Annotation:Blanchard's Hornpipe (2)

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BLANCHARD'S HORNPIPE [2]. AKA - "Fisher's Hornpipe," "Fisherman's Lilt (3)." Scottish, Irish; Hornpipe. D Major (MacDonald): G Major (Aird). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune is almost universally known as "Fisher's Hornpipe" nowadays, but was first published under the "Blanchard's" title in John Watlen's Celebrated Circus Tunes (Edinburgh, 1791), a reference to Edinburgh's Royal Circus, and extension of Phillip Astley's London-based Royal Circus. "Blanchard's Hornpipe" also appears in a violin player's manuscript collection made by one William Goulding of Hammond Marsh, Co. Cork, dated 1818, set in the key of G Major. It was collected in south County Armagh by the Rev. Luke Donnellan in the very early 20th century.

The title perhaps is associated with the daring 1785 balloon flight of French inventor Jean-Pierre Blanchard [1] (1753-1809), who made the first flight over the English Channel, taking about 2½ hours to travel from England to France, flying from Dover Castle to Guînes. Blanchard, who toured extensively demonstrating his balloons and parachutes, was awarded a substantial pension by Louis XVI.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 4), 1796; No. 92, p. 37. Donnellan (Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society, vol. II, No. 2), 1909; No. 20. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 172. Milne (Middleton’s Selection of Strathspeys, Reels &c. for the Violin), 1870; p. 45. Watlen (The Celebrated Circus Tunes), 1791; p. 11.

Recorded sources: