The Omnibus hornpipe

Jack “Kielder Jock” Davidson was a Northumbrian fiddler from the late 1800’s. This is one of my favourite hornpipes. The setting is from the playing of Kathryn Tickell, so it’s probably not fiddle-friendly as it is. It appears to be a version of “The Stage” with the parts reversed, but I prefer this tune. During my time playing in Irish sessions, I’ve been astonished how little time gets devoted to hornpipes since there are so many reels for people to learn. I’ve heard people play them in sessions, and they never sound right. They never flow nicely enough, and people make heavy weather of the triplets. If you want to learn how to play hornpipes properly, try pretending they are slides played slightly faster, and you’ll find that the triplets become part of the tune rather than a jumble of notes.

Aye you’re right, not sso many hornpipes are played well, but hornpipes are different depending on where they come from.North-eastern (ie Northumbrian) horpipes are very spikey and Irish and Appalachian hornpipes are pretty flat. scots and Quebecois hornpipes seem to fall in between. The syncopation of the Newcastle Hornpipe style is based on its use for clog dancing.Iunderstand that it was the same for stage (ie music hall/ vaudeville) hornpipes.
NoelJackson
Angels of theNorth

Apparently “The Stage” is a James Hill tune originally entitled “The Omnibus”, but with the parts reversed, so Jack Davidson’s setting is presumably an early version. See “The Stage” for more settings: https://thesession.org/tunes/1249.

= “The Omnibus Hornpipe” by James Hill
Key signature: G Major
Submitted on December 24th 2002 by lazyhound.
https://thesession.org/tunes/1249

Other transcriptions and information can be found in the ‘Comments’ for the earlier submission…this one being the duplication ~ but this title and order of parts being in history the origin of it all… 😉