Annotation:Steamboat Hornpipe (1)
X:22 T:Steam Boat Hornpipe. BHp.22 T:Steamboat Hornpipe [1] M:C| L:1/8 N:This tune is remarkable for the very precisely detailed bowing marks N:Notes are missing at the end of the first two lines. N:viz-fifth bar is a repeat of the first, last note presumed. N:viz- last two notes of bar 11 are conjectural R:.Hornpipe Z:vmp. Peter Dunk 2013/15 B:Blackman - A Selection of the most favorite Hornpipes for the Violin ca1810-22 Q:1/2=80 U:w=!wedge! K:G d2|g2(bg) d2(gd)|B2(dB) G2(BG)|E2(cA) F2(dc)|(c2B2) B2wd2| g2(bg) d2 (gd)|B2(dB) G2(BG)|(Ee)wdwc (BG)(AF)|G2G2G2:| |:Bc|d(^cde) (dB)(GB)|(cBcd) wcwAwFwA|(GA)(Bc) wd(g"NB"fg)|we(cBA) (GF)(ED)| (d^c)d(e d)BGB|(cB)(cd) wcwAwFwA|wG(gec) (Bd) (FA)|G2G2G2:|
STEAMBOAT HORNPIPE [1], THE. AKA - “The Steam Boat.” AKA and see “Goodnatured Man (The),” "Steam Packet Hornpipe (1)," “Tim the Turncoat.” English, Scottish; Hornpipe. G Major (Barber, Blackman, Cole, Kennedy, Kerr, Miller, Raven, Ryan, White): A Major (Cranford, Skye): A Mixolydian (Ross). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Skye): AABB (most versions). A popular English hornpipe. The first part is equivalent to the first part of the first several versions of Bayard's (1981) Pennsylvania collected "Chapultepec" (No. 599A D, pp. 526 527. Paul Cranford notes the tune was played in G Major by Cape Breton fiddler Johnny Wilmot under the title “Tim the Turncoat,” the key and title under which it appears in O’Neill’s Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems (1907). O'Neill's "Goodnatured Man (The)" shares the same first strain, but the second differs.
“Steamboat Hornpipe [2]” was in the repertoire of the 19th century Tyneside, Northumberland, fiddler and composer James Hill (c. 1815-c. 1860), to whom it is sometimes attributed. Since the tune was printed in Blackman's Selection of the Most Famous Hornpipes (c. 1810-22) Hill could not have composed it, although he may have helped to popularize the hornpipe. Hill was Scottish-born, but lived most of his life in Gateshead, Northumberland, and was known as the ‘Paganini of the hornpipe’ for his famous hornpipe compositions. Not much is known about him, although he appears to have been a popular tavern fiddler, sometime publican, and sports enthusiast. The first half of the tune is employed in an untitled hornpipe in the Ellis Knowles manuscript, c. 1847, from Radcliffe, Lancashire, England (printed in Doyle's Plain Brown Tune Book, p. 42). Similarly, the first part of the tune appears in the 1831 music manuscript of George Spencer (Leeds, England) {see abc’s below}. Hill’s heyday was in the 1840’s to early 1850’s, and it may be that the first part of the melody was in circulation prior to his “improvements” (Hill was also apparently not one to discourage attributions of popular melodies to himself).
