Annotation:Leno Hornpipe

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LENO HORNPIPE. Scottish, Hornpipe (cut time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune is credited to John B. Easton, Edinburgh, by editor W.B. Laybourn in Köhlers’ Violin Repository, Book 3 (1885). The title may refer to English entertainer George Grant, born George Wild Gavin in 1860, who took the stage name Dan Leno early on as a childhood member of "the little Leno's", a family act. Leno was a small man, only 5 ft., 3 in., tall, but became the most popular entertainer in Britain. In the 1880's however, he was best known for his clog-dancing, after winning his first competition in Wakefield (the prize for which was a purse of silver and a leg of mutton). He was encouraged by another comic singer to enter a clog-dancing competition in Leeds for the larger prize of a gold and silver belt, worth ₤50, a huge sum for the times, and the right to the title "Champion Clog-Dancer of the World." Leno entered the competition as a relative unknown, and bested two well-regarded local dancers to take top honors. A biographer, John J. Wood, described one of his performances in the early 1880's:

He danced on the stage, he danced on the pedestal; he danced on a slab of slate; he was encored over and over again; but throughout his performance, he never uttered a word.

Leno went on to have an extremely successful career as a music hall entertainer, even performing for Queen Victoria. c.f. his autobiography, Dan Leno, Hys Book [1] (1899).

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Laybourn (Köhlers’ Violin Repository, Book 3), 1885; p. 220.

Recorded sources:

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