The Great Exhibition hornpipe

Another classic hornpipe by the great James Hill.

I like to think the connection might have been James Nasmyth’s giant steam hammer used to drive the piles in for Stephenson’s New High Level Bridge in 1850, the machine being featured in the Great Exhibition of the following year.

Or the thousands of Geordies that must have crossed the bridge on the journey down to London to see the marvels of 1851.

Thanks for putting this on. I’d forgotten all about it. It’s lovely, at least ‘I’ think so anyway. I’ve been digging out some of what I call the ‘older’ favourites recently and so this will join them. I’ll probably try it in a set with "Redeside Hornpipe" and "The Bees Wing".

I think Hill died in 1853, so he was around for the furore of the Great Exhibition.
Called simply The Exhibition, this tune was played by Northumbrian piper Billy Pigg and recorded on the album of his playing "The Border Minstrel". Hill’s tunes were still being played out in the sticks a century after his death, while Newcastle was about to get into R & B and become ‘The Tyneside Delta’.

Fantastic tune! This one’s been printed in F also (I’ve taken out swing notation):

X: 1
T: Great Exhibition, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: hornpipe
K: Fmaj
ce|fcaf cfAc|cBdB G2cB|Acfe dgba|(3gaf (3efd cbag|
fcaf cfAc|cBdB G2cB|AfcA Bbge|g2f2 f2:|
|:AB|cdef gceg|fAcf acfa|g2ba gfef|(3gaf (3efd cbag|
fcaf cfAc|cBdB GdcB|AfcA Bbge|g2f2 f2:|

A different, slightly less choppy and more flowing version shows up in the manuscript of William Hall Lister:

X: 1
T: Great Exhibition, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: hornpipe
S: William Hall Lister ms. (1840-1860)
K: Fmaj
AB|c=Bcd cfac|cBdB G2cB|Acfe dgba|(3gaf (3efd c2AB|
c=Bcd cfac|cBdB G2cB|AfcA Bbge|g2f2 f2:|
|:AB|cdef gcde|fefg acfa|g2ba gfef|(3gaf (3efd c2AB|
c=Bcd cfac|cBdB GdcB|AfcA Bbge|g2f2 f2:|

I added some corrections to bars 4-5 of the B-part, which in the real manuscript are |(3gaf (3efd cbag|cBcd cfac|