Annotation:Bull's Head Hornpipe
X: 1 % T:Bull's Head. JJo6.152 B:J.Johnson Choice Collection Vol 6, 1751 Z:vmp.Steve Mansfield 2015 www.village-music-project.org.uk M:6/8 L:1/8 Q:3/8=100 K:G D | GBG AFD | EGE DCB, | CEC B,DB, | A,BG FED | GBG AFD | EGE DCB, | CEC B,DB, | A,GF G2 :| |: G | Bcd efg | ded dcB | cBc ABA | aga fed | gfe dcB | cac BAG | cBc Agf | gdB G2 :|
BULL'S HEAD. AKA - "Bull's Head Hornpipe." English, Jig (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody and dance directions were first printed in London by music publisher John Johnson in his Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 6 (1751, p. 76), followed soon after by music publisher David Rutherford's Rutherford's Compleat Collection of 200 of the Most Celebrated Country Dances (1756, p. 60). Multi-instrumentalist John Rook, of Waverton, near Wigton, Cumbria, entered the tune into his large 1840 music manuscript collection. The melody (as "Bull's Head Hornpipe") is also contained in the Joseph Kershaw manuscript. Kershaw was a fiddler who lived in Slackcote, Saddleworth, North West England, in the 19th century, and his manuscript dates from around 1820 onward.
The 'Bull's Head' title is perhaps the name of an inn or pub, and there is a modern Bull's Head in London that was a venue for jazz. An older Bull's Head was 18th century riverside inn on the banks of the Thames at Chiswick in the village of Strand-on-the-Green, but whether it is the 'Bull's Head' of the title is unknown.