Annotation:Mrs. Baker's Hornpipe
Tune properties and standard notation
MRS. BAKER'S HORNPIPE. AKA and see "Miss Baker's Hornpipe," "Miss Bacon's Hornpipe." English, Hornpipe. F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Mrs. Baker was a famous stage dancer who performed the hornpipe in the 18th century theater (along with Miss Anne Catley and Nancy Dawson, among others, according to Frank Kidson in his entry on hornpipes in Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians): “About 1760 the hornpipe underwent a radical change, for it was turned into common time and was altered in character. Miss Anne Catley, Mrs. Baker, Nancy Dawson, and other stage dancers, introduced it into the theatre, and they have given their names to hornpipes which are even now popular.” Versions of this tune can be found in Thompson'sComplete Collection of Country Dance Tunes (Vol. III, p. 29, No. 58), and in the Alymore MS, the John Clare ms. (Helpston, Northants, 1820, as "Miss Bacon's Hornpipe”), and the John Rook ms. (Warerton, Cumbria, 1840).
Source for notated version: a c. 1837-1840 MS by Shropshire musician John Moore [Ashman].
Printed sources: Ashman (The Ironbridge Hornpipe), 1991; No. 111a, p. 46.
Recorded sources: