Annotation:Ypsilanti Hornpipe

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YPSILANTI HORNPIPE. AKA and see “O’Kelly’s Fancy,” “Thames Hornpipe (The).” American, Hornpipe. B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The city of Ypsilanti, founded in 1823, is the second oldest in the state of Michigan. The Scottish publisher James Kerr printed the tune twice; as an untitled hornpipe in Merry Melodies vol. 1 (c. 1880's), then again in Merry Melodies vol. 3 as “Thames Hornpipe (The),” although there is nothing remotely of Scottish character about it. The hornpipe appears in the Boston publisher Elias Howe’s Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (1883) as “Ypsilanti Hornpipe." It would seem that Kerr's vol. 1 might predate Ryan's Mammoth Collection, but the provenance of the tune is indeterminate. At any rate, it has the character of a ‘composed’ hornpipe, i.e. a melody by a trained composer specifically for a stage production or show performance.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 98. Ryan’s Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 133. White’s Unique Collection, 1896; No. 126, p. 22.

Recorded sources:

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