On 10/12/10 Colin Hill wrote:
Nice to (be) reminded that they are, after all, dance tunes and not attempts at a world speed record. :-) Hello Colin Very true, but different dances call for different tempos. Hornpipes are used for a variety of dances including the clog as linked. They are also used at a faster tempo for step hop dances such as Drops of Brandy (I'm talking Northumberland here not Scotland) and Nottingham Swing and then even a tad faster for the likes of Canadian Barn Dance. The trick is to use the best tune for the job. Most hornpipes can be paced to suit the clog tempo (about 66 bpm) but the tunes that best suit clog are the ones with a fair few triplets such as The Navvie On the Line, The Friendly Visit, The Quarrelsome Piper etc. It's interesting that the melodeon player added a few triplets of his own to help the dancer along and match the steps. The tune he used, The Underhand (Redesdale), is a tune that also works in its undecorated state at the step hop tempo (about 96 bpm). In fact for me it feels at its most musical somewhere between the two tempos. We do of course have famous hornpipes such as Shield's Hornpipe which became the Morpeth Rant sitting fairly happily at 106 bpm. Likewise, Roxburgh Castle and Hesleyside Reel work both as hornpipes and rants. I do agree that the trend to rattle through reels at, say, 128 bpm is unsatisfying. Even the old (Scottish dancing) guideline tempo, for reels, of 116 bpm has been lowered to 106 bpm to give the dancers time to make more of the steps. As aye Anthony -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
