Annotation:Old Lancashire Hornpipe (1)

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X:1 T:Old Lancashire Hornpipe [1] M:3/2 L:1/8 B:Johnson (1742, p. 12) R:"Old" or Triple Hornpipe Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:D B2A2G2|F3E D2f2e2d2|e2E4B2 A2G2|F3E D2f2 e2dc|d2D4:| |:B2A2G2|F2A2G2B2A2d2|e2E4B2 A2G2|F2A2G2B2A2c2|d2D4:| |:f2g2a2|f3e d2f2e2d2|c2e4 f2g2a2|f3e d2f2e2 dc|d2D4||

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OLD LANCASHIRE HORNPIPE [1]. AKA - "Lancashire Hornpipe (2)." AKA and see "Lancashire Witches (2) (The)," "Reed House Rant." English, "Old" Hornpipe (3/2 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC. The melody was printed by John Playford in 1669 ("A Jigg Divided 12 Ways") in the first edition of Apollo's Banquet, and by London publisher John Johnson in his edition of Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances, vol. 2 (London, 1742, p. 12). The hornpipe was often printed with variation sets, as was the practice with such pieces which were essentially a ground for improvisations. Barry Callaghan (2007) opined "Surely one of the great tunes of the tradition." Northumbrian musician Henry Atkinson's "Rood/Reed House Rant" (c. 1695) is a closely related tune. See also "Lancashire Witches (2)" for another version of "Old Lancashire Hornpipe."

John M. Ward is of the opinion that Johnson's tune is not a true Lancashire hornpipe but is rather a country dance

1. John M. Ward, "The Lancashire Hornpipe", Essays in Musicology: A Tribute to Alvin Johnson, 1990, pp. 140-173

, noting that Johnson's tune is barred in 6/4 which is not a Lancashire hornpipe meter. "Moreover," he writes, "the tune begins with a half-bar anacrusis, something equally alien to the genre." Ward builds a case that Lancashire hornpipes were folk dances and that period descriptions of them indicate they were energetic and freeform, with considerable latitude for individual creation, whereas many of the dances in London dance collections were "always" accompanied by proscribed directions for a dance.

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