Annotation:Swansea Hornpipe (1)

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SWANSEA HORNPIPE [1]. AKA - "Pibddawns y Sipsi," "Swansy Hornpipe." AKA and see “Gloucester Hornpipe (1) (The)," "Man from Newry (The)." English, Scottish, American; Hornpipe (whole or cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Ashman, Kerr): AA'BB' (Kerr). A hornpipe of unknown provenance, though likely English in origin. A version was included in the music manuscript collection of John Buttery (1784-1854), a young fifer who joined the 34th Regiment in Lincoln at the end of the 18th century and who saw service in England and overseas. Afterwards, he emigrated to Ontario, Canada, where his music manuscript survived in the family^[1]. Wellington, Shropshire, musician and poet John Moore (b. 1819-) entered the tune into his c. 1837-40 mss collection, spelling it "Swansy Hornpipe." "Swansea Hornpipe [1]" can also be found in the mid-19th century music manuscript of William Winter[1] (1774-1861), a shoemaker and violin player who lived in West Bagborough in Somerset, southwest England. Fiddler Stephen Baldwin (1873-1955), of Upton Bishop, Herefordshire, called the tune “Gloucester Hornpipe (1) (The),” and Helpstone poet and musician John Clare (1793-1864) entered a version as "Gloucestershire Hornpipe" in his mid-19th century music copybook.

Francis O’Neill printed a version of the melody under the title “Man from Newry (The)” in his Music of Ireland (1903). The Swansea Hornpipe is recorded as having been a type of dance in Wales around 1830, performed at parish dances held every quarter on Monday evenings ^[2].

Additional notes
Source for notated version : - c. 1837-1840 MS by Shropshire musician John Moore [Ashman].

Printed sources : - Ashman (The Ironbridge Hornpipe), 1991; No. 115, p. 48. Elias Howe (Musician’s Omnibus Nos. 6 & 7), Boston, 1880-1882; p. 631. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 2); No. 353, p. 39. Menteith & Burgess (The Coleford Jig: Tradtional Tunes from Goucestershire). Geoff Woolfe (William Winter’s Quantocks Tune Book), 2007; No. 213, p. 81 (ms. originally dated 1850).

Recorded sources : - Lapwing 106, Wallochmor Ceilidh Band – “Full Throttle!” (1982). Robin Huw Bowen – “Hunting the Hedgehog” (1994).

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↑ EASMES lists the mss. as the "John Fife manuscript", the name of a family member who had it in his possession. The tune appears on p. 117 of the ms., which is on microfilm with the National Library of Canada, Music Div.
↑ M.E. Hartland, “Breconshire Village Folklore,”Folklore, vol. 24, No. 4, Dec. 1913.

[1] EASMES lists the mss. as the "John Fife manuscript", the name of a family member who had it in his possession. The tune appears on p. 117 of the ms., which is on microfilm with the National Library of Canada, Music Div.

[2] M.E. Hartland, “Breconshire Village Folklore,”Folklore, vol. 24, No. 4, Dec. 1913.

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