Annotation:Ferry Bridge Hornpipe

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FERRY BRIDGE HORNPIPE. English (originally), Canadian; Hornpipe. England, Yorkshire. Canada; Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The Ferrybridge is the name of a span in Yorkshire, note Merryweather & Seattle. The tune appears in Cole's 1000 and its predecessor, Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883), "as performed by" J. Hand. New York City writer, musician and researcher Don Meade believes this refers to one of two brothers, John and James Hand, who were fiddlers and stage performers in the Massachusetts area in the mid-19th century. The tune was recorded by Cape Breton fiddle Winston Fitzgerald, paired with "Sumner's Hornpipe," which appears on the same page in Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883) just below "Ferry Bridge." Meade also relates that the melody was recorded early in the 20th century by the Wyper Brothers, a melodeon-playing duo from Scotland. The tune became so associated with them that it acquired their name, and is often called "Wypers." The first strain is shared with "O'Neill's Dooley's Fancy" and "Diamond (1)" (the latter is also printed in Ryan's Mammoth Collection).

Source for notated version: an MS collection by fiddler Lawrence Leadley, 1827-1897 (Helperby, Yorkshire) [Merryweather & Seattle]; Peter Chaisson, Jr. (b. 1942, Bear River, North-East Kings County, Prince Edward Island) [Perlman]; Winston Fitzgerald (1914-1987, Cape Breton) [Cranford].

Printed sources: Cranford (Winston Fitzgerald), 1997; No. 34, p. 12. Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 95. Merryweather & Seattle (The Fiddler of Helperby), 1994; No. 27, p. 35. Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; p. 79. Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 130.

Recorded sources: Rounder CD 11661-7033-2, Natalie MacMaster - "My Roots are Showing" (2000. Appears as "Ferry Bridge Clog").

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