Paul Davenport

The ‘Quintessentially English Tune’: An investigation of ‘cut-time’ hornpipes with particular reference to those in the Joshua Burnett Ms. circa 1841

by Paul Davenport [South Yorkshire]

Regarded as a ‘sailor tune’ and derided by some as merely ‘a simple folk melody’ the hornpipe remains a living musical form. The melody has qualities which make it at once both, strangely exotic and also, as fiddler Dave Shepherd puts it, ‘quintessentially English’. This paper investigates the genre, its ancestry and the current health of this melodic type. Reference is made to the early 19th century collection of linen weaver and fiddler, Joshua Burnett of Worsbrough near Barnsley in South Yorkshire. Analyses of how these tunes are conceived and played in tradition will be presented and the underlying structures of the melodies will be discussed.

CV: Paul Davenport is Head of Music at Maltby Comprehensive School, Rotherham, South Yorkshire. Paul has been playing traditional fiddle music since the late 1960s, firstly for Morris and latterly at various festivals and sessions. Studied for M.Mus. at Sheffield University with a thesis on 'The Blind Fiddlers of Sheffield 1790 – 1850'. Has done extensive fieldwork in the East Riding of Yorkshire where he discovered the previously undocumented traditional dance custom known as 'Vessel Cupping' or 'Plew Ladding'.

This extinct morris dance tradition has spawned a number of new teams. During the 1990s Paul published a number of tunes from manuscript in the two volume, 'South Riding Tunebook' as well as a book of traditional songs which he collected and collated. For three years, whilst Nationally elected member on the National Council, acted as editor of 'English Dance & Song', the magazine of the English Folk Dance & Song Society. Currently Paul is Chairman of the South Riding Folk Arts Network based in Sheffield and runs the South Riding session as well as playing for Maltby Phoenix Sword Dancers with his students at school.