More Background on Hornpipes

The Whistle Player’s Hornpipe
The Whistle Player’s Hornpipe is 24” long and plays in the key of D, one octave below flutes and ‘low’ whistles in D, with a gorgeous dark tone reminiscent of the human voice or clarinet. But since it accommodates whistle and flute fingering and ornaments, it ends up sounding quite unlike anything else you’ve ever heard. The single reed is held directly in the mouth where it can be manipulated, giving The Whistle Player’s Hornpipe a range of tonal expression and volume variability (dynamics) not available on whistle and flute. And if you become good at over-blowing, you can play in a higher register that sounds amazingly like the uilleann pipe chanter. Listen to Port na bPúcaí. With circular breathing, used by many didgeridoo and reed players, you can sound a continuous tone as on the bagpipes. To go on to ordering, click here.

It’s History
The Whistle Player’s Hornpipe traces its origins into the dim mists of Celtic history, and even prehistory. Early reed-pipes have been found in megalithic, Bronze and Iron Age tombs and references suggest that reed-pipes were played in 5th and 6th century Ireland. In his presentation on hornpipes to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1950, L.G. Langwill concluded:

Brought to the British Isles with the Celtic immigration, the [hornpipe] survived for a time in those regions in which Celtic blood has held its own.

Listing the instruments of ancient Ireland, piper and Irish-music-historian Breandàn Breathnach notes:

The cuisle cheoil, musical pipe, as the name indicates, was a pipe or tube of narrow bore. It was probably made of cane or hollowed wood and sounded by having a tongue or slit cut into it to form a single reed.
Breathnach, Breandàn, Folk Music and Dances of Ireland Cork & Dublin, The Mercier Press, 1971. p. 6

The famous authority on ancient instruments of the British Isles, Canon Francis Galpin, went on to say:

It is possible that [the hornpipe] is the instrument which is represented on the sculptured Irish cross at Durrow, erected about the year A.D. 1000.
Galpin, Francis W. Old English Instruments of Music. London, Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1969. p. 128

The Whistle Player’s Hornpipe shares the basic characteristics of the instruments described above, the only differences being in dimensions and in the materials used. It is believed that primitive forms of the hornpipe were played all over the ancient world since time immemorial. In his definitive paper, The Old British “Pibcorn" or “Hornpipe” and Its Affinities, Henry Balfour states that this type of instrument is “probably one of the earliest invented of wind instruments.”(Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 20, 1891, p. 143) This opinion is echoed by Breandàn Breathnach. (Breathnach p. 6)

Throughout its history, the hornpipe has often been associated with shepherds. These shepherds sometimes entertained themselves by step-dancing while playing their instruments. Thus, the hornpipe gave its name to a type of dance, which then gave its name to the kind of tune played for that dance.

In 1794, the famous Scottish poet Robert Burns described in detail a hornpipe he had acquired and which was at the time considered typical in the Scottish Highlands:

I have, at last, gotten one… It is composed of three parts; the stock, which is the hinder thigh-bone of a sheep… the horn, which is a common Highland cow’s horn… and lastly, an oaten reed exactly cut and notched like that which you see every shepherd-boy have when the corn-stems are green & full grown… The ‘stock’ has six, or seven, ventiges on the upper side, & one back ventige… This of mine was made by a man from the Braes of Athole, & is exactly what the shepherds wont to use in that country.
Robert Burns in George Emmerson’s Rantin' Pipe and Tremblin' String
Montreal, McGill - Queen’s Press, 1971. p.183.

Galpin recounts:

… as we were informed by an aged Welsh peasant many years ago, the tibia of the deer… was considered the best material for the tube of the Pibcorn [Welsh for hornpipe]. (Galpin, p. 127)

The early Irish may have agreed, for he goes on to describe what he believed to be an old Irish hornpipe made from the bone of a deer and preserved in the National Museum in Dublin. (Galpin p. 128)

By the early 19th century, the hornpipe (píobcorn in Gaelic) had become extinct throughout Ireland and Scotland.

Until Now...
The Whistle Player’s Hornpipe has arrived! The Whistle Player’s Hornpipe is so called because it is a new version of the ancient Celtic hornpipes designed specifically for Celtic “session” whistle and flute players. It’s doubtful that the old hornpipes were ever this large and played this low. The trade in hinder thigh-bones, deer tibiae and Highland cow horn not being what it once was, the modern materials of polished aluminum, sterling silver and polymer resins are used, ensuring precision in tuning and playabilty, extremely low maintenance and a striking appearance.

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