The Hawk hornpipe

Thanks for posting this Jocklet. One of James Hill’s most famous hornpipes. Different versions have that 2nd bar of the B-part as |Ag/f/ec dcBA| or |Afdc dcBA| - I don’t know which one I prefer. Anyway, it was originally written in E major:

K:Emaj
(3Bcd|e2ge Begf|egfa gbag|f2af cfag|fedc BcdB|
e2ge Begf|egfa gbag|fefg aBcd|eBgf e2:|
|:(3BBB|Bbge Bafd|Ba/g/fd edcB|cBdc edfe|gfag f2fg|
abga fgef|dbca BgAf|defg aBcd|eBgf e2:|

This tune sounds like “Out on the Ocean” (joking) Actually, it sounds very much like “The Shetland Fiddler” https://thesession.org/tunes/97

The Shetland Fiddler is probably a corruption of the original hornpipe 🙂

Beginish recorded it as a reel. It seems they took it from John Doherty.

If you’re like me and you don’t like that ascending bit in the B-part, you do something like this:

|:B2|Bbge Bafd|Bged edcB|cBdB eBfB|gBag f2fg|
abga fgef|dbca BgAe|defg aBcd|eBgf e2:|

This is based on Joe Hutton’s setting, who had it slightly differently on the pipes:

|:B2|Bbge Bafd|Bged edcB|cBeB fBgB|aBag f2fg|
abga fgef|decd BcAe|defg aBcd|eBgf e2:|

…Except that he had it in D, and his pipes were tuned about a tone below concert so the whole thing came out in C.

Yamadasan, although this tune is more like a hornpipe the way the melody leaps about, it more often than not gets played fast and straight like a reel, since there are no strings of triplets. I think it works played both ways.

This is indeed the original of “The Shetland Fiddler”, which is a pipe version first published in 1954 by Donald Shaw Ramsay.

It begins a set entitled “The Bells Of St. Louis” on De Danann’s album “A Song For Ireland”.

Second tune! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr9IrXgfqVU

play video

Dr Dow’s Emaj version of this tune is a cracker for anyone from the highland pipe tradition trying to get to grips with a border pipe. Not only is it from the “right region” but it is full of loads of really awkward accidentals which are a real so and so for those of us who have never had to deal with such things before! I expect to be spending an awful lot of time staring at this page in the hope that one day I might produce a credible version of this tune and maybe to have developed my border piping in the process too.

This ‘hornpipe’ was actually written as a reel by the legendary fiddler James Hill and named after the pub in Gateshead where he lived. He also wrote a polka of the same name, which was recorded by Alistair Anderson many years ago (1978?) on his classic LP ‘Corby Crag’ (where I learned this information).

The pub was called “The Hawk Inn” and stood on Bottle Bank -

https://thesession.org/tunes/7429

From what I gather, he was the publican.

Wonderful recording by Northumbrian piper Andy May and his gang on CD “Andy May: Happy Hours” (2013?, Fellside FECD224; www.fellside.com). It’s part of the first track, which is simply labelled “Swearybox” but includes “The Hawk” as its second tune.

X:4
T: The Hawk
R: hornpipe
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K:Dmaj
|:A2|Aafd Agec|Afdc dcBA|BAcA dAeA|fAgf e2ef|
gafg efde|caBg AfGd|cdef gABc|dAfe d2:|
|:A2|Aafd Agec|Afdc dcBA|BAdA eAfA|gAgf e2ef|
gafg efde|cdBc ABGd|cdef gABc|dAfe d2:|

the alt 2nd parts in D transposed from Dows 3rd setting in E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rSy7TxzHrw

play video