musical memories of chris langan - Comhaltas Archive

JAMES HILLTHE HORNPIPE KINGKevin McCann, NewfoundlandWhenever a group of traditional musiciansget together for a session andplay hornpipes it is on the rare occasionindeed that one or more of James Hill'scompositions are not played. A few ofthe tunes which come to mind would be"The High Level Bridge", "The LowLevel Bridge", "The Beeswing", "TheHawk", "The Steamboat" hornpipesand many others, all of the highestquality. I believe that a history of thistalented fiddler and composer will be ofinterest to all players of and listeners totraditional music.Before I begin the story of this intriguingcharacter some information regardingthe hornpipe is in order.The hornpipe was a primitive doublereed instrument dating from around the13th century. The dance and its relatedmusic came to have its maritime associationsaround the middle of the 18thcentury.As many ships companies carried aresident fiddler , music was readily availablefor dancing, thus providing a muchneeded form of daily exercise.Much of the even-rhythmical passageworkcoincided with the style of thereel, but the dotted rhymic characteristicof so many hornpipes were alater mid-19th century innovation andbecame extremely popular in Ireland.There is a marked differentiation intempo between even and unevenrhythm hornpipes. The former, usuallyplayed in Scotland are generally playedat .J - 104 - 11 2 whereas the latterplayed mainly in Ireland tend to themore relaxed .J - 69 - 76.When perusing any collection of Irishtraditional music one is immediatelystruck by the extremely high quality ofthe hundreds of hornpipes therein e.g. inO'Neill's or Cole's Collections.One wonders who the composerswere who produced such marvelloustunes. Were they pipers, harpers orfiddlers? Whoever they were they weremusic men of unusual ability for there isan exquisite melodic quality in manyAn unknown Tyneside fiddler c. 1860 from the archives of P. M. Lows & Son, photographersNewcastle upon Tyne. Could this be James Hill?hornpipes that can equal many airs,classical or traditional.Who could beat, or even equal suchgreat tunes as "The Belfast", "TheDerry", "Chief O'Neill's Favourite","Dwyers", and many others far toonumerous to name here.For every composer of hornpipesknown to us there are scores of greathornpipe composers totally and foreverunknown to us whose melodies will bewith us as long as a hornpipe is playedor danced.Composers of fine hornpipes knownto us are Ed Reavy , Sean Ryan, JamesScott Skinner, Paddy Kelly, PaddyFahey and last but not least James Hillof Newcastle, Northumbria, aboutwhom a fair amount is known and manyof whose compositions have lasted tothis day and can still hold their ownwith the best of them.JAMES HILLJames Hill was one of the foremostfiddlers on Tyneside during the mid-19th century. He is also celebrated asthe composer of numerous tunes,mostly hornpipes of which I will givemore details later on.By looking through the list of tunesit can be seen that many are named9