Annotation:Hark hark the joy inspiring horn
X:1 T:Inspiring Horn, The M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Air S:O'Farrell - Pocket Companion, vol. IV (c. 1810) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G G | GA>G G2A | B>cB B2d | d>ed gBd | dcB {B}A2A | B>cd d>e^c | d2 (d/e/f/) e2 ef g | (fed) de^c | dFF F2d | (d>e)d bgd | cdc afc | B>cB gBd | dcB {B}A2A | B>AB cBA | Gba g2e | d>Bd cBA | GGG G2 ||
HARK, HARK, THE JOY INSPIRING HORN. English, Song Air (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. A hunting song [Roud Number: V4778] that appears in a number of latter 18th century songsters such as The Goldfinch, or, New Modern Songster (1782), The Humming Bird (1785), Calliope (1788), and The Skylark (1797). Copies of the song with music can be found in Horsfield's Vocal Music (1775) and Fielding's Vocal Enchantress (1783), among others. The lyric begins:
Hark! hark! the joy-inspiring horn
Salutes the rosy rising morn,
And echoes through the dale;
With clam'rous peals the hills resound,
The hounds quick-scented scow'r the ground,
And snuff the fragrant gale.
It was first published around the year 1770, and was either set or composed by music publisher Richard Bride (who succeeded Henry Waylett at Exeter Change in the Strand), and sung by Mr. Dearl at Finch's Grotto Gardens. The Grotto was a London pleasure (amusement) garden located on the south side of the Thames River, near the old King's bench prison. Instrumental versions of the song were also printed in Longman's Pocket Book for the German Flute and Cahusac's Compleat Tutor for the German Flute, both published in London in 1778. George Willig published the song around 1805 in Philadelphia, calling it a hunting song and attributing it to R. Taylor.
