The Sailor's Hornpipe (also known as The College Hornpipe and Jack's the Lad) is a traditional
hornpipe
The hornpipe is any of several dance forms played and danced in Britain and Ireland and elsewhere from the 16th century until the present day. The earliest references to hornpipes are from England with Hugh Aston's Hornepype of 1522 and others ...
melody and linked dance with origins in the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
.
History
The tune was first printed as the "College Hornpipe" in 1797 or 1798 by J. Dale of London. However, versions of the tune are found in earlier manuscript collections – for example, a syncopated version in the
William Vickers manuscript
From 1770-2 a man called William Vickers made a manuscript collection of dance tunes, of which some 580 survive, including both pipe and fiddle tunes. The manuscript is incomplete - 31 pages have not survived, though their contents are listed at t ...
, written on Tyneside, dated 1770.
The hornpipe dance imitates the life of sailors and their duties aboard ship. Due to the small space that the dance required, and no need for a partner, the dance was popular on-board ship.Samuel Pepys referred to this tune in his diary as "The Jig of the Ship" and
Captain Cook
James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and ...
, who took a piper on at least one voyage, is noted to have ordered his men to dance the hornpipe in order to keep them in good health. The dance on-ship became less common when fiddlers ceased to be included in ships' crew members.
In dramatic stage productions, from around the sixteenth century, a popular feature was a sea dance. But the nineteenth century saw the more familiar form of the "sailors' hornpipe" introduced. Nautical duties (for example the hauling of ropes, rowing, climbing the rigging and saluting) provided the dance movements.
During the
Last Night of the Proms
The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert H ...
foghorns
A foghorn or fog signal is a device that uses sound to warn vehicles of navigational hazards such as rocky coastlines, or boats of the presence of other vessels, in foggy conditions. The term is most often used in relation to marine transport. Wh ...
and
party horn
A party horn (also a party blower, party pipe, party elephant, party blowout, noisemaker, party whistle, party honker, ta-doo-dah, noise popper, birthday kazoo, whizzer, blow tickler, tongue kazoo, or party snake) is a horn formed from a paper ...
s and blow them along to the music, creating a loud, frenetic finale as the music reaches its fastest speed.
The tune was played in the animated ''
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.I'm Popeye the Sailor Man".
Recordings
This tune has been recorded by:
*
Mike Oldfield
Mike may refer to:
Animals
* Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum
* Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off
* Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and document ...
on ''
Tubular Bells
Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillon, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the sound of church bells within a ...
'' (1973) and ''
Tubular Bells 2003
''Tubular Bells 2003'' is the 22nd studio album by English musician Mike Oldfield, released on 27 May 2003 by Warner Music Spain. It is a digital re-recording of his 1973 album '' Tubular Bells'', released almost 30 years earlier. To date, this ...
'' (2003)
* Achim Reichel as "Piratentanz" on ''Klabautermann'' (1977)
*
Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma ('' Chinese'': 馬友友 ''Ma Yo Yo''; born October 7, 1955) is an American cellist. Born in Paris to Chinese parents and educated in New York City, he was a child prodigy, performing from the age of four and a half. He graduated from ...
,
Edgar Meyer
Edgar Meyer (born November 24, 1960) is an American bassist and composer. His styles include classical, bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz. He has won five Grammy Awards and been nominated seven times.
Meyer is a member of the Telluride Bluegras ...
, and
Mark O'Connor
Mark O'Connor (born August 5, 1961) is an American fiddle player and composer whose music combines bluegrass, country, jazz and classical. A three-time Grammy Award winner, he has won six Country Music Association Musician Of The Year awards ...
The Spotnicks
The Spotnicks were an instrumental rock group from Sweden that formed in 1961. They were known for wearing "space suit" costumes on stage and for their innovative electronic guitar sound. They released 43 albums and sold more than 18 million recor ...
as "Bach Goes to Sea" in 1963
*
The Tornados
The Tornados (The Tornadoes in North America) were an English instrumental rock group of the 1960s that acted as backing group for many of record producer Joe Meek's productions and also for singer Billy Fury. They enjoyed several chart hi ...