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Category Archives: Hornpipe

Boys of Bluehill (D)

This hornpipe, “Boys of Bluehill,” or “Buacailli Ua Cnoc-Gorm” in Irish, is a session favorite. Our old friend Chief O’Neill reported that the melody was unknown to Chicagoland Irish musicians until he transcribed it from the playing of a seventeen year old fiddler named George West, a gifted musician suffering from penury and without his own […]

Kansas City Hornpipe (D)

The Kansas City Hornpipe was written around 2007 by Fred Morrison on his return trip from the MHAF Winter Storm piping event and workshop held in Kansas City, MO – which is a rapidly growing workshop attracting octopus wrestlers from many and sundry places. Apparently, Morrison was headed home with some others from the workshop and became […]

Madame Bonaparte (G)

This is a very basic setting of the hornpipe Madame Bonaparte.  The tune is sometimes played as a reel for set dances (and so flattened out a bit), but more commonly played as a hornpipe in sessions. It’s also played in A as well as G.  According to the Fiddler’s Companion, the tune is named in […]