London Lock-in Tunes No 26 – Two English hornpipes – Iron Legs, The Sportsman's

Описание: For Day 26 of recording I have two English hornpipes, played relatively "straight" as opposed to the swing rhythm you normally get in Irish hornpipes. (Not always of course.) So the contrast is fun to explore.

Iron Legs (which according to Pete Cooper is possibly a corruption of Iron League) is an upbeat happy tune that lends itself to harmonic variation. The contrast with the darker Sportsman's hornpipe means that the order of the tunes can be swapped depending on the mood and effect you want to create.

I got these tunes from Pete Cooper, as I have so many, and I believe he put these together, showing again that he really has a talent for putting together fantastic sets.

I want to dedicate these tunes to Mary Gallagher (Travers) of Westport, and her lovely family. She is a family friend and music teacher originally from Ballyshannon in Donegal. She is open-minded and open-hearted in every sense, but especially when it comes to music. Needless to say, she is a great musician. She's been following the tunes and I think she'll get a kick out of these ones which might be fun to do on the concertina.

Incidentally, I'm playing them in standard tuning (A=440Hz). This is unremarkable except for the fact that I often play a half-tone down (or A=415Hz) because I love the warm and resonant sound of my fiddle in that tuning.

I hope you enjoy them Mary, and I can't wait to come home to play a few new tunes with you again!