Annotation:Alexander's Hornpipe
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ALEXANDER'S HORNPIPE. AKA – "Alexander's Favourite." AKA and see "Byrne's Hornpipe (2)," "Kelly's Hornpipe (5)," "Sandlark (The)." Irish, Hornpipe. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune appears as "Byrne's Hornpipe (2)" in the Feis Ceoil Collection of Traditional Irish Music (1914). Curiously, O'Neill printed it in 1903 in his Music of Ireland, but omitted it from his 1907 Dance Music of Ireland. The tune is known as a piping tune, dating back to 78 RPM recordings of "Alexanders" by uilleann pipers Tommy Reck (1922-1991, recorded in Dublin in 1950) and Liam Walsh.
An early version of the hornpipe can be found in the music manuscript copybook of fiddler John Burks under the title "Prunoble's Hornpipe." Nothing is know of Burks, but he may have been from the north of England.
Sources for notated versions: Chicago police sergeant James O'Neill, a fiddler originally from County Down and Francis O'Neill's collaborator [O'Neill]; accordion player Johnny O'Leary (Sliabh Luachra region of the Cork-Kerry border) [Moylan].
Printed sources:
McDermott (Allan's Irish Fiddler), c. 1920's, No. 82, p. 21 (appears as "Alexander's Favourite").
Moylan (Johnny O'Leary of Sliabh Luachra), 1994; No. 344, pp. 193–194.
O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; p. 193.
O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 1683, p. 313.
Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 145.
Sing Out, vol. 34, no. 4, Fall 1989; p. 97.
Recorded sources:
Alia Vox AVSA 9878, Jordi Savall - "The Celtic Viol. II" (2010). Rounder 1087, Tommy Reck – "From Galway to Dublin" (Reissue of a 78 RPM. Learned from Seamus Ennis).
See also listing at:
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [1]
Hear Tommy Reck's recording at the Comhaltas Archive [2]
See a video clip of Tommy Reck and Mick O'Brien playing the tune in 1989 at Na Píobairí Uilleann [ipers.ie/source/media/?searchTerm=tommy reck&startRowIndex=12$pageIndex=1&pageIndex=0&pageSize=36&sPage=1&mediaId=24243]