Annotation:Halfe Hannikin
Back to Halfe Hannikin
HALFE HANNIKIN. AKA - "Huff Hannekin." English, Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). C Mixolydian (Chappell, Merryweather, Raven): G Major (Barnes, Sharp). Standard tuning (fiddle). ABAB (Sharp): ABC (Chappell): AAB (Barnes): AABB (Merryweather, Raven). The tune was first published by John Playford in his English Dancing Master of 1650, though Chappell (1859) finds the air mentioned in Sir H. Herbert's office-book of revels and plays performed at Whitehall during the Christmas season, 1622-23. Confirming that the tune is older than Playford is a recorded mention that on Sunday, Jan. 19th, 1623, Ben Jonson's masque Time Vindicated was performed, and:
The Prince did lead the measures with the French Ambassador's wife... the measures, braules, corrantos, and galliards, being ended, the masquers, with the ladies, did daunce two countrey dances, namely, 'The Soldier's Marche' and 'Huff Hammukin.'
The title “Halfe Hannikin” is possibly a corruption of honig-huchen, or ‘sweet cake’, adopted into English along with other German and Dutch words in the 16th century. Alternatively, ‘Hannikin’ may possibly derive from honniken, used in Thomas Dekker’s The Shoemaker’s Holiday (1599, Act IV, sc. 5), used to mean a ‘stupid fellow’ or ‘needy fellow’ [Wells, “Playford Tunes and Broadside Ballads”, Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, vol. 3, No. 4 (Dec., 1939), pp. 259-273]
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes), 1986. Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time), vol. 1, 1859; p. 302. Merryweather (Merryweather's Tunes), 1989; p. 40. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 41 (a facsimile copy of the Playford original). Sharp (Country Dance Tunes), 1909; p.
Recorded sources: