Annotation:Egg Hornpipe

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EGG HORNPIPE, THE. AKA and see "Fisher's Hornpipe." English, Hornpipe. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. One of the most popular hornpipes in history, well known under the "Fisher's" title (generally credited to James A. Fisher, 1778), although it appears in many English musicians' music copybooks under the "Egg" title, beginning with William Mittell's 1799 ms., New Romney, Kent. It was perhaps named the 'Egg' after the practice of some stage hornpipe dancers to strew the stage with eggs and dance among them without breaking any, to demonstrate skill and control.

Source for notated version: the 1823-26 music mss of papermaker and musician Joshua Gibbons (1778-1871, of Tealby, near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire Wolds) [Sumner].

Printed sources: Sumner (Lincolnshire Collections, vol. 1: The Joshua Gibbons Manuscript), 1997; p. 58.

Recorded sources:

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