The Stage (hornpipe) on The Session

Also known as Coleman’s Hornpipe #1, Cumann .na .tSúgairí, Cumann Na Sugairead, Cumann Na Súgairí, Merrymaker’s Club, The Merrymaker’s Club, The Merrymakers Club, The Norfolk, The Omnibus, The Swaggerers’ Club.

Ten comments

Another version of The Stage Hornpipe is to be found in Norbeck’s collection, with a note that it is from a performance by Paddy Glackin. This posted version however is from an old collection which I am unable to identify. A feature of this version is the unusual succession of four Scottish snaps in the 7th bar of part A.

trevor

Stage Hornpipe

James Kelly has a great solo version of this on the LP/CD "Is It Yourself", although he has a job getting it started! One of my favourite Irish albums of all time.

The Omnibus

“The Omnibus” ~ by James Hill / “The Norfolk Hornpipe”

"The Norfolk Hornpipe" as played by Tommy Peoples

He takes it in the same order and not far from the transcription given by Dow just previously. A transcription and recording of him playing this can be found here:

"Fifty Irish Fiddle Tunes"
Arranged and Played by Tommy Peoples
Soodlum’s / Walton’s, Dublin, 1986

“The Merrymaker’s Club” ~ “O’Neill’s Music of Ireland”, 1903 #1775

“The Stage Hornpipe” ~ courtesy of “The Fiddlers Companion”

"The Fiddler’s Companion" ~ Andrew Kuntz
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/

STAGE HORNPIPE [1], THE. AKA and see “Kielder Jock’s,” "The Merrymaker’s Club,” “The Norfolk Hornpipe" [2],” “The Omnibus.” Irish, Hornpipe. G Major. Standard. AABB.

The melody was composed as “The Omnibus” by the 19th century Tyneside fiddler-composer James Hill, famous for his hornpipe compositions. “The Stage” was published in the Newcastle Courant in 1882.

Stage hornpipes were danced on stage for some one hundred and fifty years, although their heydey was in the latter half of the 18th century when several performers made their reputations dancing various hornpipes. They were still regularly performed between acts in plays as late as 1840 or 1850 (Kidson). A distanced version of Hill’s “Stage Hornpipe” tune was recorded in New York 1927 by the renowned County Sligo fiddler Michael Coleman (1891-1945), paired with “The Western Hornpipe.” Coleman was an accomplished step dancer as well as a master fiddler and actually danced a stage hornpipe in the 1920’s while simultaneously playing the instrument, when he was hired as an entertainer on a tour of Keith’s Theaters.

“Music of Ireland, Volume Two” Bulmer & Sharpley

😏 ~ a few bits loosely influenced by the playing of Tommy Peoples

The Stage

X:6 from Michael Coleman, who popularized this tune.

Re: The Stage

Cumann na Súgairí or "The Club for Merrymakers" might have been location of "The Stage" in question. The word Súgaire pronounced "soogareh" is the origin of the Anglo Gaelic slang word "swagger." In Irish, the word means "a droll person, merry and tipsy." Cumann na tSúgairí might be more correct.

The Stage hornpipe

Six settings