The Sailor's Hornpipe
Encyclopedia
The Sailor's Hornpipe is a traditional hornpipe
melody.
, written on Tyneside, dated 1770
The Sailor's Hornpipe (also known as The College Hornpipe and Jack's the Lad) is a traditional hornpipe
melody.
, written on Tyneside, dated 1770
The Sailor's Hornpipe (also known as The College Hornpipe and Jack's the Lad) is a traditional hornpipe
melody.
, written on Tyneside, dated 1770 http://www.asaplive.com/archive/index.asp. The dance imitates the life of a sailor and their duties aboard ship. Sailors from the Royal Navy
are believed to have invented the solo dance, as an exercise aboard shiphttp://jrssd.potts.net.au/dances/the_sailor's_hornpipe.htm>. Due to the small space that the dance required, and no need for a partner, the dance was popular on-board shipWhat are the origins of the sailor’s hornpipe? : Frequently asked questions : Maritime, sea & ships : Fact files & in-depth : Learning : NMM.
It is likely that the Sailor's Hornpipe was originally performed on the wet deck of a ship, in bare feet. Accompaniment may have been the music of a tin whistle
or, from the 19th century, a squeezebox
. Samuel Pepys
referred to it in his diary as "The Jig of the Ship" and Captain Cook
, who took a piper on at least one voyage, is noted to have ordered his men to dance the hornpipe in order to keep them in good health. The dance on-ship became less common when fiddlers ceased to be included in ships' crew members.
In dramatic stage productions, from around the sixteenth century, a popular feature was a sea danceThe Sailor's Hornpipe | Online Information Bank | Research Collections | Royal Naval Museum at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. But the nineteenth century saw the more familiar form of the "sailors’ hornpipe" introduced. Nautical duties (for example the hauling of ropes, rowing, climbing the rigging and saluting) provided the dance movements.
The tune is one of the movements in Sir Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs
.
John Philip Sousa
included the number as part of his "Jack Tar
March".
American composer Charles Ives
quotes the tune in the "Washington's Birthday" movement in his A Symphony: New England Holidays
.
Groucho Marx
does the traditional dance to this number at one point, as part of the opening number in the film, Duck Soup.
Donald Duck
dances to the melody during his debut appearance in The Wise Little Hen
(1934).
In the 1941 children's novel The Moffats
by Eleanor Estes
, Joey Moffat is supposed to do the hornpipe in a dancing school recital. Overcome by stage fright, he can't remember the steps until a tiny lap dog -- formerly a sailor's pet -- hears the music and jumps into the center of the floor to take up the dance.
Jenny Linsky, the feline protagonist of Esther Averill's children's books about Jenny and the Cat Club, learns the Sailor's Hornpipe from her owner Captain Tinker. She does the dance and teaches it to other cats throughout the series.
The piece's opening melody is quoted in the Gilligan's Island theme song, "The Ballad of Gilligan's Island."
The tune was played in the animated Popeye
cartoons beginning in the 1930s, usually as the first part of the opening credits theme, which then segued into an instrumental of "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man".
The tune was played under the opening credits of the 1947 WB cartoon Buccaneer Bunny
. The tune was played on the track and the dance was performed by Sylvester the cat in the 1948 WB cartoon Back Alley Op-Roar.
The tune framed the final track ("Symphony of the Seas") of the 1980s album, Hooked on Classics
, Volume 3.
The Sailor's Hornpipe is the finale of part two of Mike Oldfield
's Tubular Bells
. It was also the inspiration for the track "Moonshine" from his Tubular Bells II
.
In the Gilbert and Sullivan
operetta "H.M.S. Pinafore
", Sir Joseph Porter tells Ralph Rackstraw "All sailors should dance hornpipes. I will teach you one this evening". In their later operetta, Utopia, Limited
, a slower version of the melody introduces "Captain Corcoran, K.C.B."
The song also appears in Disney's Alice in Wonderland
, sung with lyrics.
George Malcolm
, 20th century English harpsichordist and conductor, wrote a harpsichord piece called "Bach before the Mast", a humorous set of variations on The Sailor's Hornpipe in the style of Johann Sebastian Bach
.
Along with George Malcolm's piece, Keith Emerson
plays his own version of the tune on his solo album Honky - "a full-fledged rocking strut with a Caribbean twist" (Allmusic).
In the television show Futurama
, the jingle for Popplers is set to the tune of The Sailor's Hornpipe (Season 2 Episode 15: The Problem with Popplers
).
This song plays during part of the ending in the Xbox Live Arcade
game Castle Crashers
.
Noel Rawsthorne
wrote a set of variations on the tune, "Hornpipe Humoresque", with apologies to Bach
(a variation conflating the tune with the first movement of Brandenburg Concerto No. 3), Vivaldi (the first movement of "Spring" from The Four Seasons), Arne
(Rule Britannia), and Widor (Toccata
from Organ Symphony
No. 5).
A whistled version of the melody is used by UK group Madness
on their 1985 hit "Uncle Sam
".
A segment of the melody is sung by Roger Jackson as the character Reginald Van Winslow in the first chapter of the Tales of Monkey Island
video game, released in 2009.
The tune also features in the film The Warrior's Way
during a fight scene.
In "Ride the Roller Coaster" the Kidsongs Kids who are dressed up as pirates sing this song and rename it "A Pirate's Life is a Life for Me".
Hornpipe
The term hornpipe refers to any of several dance forms played and danced in Britain and elsewhere from the late 17th century until the present day. It is said that hornpipe as a dance began around the 16th century on English sailing vessels...
melody.
History
The usual tune for this dance was first printed as the "College Hornpipe" in 1797 or 1798 by J. Dale of London. . It was found in manuscript collections before then - for instance the fine syncopated version in the William Vickers manuscriptWilliam Vickers manuscript
From 1770-2 a man called William Vickers made a manuscript collection of dance tunes, of which some 580 survive, including both pipe and fiddle tunes. The manuscript is incomplete - 31 pages have not survived, though their contents are listed at the beginning of the book...
, written on Tyneside, dated 1770
The Sailor's Hornpipe (also known as The College Hornpipe and Jack's the Lad) is a traditional hornpipe
Hornpipe
The term hornpipe refers to any of several dance forms played and danced in Britain and elsewhere from the late 17th century until the present day. It is said that hornpipe as a dance began around the 16th century on English sailing vessels...
melody.
History
The usual tune for this dance was first printed as the "College Hornpipe" in 1797 or 1798 by J. Dale of London. . It was found in manuscript collections before then - for instance the fine syncopated version in the William Vickers manuscriptWilliam Vickers manuscript
From 1770-2 a man called William Vickers made a manuscript collection of dance tunes, of which some 580 survive, including both pipe and fiddle tunes. The manuscript is incomplete - 31 pages have not survived, though their contents are listed at the beginning of the book...
, written on Tyneside, dated 1770
The Sailor's Hornpipe (also known as The College Hornpipe and Jack's the Lad) is a traditional hornpipe
Hornpipe
The term hornpipe refers to any of several dance forms played and danced in Britain and elsewhere from the late 17th century until the present day. It is said that hornpipe as a dance began around the 16th century on English sailing vessels...
melody.
History
The usual tune for this dance was first printed as the "College Hornpipe" in 1797 or 1798 by J. Dale of London. . It was found in manuscript collections before then - for instance the fine syncopated version in the William Vickers manuscriptWilliam Vickers manuscript
From 1770-2 a man called William Vickers made a manuscript collection of dance tunes, of which some 580 survive, including both pipe and fiddle tunes. The manuscript is incomplete - 31 pages have not survived, though their contents are listed at the beginning of the book...
, written on Tyneside, dated 1770 http://www.asaplive.com/archive/index.asp. The dance imitates the life of a sailor and their duties aboard ship. Sailors from the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
are believed to have invented the solo dance, as an exercise aboard shiphttp://jrssd.potts.net.au/dances/the_sailor's_hornpipe.htm>. Due to the small space that the dance required, and no need for a partner, the dance was popular on-board shipWhat are the origins of the sailor’s hornpipe? : Frequently asked questions : Maritime, sea & ships : Fact files & in-depth : Learning : NMM.
It is likely that the Sailor's Hornpipe was originally performed on the wet deck of a ship, in bare feet. Accompaniment may have been the music of a tin whistle
Tin whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, English Flageolet, Scottish penny whistle, Tin Flageolet, Irish whistle and Clarke London Flageolet is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is an end blown fipple flute, putting it in the same category as the recorder, American Indian flute, and...
or, from the 19th century, a squeezebox
Squeezebox
The term Squeezebox is a colloquial expression referring to any musical instrument of the general class of hand-held bellows-driven free reed aerophones such as the accordion and the concertina...
. Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
referred to it in his diary as "The Jig of the Ship" and Captain Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
, who took a piper on at least one voyage, is noted to have ordered his men to dance the hornpipe in order to keep them in good health. The dance on-ship became less common when fiddlers ceased to be included in ships' crew members.
In dramatic stage productions, from around the sixteenth century, a popular feature was a sea danceThe Sailor's Hornpipe | Online Information Bank | Research Collections | Royal Naval Museum at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. But the nineteenth century saw the more familiar form of the "sailors’ hornpipe" introduced. Nautical duties (for example the hauling of ropes, rowing, climbing the rigging and saluting) provided the dance movements.
In artistic and popular culture
Fantasia on British Sea Songs
Fantasia on British Sea Songs or Fantasy on British Sea Songs is a piece of classical music arranged by Sir Henry Wood in 1905 to mark the centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar. It is a medley of British sea songs and for many years was seen as an indispensable item at the BBC's Last Night of the...
.
John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known particularly for American military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of march composition, he is known as "The March King" or the "American March King" due to his British counterpart Kenneth J....
included the number as part of his "Jack Tar
Jack Tar
Jack Tar was a common English term used to refer to seamen of the Merchant or Royal Navy, particularly during the period of the British Empire. Both members of the public, and seafarers themselves, made use of the name in identifying those who went to sea...
March".
American composer Charles Ives
Charles Ives
Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original"...
quotes the tune in the "Washington's Birthday" movement in his A Symphony: New England Holidays
A Symphony: New England Holidays
A Symphony: New England Holidays, also known as A New England Holiday Symphony or simply a Holiday Symphony, is a composition for orchestra written by Charles Ives. It took Ives from 1897 to 1913 to complete all four movements. The four movements in order are:*I. Washington’s Birthday*II....
.
Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
does the traditional dance to this number at one point, as part of the opening number in the film, Duck Soup.
Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
dances to the melody during his debut appearance in The Wise Little Hen
The Wise Little Hen
The Wise Little Hen is a Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies cartoon, based on the fairy tale The Little Red Hen. This cartoon marked the debut of Donald Duck. Donald and his friend Peter Pig try to avoid work by faking stomach aches until Mrs. Hen teaches them the value of labor. This cartoon was...
(1934).
In the 1941 children's novel The Moffats
The Moffats
The Moffats is a children's novel by the American author Eleanor Estes.First published in 1941, it tells the story of a fatherless family in Cranbury, Connecticut: Mama, Sylvie, Joey, Janey and Rufus. Of these, Janey and Rufus tend to be the focus of the stories, which are episodic in nature...
by Eleanor Estes
Eleanor Estes
Eleanor Estes was an American children's author.She was born in West Haven, Connecticut as Eleanor Ruth Rosenfield.She worked as a children's librarian in New Haven, Connecticut, and New York....
, Joey Moffat is supposed to do the hornpipe in a dancing school recital. Overcome by stage fright, he can't remember the steps until a tiny lap dog -- formerly a sailor's pet -- hears the music and jumps into the center of the floor to take up the dance.
Jenny Linsky, the feline protagonist of Esther Averill's children's books about Jenny and the Cat Club, learns the Sailor's Hornpipe from her owner Captain Tinker. She does the dance and teaches it to other cats throughout the series.
The piece's opening melody is quoted in the Gilligan's Island theme song, "The Ballad of Gilligan's Island."
The tune was played in the animated Popeye
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, who has appeared in comic strips and animated cartoons in the cinema as well as on television. He first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929...
cartoons beginning in the 1930s, usually as the first part of the opening credits theme, which then segued into an instrumental of "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man".
The tune was played under the opening credits of the 1947 WB cartoon Buccaneer Bunny
Buccaneer Bunny
Buccaneer Bunny is a 1947 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Looney Tunes series, released in 1948, directed by Friz Freleng. It features Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam, the latter known in this picture as "Sea-Goin' Sam", a pirate. All voice characterizations in this cartoon are by Mel Blanc...
. The tune was played on the track and the dance was performed by Sylvester the cat in the 1948 WB cartoon Back Alley Op-Roar.
The tune framed the final track ("Symphony of the Seas") of the 1980s album, Hooked on Classics
Hooked on Classics
Hooked on Classics was a series of record albums first introduced in 1981, toward the end of the disco era's peak in popularity.Louis Clark, former arranger for Electric Light Orchestra, conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra playing a collection of very recognizable extracts from classical...
, Volume 3.
Mike Oldfield
Michael Gordon Oldfield is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature...
's Tubular Bells
Tubular Bells
Tubular Bells is the debut record album of English musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1973. It was the first album released by Virgin Records and an early cornerstone of the company's success...
. It was also the inspiration for the track "Moonshine" from his Tubular Bells II
Tubular Bells II
Tubular Bells II is the 15th music album by Mike Oldfield, released in 1992. The album - the first for his new record label, Warner Bros. Records, following an acrimonious departure from Virgin Records after twenty years - was conceived as a sequel to Oldfield's 1973 Tubular Bells...
.
In the Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
operetta "H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
", Sir Joseph Porter tells Ralph Rackstraw "All sailors should dance hornpipes. I will teach you one this evening". In their later operetta, Utopia, Limited
Utopia, Limited
Utopia, Limited; or, The Flowers of Progress, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was the second-to-last of Gilbert and Sullivan's fourteen collaborations, premiering on 7 October 1893 for a run of 245 performances...
, a slower version of the melody introduces "Captain Corcoran, K.C.B."
The song also appears in Disney's Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland (1951 film)
Alice in Wonderland is a 1951 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney and based primarily on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with a few additional elements from Through the Looking-Glass. Thirteenth in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film was released in New...
, sung with lyrics.
George Malcolm
George Malcolm (musician)
George Malcolm CBE was an English harpsichordist and conductor.Malcolm's first instrument was the piano, and his first teacher was a nun who recognised his talent and recommended him to the Royal College of Music. Malcolm went on to study at Balliol College, Oxford...
, 20th century English harpsichordist and conductor, wrote a harpsichord piece called "Bach before the Mast", a humorous set of variations on The Sailor's Hornpipe in the style of Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
.
Along with George Malcolm's piece, Keith Emerson
Keith Emerson
Keith Noel Emerson is an English keyboard player and composer. Formerly a member of the Keith Emerson Trio, John Brown's Bodies, The T-Bones, V.I.P.s, P.P. Arnold's backing band, and The Nice , he was a founder of Emerson, Lake & Palmer , one of the early supergroups, in 1970...
plays his own version of the tune on his solo album Honky - "a full-fledged rocking strut with a Caribbean twist" (Allmusic).
In the television show Futurama
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
, the jingle for Popplers is set to the tune of The Sailor's Hornpipe (Season 2 Episode 15: The Problem with Popplers
The Problem with Popplers
"The Problem with Popplers" is the 15th episode in the second production season of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on May 7, 2000.The title is a reference to the Star Trek: The Original Series Episode "Trouble with Tribbles", in which "tribbles" infest the USS Enterprise.-Plot:When...
).
This song plays during part of the ending in the Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
game Castle Crashers
Castle Crashers
Castle Crashers is a beat 'em up console video game independently developed by The Behemoth and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It features music created by members of Newgrounds. The Xbox 360 version was released on August 27, 2008 via Xbox Live Arcade as part of the Xbox Live Summer of Arcade...
.
Noel Rawsthorne
Noel Rawsthorne
Noel Rawsthorne was a pupil of Germani in Italy and Harold Dawber at the Royal Manchester College. He became Organist of Liverpool Cathedral from 1955 to 1980...
wrote a set of variations on the tune, "Hornpipe Humoresque", with apologies to Bach
Bạch
Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...
(a variation conflating the tune with the first movement of Brandenburg Concerto No. 3), Vivaldi (the first movement of "Spring" from The Four Seasons), Arne
Thomas Augustine Arne
Thomas Augustine Arne was a British composer, best known for the patriotic song Rule, Britannia!. He also wrote a version of God Save the King, which was to become the British national anthem, and the song A-Hunting We Will Go...
(Rule Britannia), and Widor (Toccata
Toccata
Toccata is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers...
from Organ Symphony
Organ Symphony
This page lists the best known Symphonies for solo Organ and Symphonies for Orchestra and Organ. Organ concertos are not listed here.- Edward Shippen Barnes :...
No. 5).
A whistled version of the melody is used by UK group Madness
Madness (band)
In 1979, the band recorded the Lee Thompson composition "The Prince". The song, like the band's name, paid homage to their idol, Prince Buster. The song was released through 2 Tone Records, the label of The Specials founder Jerry Dammers. The song was a surprise hit, peaking in the UK music charts...
on their 1985 hit "Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam (song)
"Uncle Sam" is a single by British band Madness from their 1985 album Mad Not Mad.The single spent 11 weeks in British charts peaking at number 21...
".
A segment of the melody is sung by Roger Jackson as the character Reginald Van Winslow in the first chapter of the Tales of Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island is a 2009 graphic adventure video game developed by Telltale Games and LucasArts. It is the fifth game in the Monkey Island series, released nearly a decade after the previous installment, Escape from Monkey Island. Developed for Windows and the Wii console, the game was...
video game, released in 2009.
The tune also features in the film The Warrior's Way
The Warrior's Way
The Warrior's Way is a 2010 fantasy action film starring South Korean actor Jang Dong-gun, Kate Bosworth, Geoffrey Rush, Danny Huston, and Tony Cox...
during a fight scene.
In "Ride the Roller Coaster" the Kidsongs Kids who are dressed up as pirates sing this song and rename it "A Pirate's Life is a Life for Me".
Recordings
This tune has been recorded by:- Mike OldfieldMike OldfieldMichael Gordon Oldfield is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature...
on Tubular BellsTubular BellsTubular Bells is the debut record album of English musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1973. It was the first album released by Virgin Records and an early cornerstone of the company's success...
(1973) and Tubular Bells 2003Tubular Bells 2003Tubular Bells 2003 is an album by Mike Oldfield, released in 2003. It is a complete re-recording of Oldfield's 1973 album debut Tubular Bells, which had been released 30 years earlier.- Background :...
(2003) - Achim ReichelAchim ReichelAchim Reichel is a musician, producer and songwriter from Hamburg, Germany. He is known for his 1991 single "Aloha Heja He", and serving as the frontman for the 1960s beat group The Rattles, who, among other achievements, were selected to open for The Beatles on the Fabs' last-ever tour of Europe...
as “Piratentanz” on Klabautermann (1977) - Quilty on A Drop of Pure (1995)
- Carlos NúñezCarlos NúñezCarlos Núñez is a Galician musician who plays the gaita, the traditional Galician bagpipe.-Life and career:Nuñez was born in 1971 in Vigo, Galicia, Spain. He began playing the bagpipes when he was eight years old. In his early teens, he was invited to play with the Festival Orchestra of the...
on Cinema Do Mar (2005) - Broadside ElectricBroadside ElectricBroadside Electric are an American electric folk band from Philadelphia. Formed in 1990, they are still active in 2011...
, on Black-edged Visiting CardBlack-edged Visiting CardBlack-edged Visiting Card is the title of the first album by Broadside Electric. It was released on December 1, 1992 in the United States.-Track listing:#New York Girls / Yoshke / Sailor's Hornpipe – 5:57...