Annotation:Oriental Hornpipe
X:1 T:Oriental Hornpipe M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Hornpipe S:Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:A (3E/F/G/ | A/G/A/E/ C/E/A/c/ | e/^d/e/c/ A/c/e/a/ | f/a/e/a/ d/a/c/a/ | B/A/B/c/ d/B/G/E/ | A/G/A/E/ C/E/A/c/ | e/^d/e/c/ A/c/e/a/ | (3f/4g/4a/4e/d/ c/B/A/G/ | AAA :| |: E/G/ | B/A/B/G/ E/G/B/c/ | d/c/d/B/ G/B/e/d/ | c/B/c/A/ E/A/c/d/| e/^d/e/f/ .e(f/g/) | a/g/a/e/ f/d/B/G/ | A/B/c/d/ e/a/e/c/ | d/f/e/d/ c/B/A/G/ | AAA :|
ORIENTAL HORNPIPE. AKA and see "Boys from the East (The)," "Van Buren's Hornpipe." American, Hornpipe. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. There was a fashion for things oriental in the mid-19th century, based on fascination for the exotic and unknown. Trade with China and Japan was being gradually forced open by the Colonial powers and goods from the orient and home-made products in imitation of such began to appear on American streets. There was a clipper ship called the "Oriental", a name that appears in American Clipper Ships 1833-1858 by Howe and Matthews, and a distant possibility as a source for the title. However, the name 'Oriental' was also applied to theaters and saloons where music and entertainments were performed. One of the more famous of these establishments was Frank Burns' Oriental at 650 Broadway, between Bleecker and Bond, where a piano and violin were featured (see Brooks McNamara, The New York Concert Saloon: The Devil's Own Nights, 2002, p. 43). O'Neill prints the hornpipe as "Boys from the East (The)," perhaps his private joke, a take-off on the 'Oriental' title. See also note for the "annotation:Occidental Hornpipe."
However, the tune itself was composed by New York musician Michael Higgins and published in his 1829 collection as "Van Buren's Hornpipe," by which title it also was printed by Boston music publisher Elias Howe in his Musician's Companion Nos. 6 & 7, issued about the same time that Ryan's Mammoth came out. Since William Bradbury Ryan was a Howe employee, it is curious that he did not use the same title for the tune that Howe did. The English "Clarionet Hornpipe (2)" is very similar in the first two bars, but the rest of the tune differs.
