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 and their associated tunes, played and danced in Great Britain and Ireland and elsewhere from the 16th century until the present day. The earliest references to hornpipes are from England, with Hugh As ...
melody and linked dance with origins in the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
.
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 to 1772 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 liste ...
, written on Tyneside, dated 1770.
Due to the small space that the dance required, and no need for a partner, the dance was popular on-board ship.
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys ( ; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English writer and Tories (British political party), Tory politician. He served as an official in the Navy Board and Member of Parliament (England), Member of Parliament, but is most r ...
referred to the dance in his diary as "The Jig of the Ship" and
Captain Cook
Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 1768 and 1779. He complet ...
, 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.
During the
Last Night of the Proms
The BBC Proms is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Robert Newman founded The Proms in 1895. Since 1927, the ...
in London, when the tune is played as part of
Sir Henry Wood
Sir Henry Joseph Wood (3 March 186919 August 1944) was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introducing hundr ...
's ''
Fantasia on British Sea Songs
Fantasia on British Sea Songs or Fantasy on British Sea Songs is a medley of British sea songs arranged by Sir Henry Wood in 1905 to mark the centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar. For many years it has been an indispensable item at the BBC's La ...
'', the spectators bring miniature
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. ...
and
party horn
A party horn (also known as a party blower or noisemaker) is a horn (instrument), horn formed from a paper tube, often flattened and rolled into a coil, which unrolls when blown into, producing a horn-like noise. It is not consistently known b ...
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 E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.I'm Popeye the Sailor Man".
Recordings
This tune has been recorded by:
*
Mike Oldfield
Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is an English retired musician, songwriter and producer best known for his debut studio album ''Tubular Bells'' (1973), which became an unexpected critical and commercial success. Though primarily a gu ...
on ''
Tubular Bells
Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the Percussion instrument, percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillons, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the soun ...
'' (1973) and ''
Tubular Bells 2003
''Tubular Bells 2003'' is the 22nd studio album by English musician Mike Oldfield, released on 26 May 2003 by Warner Music Spain. It is a digital re-recording of his 1973 album '' Tubular Bells'', released almost 30 years earlier. This is the ...
'' (2003)
* Achim Reichel as "Piratentanz" on ''Klabautermann'' (1977)
*
Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma (born October 7, 1955) is a French-born American Cello, cellist. Born to Chinese people, Chinese parents in Paris, he was regarded as a child prodigy there and began to study the cello with his father at age four. At the age of seven, ...
,
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 seven Grammy Awards and been nominated ten times.
Meyer is a member of the Telluride Bluegrass ...
, and
Mark O'Connor
Mark O'Connor (born August 5, 1961) is an American fiddle player, composer, guitarist, and mandolinist whose music combines bluegrass, country, jazz and classical. A three-time Grammy Award winner, he has won six Country Music Association Mu ...
The Spotnicks
The Spotnicks were an instrumental rock band (music), group from Sweden that formed in 1961. They were known for wearing "space suit" costumes on stage (theatre), stage and for their innovative electronic guitar sound. They released 43 albums.
Hi ...
as "Bach Goes to Sea" in 1963
*
The Tornados
The Tornados 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 hits in their own right, including ...