Annotation:Morduant's Hornpipe

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MORDUANT'S HORNPIPE. AKA - "Morduant's House." AKA and see "Negro Sand Dance." Irish, Hornpipe. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Fiddler and musicologist Philippe Varlet believes the tune may have vaudeville connections and was even recorded on a 78 RPM disc as "N....r Breakdown" by Irish accordion player Terry Lane. Lane's offensive title links the Irish hornpipe with a hornpipe called "Negro Sand Dance" printed in James S. Kerr's Merry Melodies, vol. 4 (c. 1880's). The Irish hornpipe is cognate, but distanced, and retains enough points of similarity to be considered a derivative.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Roche (Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 3), 1927; No. 177, p. 62.

Recorded sources:




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