Annotation:Waterman's Hornpipe (The)

Back to Waterman's Hornpipe (The)

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WATERMAN'S HORNPIPE, THE. Shetland (5/2 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). The rhythm was transcribed by the collector Pat Shuldham-Shaw in 5/2 time, collected in 1947 from the playing of Shetland fiddler John Stickle. Interestingly, "waterboy" and "waterman" are names for fairy spirits in Germany, the country of origin of John's fiddling grandfather Fredemann Stickle who was shipwrecked in the Shetlands and decided to settle there; of course, the Shetland Islands have numerous associations with the sea and seafaring apart from this. Supposedly the tune was of Norse and Scottish origins.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources:

Recorded sources: Topic 12TS431, "Brass Monkey" (1983).

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