The UK has a great collection of hornpipe tunes named after the bit ports around our coast… So there’s The Liverpool Hornpipe, The Belfast Hornpipe, The Newcastle Hornpipe and Kingston upon Hull (presumably) has been honoured by The Kingston Hornpipe. I think many if not all originated as stage hornpipes, and lots of them come into the ‘cracking tune’ category, and are a real joy to play.
A host of them can all be found by searching the mighty resource that is the ABC Notation website tune search, which is run by my friend Chris Walshaw, a man who has done an immense amount for music.
Anyway, here are some examples from my own YouTube account. They’re really all instructional videos aimed at folks playing any instrument – I play each tune at speed the way I do it, and then more slowly for learning by ear. Along the way there might be a few wheezes for box players – so hopefully they’ll keep one or two visiting boat-oriented melodeon players amused for a little while.
And darn it… let’s have a bit of this fun while we’re at it…
Well done sir, rousing stuff. I’ve always liked the Pugwash tune was it composed for the cartoon?
Why thank you sir! It’s based on a thing called The Trumpet Hornpipe, which included a bar of four triplets on a single note – but that was to change. Here’s what the Wikipedia has to say: ‘The series had a memorable signature tune The Trumpet Hornpipe which was played by accordionist Tom Edmundson and arranged by Philip Lane. He had learned the tune from Jimmy Shand. The tune appears to have been popular from the mid-19th century, but its composer and country of origin are unknown. In the United States it is known as the Thunder Hornpipe.’
Once upon a time I used it as a ringtone….