Annotation:Alston Hornpipe
Tune properties and standard notation
ALSTON HORNPIPE. English, Hornpipe. F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. A tune composed by violinist W.B. Laybourn "for Clog Dance." Laybourn, from southern England, moved to North Shields in the North, and finally to Edinburgh. He was the editor of Köhlers’ Violin Repository (1881-1885), where he is identified only by the anonymous "A Professional Player"--to which he contributed many tunes. He died in 1886, soon after the publication of the third volume of the collection.
Alston is a town in Northumberland, a market center of the River South Tyne region, and, at 1,000 feet above sea level, is reputed to be the highest such marketplace in England. Graham Dixon (1995) says that in the 19th century Alston was an important center for the regional lead and coal mining.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Honeyman (Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor), 1898; pg. 49. Knowles (Northern Lass (A)), 1995; p. 42. Köhlers’ Violin Repository, Book 1, 1881-1885; p. 28.
Recorded sources: