Rickett’s (hornpipe) on The Session

Also known as The Aldridge, Bottom Of The Punch Bowl, The Manchester, Pibddawns Aldridge, Pibddawns Wrecsam, Ricket’s, Rickets, Ricketts, The Spanish, The Wrexham, Y Bibddawns Sbaenig, The Yarmouth.

Twelve comments

Manchester hornpipe

in swansea, it’s used to dance the gower reel, and phill tanner who dowdled the music for dancing, called the tune the liverpool hornpipe. the rest of wales calls in the wrexham hornpipe, (wrexham not being that far from liverpool)

variations were played in wales but under different names - the spanish hornpipe, seven, and the aldrige amongst others. the aldrige hornpipe is known in england but is a number of different tunes. also in england the tune is used by the bampton morris, in oxfordshire as a jig, called the fool’s jig. aldrige is near birmingham but mr aldrige was a dancer who had several dance tunes including hornpipes and allemandes composed for him in the eighteenth century

as if that weren’t confusing enough, there is another tune called the wrexham hornpipe in wales, which the people around that area in north east wales call the swansea hornpipe, which is near gower.

Leo Rowsome recorded this as the Manchester Hornpipe. It’s a common tune in American fiddling.

“Tro Llaw: A Collection of 200 Welsh Hornpipes”

Collected, edited and arranged by Robin Huw Bowen
National Library of Wales, 1987
ISBN: 0-907158-25-0

~ & those other names, as mentioned above, pages 47 & 48:

54.) "Pibddawns Wrecsam" / "The Wrexham Hornpipe"
~ & variants:
54a.) "Y Bibddawns Sbaenig" / "The Spanish Hornpipe"
54b.) "Saith" / "Seven"
54c.) "Pibddawns Aldridge" / The Aldridge Hornpipe"

“Rickett’s Hornpipe” / “Sailor’s Hornpipe” ~ a duplication from the future

Key signature: D Major
Submitted on March 15th 2007 by Falkbeer.
https://thesession.org/tunes/6947

With a few subtle differences ~
The Sailors Hornpipe #2 (~ ?)

R: hornpipe
K: D Major
|: (3ABc |
dcdA FAdf | edcB A2 fg | afaf bagf | edcB A2 fe |
dcdA FAdf | edcB A2 fg | afdg bgec | d2 d2 d2 :||
|: (3efg |
afaf d2 ga | bgbg e2 fg | afaf bagf | edcB A2 fe |
dcdA FAdf | edcB A2 fg | afdg bgec | d2 d2 d2 :|]

“Rickett’s Hornpipe”, and no, I don’t have ricketts

Colonial American Version of Rickett’s in F

I found this version of Rickett’s and Fisher’s Hornpipes on YouTube and transcribed Rickett’s for this posting.

See— http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjc4mSyBveo

play video

The above sample has is from an unidentified source of 17th colonial music with violin, flute and classical guitar. In keeping with the music of the times, it sounds more like Mozart and the barely resembles the version Rickett’s found on The Session or Fiddler’s Companion website.

If you imagine being dressed like George & Martha Washington (in a hoop skirt that covers a full square yard), who are attending a formal presidential ball, then the tune works well.

X:1
T:Rickett’s Hornpipe Colonial in F
C:Colonial America Version
M:2/4
L:1/8
K:F
%Colonial Version
f>c- cf/e/|dg/f/ ed/c/ | d>c-cB/A/|Gc/B/ AG/F/|
f>c- cf/e/|dg/f/ ed/c/ | dc-c=B | c2 z A|
B/c/ d/e/ f>f | g/a/ b/a/ g>f | gf fe | f2 z A |
B/c/ d/e/ f>f | g/a/ b/a/ g>f | gf fe | f3 z ||

‘it barely resembles the version’…
You couldn’t be more right! It’s not the same tune and a finer tune at that! Only the second part sounds like a hornpipe. So doees the second tune in the said set.

Bottom of the Punch Bowl is name of a different tune also

I played Rickett’s, Aldridges and bottom of the Punch Bowl since a kid in the fife and drum scene. I know a completely different tune for Bottom of the Punch Bowl. will post later if I can.

X: 5 = X: 4 from 2/4 to 4/4 and F to G

Despite the name, definitely no relationship to this hornpipe! :-/ I haven’t yet checked my ‘colonial American music’ sources, but am curious if they actually even share the same category, meaning ‘hornpipe’? For comparison’s sake I’ve moved X:4 to 4/4 and then transposed it to G. It should be in a separate entry. It’s nowhere near the same tune or even related distantly, which is more than just my opinion, see the entries above…

Off to California in D

I always found this one had a strong resemblance to Off to California. The melodic structure is, at least in my head, nearly identical for the two tunes.

The Sailor’s Hornpipe

An Irish flute tune I learned as a kid from a Mel Bay book

Re: The Sailor’s

This one seems to go under a lot of different names. It’s already here, but apparently not with the "Sailor’s" title: https://thesession.org/tunes/272

Rickett’s hornpipe

Six settings