- Style
- Old-time
- Tradition
- American fiddle
- Form
- Hornpipe
- Key
- D
- Level
- 3
- Played on
- Fiddle
In the public domain. Source
Music
80bpm
Click any note to start from there
Chord chart
History
John Bill Ricketts (1769 to 1800) ran the first circuses in America. He came over from England in 1792 and took his show to Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Montreal and other cities, and he is said to have danced hornpipes standing on a galloping horse. His Philadelphia circus burned down in December 1799.
The tune is older than its name. It first appears in Alexander McGlashan's Collection of Scots Measures (Edinburgh, 1781) as "Danced by Aldridge," after the Irish dancer Robert Aldridge, and in Britain it was mostly called "Manchester Hornpipe" or "Yarmouth Hornpipe."