strathspey@strathspey.org:45392

James Tween

Re: Reels and Hornpipes

May 26, 2006, 3:25 p.m. (Message 45392, in reply to message 45390)

The way hornpipes and reels are played in the SCD style, there is no real 
difference to me and I'd happily mix reels and honpipes in a set of tunes, 
or dance a reel to a hornpipe track, or vice versa.  There are three paces 
of dance -- reel, jig or strathspey -- and they may vary in speed, and 
straths may be slow airs or more Highlandy, but there are only really these 
three.

A hornpipe in Scottish step dancing, Irish, Welsh and English traditions is 
usually most like a Highland-rhythm strathspey.  It typically has a dotted 
rhythm -- 4/4 with bars split into dotted quaver / semiquaver -- but does 
not have the reverse comibnation (semiquaver - dotted quaver) as you find in 
a lot of bouncy straths.  In the English ceilidh style, most hornpipes are 
danced slower with a step-hop step, and is about the same speed as a decent 
paced Highland strath, and if we've ever had nights with English ceilidh 
dancers doing SCD, they often find it easy to think of a strath as a 
hornpipe.  Saying all that, you can get hornpipes with straight, undotted 
rhythms, but they are usually played at the same kind of steady pace.

When I catalogued a load of SCD CDs, I just grouped hornpipes with reels.

I wonder if any of that makes sense.

- James -