The Fisher's Hornpipe

The Fisher's Hornpipe ~ Chestnut, Duple The Fisher's Hornpipe ~ Duple The Fisher's Hornpipe

The Fisher's Hornpipe is an American Country Dance. It was published by John Griffiths in 1788 in A Collection of the newest and most fashionable Country Dances and Cotillions, Norwich, CT. It was interpreted by Kate van Winkle Keller & Ralph Sweet in 1976 and published in A Choice Selection of American Country Dances of the Revolutionary Era. It is a proper Triple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

Griffiths published this dance in two booklets with slightly different wording in each.

Griffiths writes:

Cast off two couples, up again, lead down the middle, up again, and cast off one couple, cross hands at bottom, right and left at top.

Griffiths writes:

Cast off back — up again — lead down the Middle — up again and cast off one Co. — Hands cross at Bottom — Halfway — back again — right and left at Top.

Saltator writes:

First couple down the outside, back, down the middle, back and brise, six demicirinate, right and left at top.

The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.

The dance contains the following figures: cast, lead, hands across, rights and lefts, lead and cast, down the middle and back (and probably others).

If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.

If you wish to link to this animation please see my comments on the perils of youtube. You may freely link to this page, of course, and that should have no problems, but use one of my redirects when linking to the youtube video itself:
https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=FishersHornpipe

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1976 by Kate van Winkle Keller & Ralph Sweet. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2021 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
Creative Commons License My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.