Annotation:Rocket Hornpipe (The)
X:1 T:Rocket Hornpipe, The M:C| L:1/8 R:Hornpipe B:Köhler’s Violin Repository vol. 3 (1885, p. 262) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:F (3cde|f2F2F2 {a}g^f|g2G2G2 ga|bagf efga|ge c2c2 de| f2F2F2 {a}g^f|g2G2G2 ga|bagf efge|f2f2f2:| |:(cB)|Afcf afcA|Bfdf bfdB|Afcf afcB|A2G2G2 (cB)| Afcf afcA|Bfdf bfdB|bagf afge|[A2f2][A2f2][A2f2]:|]
ROCKET HORNPIPE THE. Scottish (originally), Canadian; Hornpipe. Canada, Cape Breton. D Major (Kerr): F Major (Cranford/Holland). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. A 19th century hornpipe written in the ‘Newcastle’ style, according to Nigel Gatherer, with similarities to “Newcastle Hornpipe (1) (The)” composed by the principal proponent of the style, Tyneside fiddler-composer and publican James Hill. An untitled cognate version of the hornpipe was entered in the mid-19th century music manuscript (p. 47, No. 2) of William Winter[1], a shoemaker and violin player who lived in West Bagborough in Somerset, southwest England.
Gatherer thinks the tune likely named in honor of Stephenson’s Rocket, an early steam locomotive of 1829-30. Another explanation might possibly be that in Ireland (and in Scotland?), especially in Limerick, a rocket was a little girls’ frock, adapted from the English-French rochet (P.W. Joyce). It was recorded by Shetland fiddler Arthur Scott Robertson (preceded by “College Hornpipe (The)”).
