvest Home". A hybrid of these two rhythms became known as the "Newcastle Style".<ref>Haigh, Chris. "http://www.fiddlingaround.co.uk/english/index.html English Fiddle]", Fiddling Around the World. Accessed August 19, 2017.</ref>

Many hornpipes were written during the 19th century, like "The Groves" and "The Boys of Bluehill" in Ireland.<ref name=ONeill/>Template:Rp The fiddler-publican James Hill was a noted English composer of hornpipes.<ref>Bartram, Chris. English Fiddle. Mel Bay Publications, 2011. 16.</ref> After the assassination of President James A. Garfield in 1881, a hornpipe was written in his honor.<ref>"President Garfield's Hornpipe", The Traditional Tune Archive. Accessed October 31, 2025.</ref>

See also

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References

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Further reading

Bibliographies
Scores
Thomas Marsden, A Collection of Original Lancashire Hornpipes Old and New (1705)
John Walsh, The Third Book of the most celebrated jiggs (1731)
Daniel Wright, An Extraordinary Collection of Pleasant & merry Humours (1713)
Videos

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