hornpipe

hornpipe English folk dance known since the 16th cent., when it obtained its name from the wind instrument that accompanied it. The hornpipes of the 17th and 18th cent. have moderate 3-2 time and 4-4 time. As a solo dance it was popular with sailors, who performed it with folded arms and numerous gestures and steps. The hornpipe appears in the works of Purcell and Handel.

hornpipe, in its maritime sense a dance once popular with seamen. It was originally an old solo dance, danced three-in-a-measure to the Celtic instrument known as a hornpipe. However, by the beginning of the 18th century, when its maritime popularity began, it was changed to two-in-a-measure. Its adoption as a dance for sailors was purely fortuitous, as it previously had no maritime associations.

hornpipe. The word has 2 meanings: (1) An obsolete instr., consisting of a wooden pipe with a reed mouthpiece (a single ‘beating’ reed), and, at the other end, a hn. as ‘bell’. Common in the Celtic parts of Brit.(2) A dance once popular in the Brit. Isles only, to which that instr. was orig. the usual acc. Properly a solo dance; earlier examples of the mus. are in simple triple time, but by the end of the 18th cent. this had changed to simple duple. This dance was later chiefly kept up by sailors. Purcell, Handel, and others wrote hornpipes.