Johnston’s hornpipe

I first heard this on a 78 by Will Starr, long before Frankie Gavin got his hands on it. Bobby Gardiner, however susequently made a great job of it.
Danny.

There’s a relase by Topic records called ‘Melodeon Greats’, a compilation of recordings of Scottish melodeon players from the 20s and 30s. It fetures one player, Peter Letham, playing a verion of this tune, under the name of ‘The Johnson Hornpipe’. It goes as follies:

M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: hornpipe
K: G
(3Bc^c|dBgd ^cgec|dBgd ^cgec|(3d^cd fe d^c=cB|A^GAB A2Bc|
dBgd ^cgec|dBgd ^cgec|(3d^cd fe d^c=cB|A^GAB G2:|
:F2|EFGA BGEB|cBFB BGEG|(3FGF B,2 (3FGF B,2|FB,^DF BAGF|EFGA BGEB|cBFB BGEG|FB,^DF B3c|BAGF E:||

Joe Derrane recorded a Showman’s Fancy medley on a 78 in the early 50s, with the title tune/Johnston’s/Star of the East. I just found a dub in the Comhaltas Archives of an earlier 78 of Louis E Quinn & His Shamrock Minstrels playing Derrane’s medley, with Louis taking a solo on Johnston’s on the accordion.

Does anybody actually have the album that this transcription came from “Snug In The Blanket”? It’s all in the liner notes. Paddy O’Brien composed the additional parts from the first recorded version. I believe, from Peter Wyper. I don’t think it was Peter Letham.

“This tune is normally played with two parts. For this recording, Paddy composed three more pars. In its original state, the tune has been especially favoured by old-time melodeon players, and was set down from time to time on 78rpm recordings.”

It is recorded in Cmaj/Amin on “Snug in the Blanket” ..

Peter Carbery has a lovely Bm setting of the tune on Music from Co Longford. This is a lovely CD. Here’s how I play the tune on my flute, which is pretty much as Peter plays it:

X: 1
T: Shepherd’s Daughter, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K:Bm
B3d BAFA|BE~E2 BE (3F^GA|B2dB BAF=G|AD~D2 AD (3FGA|
B2dB BAFA|BE~E2 F2FE|DEFA Bcde|fdec d2cd||
Beec d2cd|Beed BAFA|Beec d2cd|BdAB dAFA|
Beec d2cd|Beef gefd|Beec d2cd|BdAB dA (3FGA||

The third part in X:1 is not part of the tune as recorded by Peter Leatham (and yes, the tune appears in a “hornpipe medley” by Peter Leatham, not Peter Wyper, on “Melodeon Greats”).

It is in fact the third part of a tune recorded by John and Julia Clifford on “Humours of Lisheen” with the somewhat improbable title of “Freddy Kimmel’s” (and which sounds more like a barn dance than a hornpipe) . It appears that Frankie Gavin stuck it onto “Johnson’s” for the De Dannan recording.

What is a setting of Shepherd’s Daughter doing under Johnston’s hornpipe? 🙂

This tune was written by paddy hayes from piercestown, wexford and was originally transcribed in Cmaj. It has 4 parts! 🙂

sorry not written by paddy hayes but has 4 parts. 🙂

This tune easily predates Paddy Hayes.

This tune can be found in Luke O’Malley’s Collection (1976) under the title “Saint Johnston’s” (and in the key of E flat).

Can anyone tell me what name Will Starr had for this tune? Interesting that it is sometimes called Saint Johnston’s which could suggest that it came out (or came to be known) from someone associated with Perth or Perthshire. I believe it’s also on a Lad O’ Beirne recording, though not sure what he called it.

Seems to be “The Johnston Hornpipe” in this long biography/obituary of Will Starr here, and refers to him playing it in 1945 or 6.
As a side issue, it is quite common for Scots to pronounce both Johnson and Johnston the same way, i.e. without the T in the second version, hence possibly the differences above.

Oops, here’s the link now! (where did the edit button go?)
http://boxandfiddlearchive.weebly.com/will-starr.html

“it is quite common for Scots to pronounce both Johnson and Johnston the same way”

Not for me, although it’s inevitable to get mixed up with the spelling, of course.
“Johnson” means Son of John whereas “Johnston” refers to John’s Town. I think “Johnstone” is just a variation of “Johnston”?

This is a 4 part version of Johnstone’s hornpipe as played by Tom Ferris and earlier by George Ross from Wexford town. I would expect that Paddy Hayes playing it with 4 parts as mentioned above came from the same source (since Paddy was originally from Piercestown just a few miles outside of Wexford). The extra 2 parts have been attributed I believe to Paddy O’Brien although it may have been George Ross either as George added additional parts to other tunes. I’ve not notated triplets using the (3 ABC as I find that when the music is replayed using midi it didn’t sound like the boys ‘snapped’ their triplets.

Scottish recordings:
The renowned Leith melodeon player James Brown (1880-1919) recorded this tune as “Johnson” in 1909 in a set with “The High Level”. Peter Wyper of the Lanarkshire Wyper Brothers recorded it in 1913, while his brother Daniel released it in 1926 with “The Star” hornpipe and “Millicent’s Favourite”. Peter Leatham from Musselburgh (1885-c1920) recorded it in 1920 along with the “Jessie Smith” hornpipe. Will Starr’s recording is from 1945, again with the “High level” and also “Harvest Home”; he recorded it again in 1954 with the “Trumpet Hornpipe” and the “Violetta Hornpipe”.

In addition, Jack Williams, the “North of England Champion” melodeon player recorded it in 1913. In all of the above it is spelled “Johnson”.

Thanks for that input. I’ll make sure that it will be listed as “Johnson’s” in the Wexford tunes/versions material that I’m compiling.