Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

The Acrobat

hornpipe

Key signature: Dmajor

Submitted on August 29th 2004 by gian marco.

This tune has been added to 57 tunebooks.

Also known as Acrobat, Acrobat's, The Acrobat's , The Acrobat's, Nightingale, The Nightingale.

Recordings of a tune by this name:

An Historic Recording Of Irish Traditional Music by Paddy Canny, P.J. Hayes, Peader O'Loughlin, Bridie Lafferty
Bad Turns And Horse-Shoe Bends by Harry Bradley
Bridging The Gap by Kevin And Sean Moloney
Continental Reel by Birkin Tree
Flea Ceoil by Various Artists
From Both Sides by Niamh Ni Charra
Gander In The Pratie Hole by Carlos Plumley And Mike Herr
High Rock And Low Glen by Dab Hand
Instrumental by The Dubliners
Island Eddy by Island Eddy
Live In Concert by Brid Harper And Dermot Byrne
Magnificent Seven by Blazin' Fiddles
Music Of A Champion by Brendan McGlinchey
Portrait Of A Scottish Fiddler by Alasdair Fraser
Regrouped by Boys Of The Lough
Selection Box by Conor McCarthy And Alph Duggan
Shame The Devil by Turlach Boylan
Swarbrick 1 by Dave Swarbrick
The Kitchen Recordings by Sean O'Driscoll And Larry Egan
The Luck Penny by Seamus Bugler
The Nightingale (And Other Lesser Spotted Tunes ...) by Josephine Keegan
The Parish Platform by Rattle The Boards
The Reel Of Tulloch by Doug MacPhee
The Wansbeck Piper by Pauline Cato
Traditional Irish Music From County Clare by Eamon Cotter
Traditional Music From The Glens Of Antrim by Leo Brown And PJ Hill
Under The Diamond by Liz And Yvonne Kane

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

X: 1
T: Acrobat, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: hornpipe
K: Dmaj
AG|:FAde fdba | (3gec (3gec c'2c'b | a^g=ge cc'ba | ^gaba fdAG |
FAde fdba | (3gec (3gec c'2c'b | a^g=ge cc'bc |1 d2f2 d2AG :|2 (3dcd f2d2 ed ||
| cefe c'a^ga | fdfa d'b^ab | ^ge^de f2g2 | (3ac'b (3a^gf e2 (3fed |
cefe c'a^ga | fdfa d'b^ab | ^ge^de f2g2 |1 (3aba ^g2 a2ed :|2 (3aba ^g2 a2=g2||

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Source: Eamon Cotter : Trad Irish Music from Co clare
Transcription: gmp
Note: Version for Flute ( the original is in Bb )

# Posted on August 29th 2004 by gian marco

The Acrobat in G

# Posted on August 29th 2004 by gian marco

The Acrobat in Bb

# Posted on August 29th 2004 by gian marco

Yay! A proper hornpipe!

# Posted on August 30th 2004 by Dow

Dow
What actually makes a hornpipe qualify in your eyes, for being 'proper'???
I knew you had a thing about how they should be played also.....sorry not supposed to mention that.

# Posted on August 30th 2004 by Donough

LOL, I was just stirring, but seriously, put simply, for me a hornpipe should sound stupid if you try and play it as a reel. And the thing about how they "should" be played, well, I just think it makes a great topic for a right good old argument. Most Irish musicians are more than happy to take the bait when I start on about it, even if they know I'm just winding them up.

# Posted on August 30th 2004 by Dow

And now he pitches the ball....

Dow, "proper" is relative to what kind of music you're playing.

# Posted on August 30th 2004 by Phantom Button

The Acrobat

Anyone know who wrote this?
Its a stage hornpipe written for theatrical performance in vaudeville/music hall. These have a distinctive feel regardless of whether they were written in Dublin, London, Newcastle or America. They are generally crowd pleaserscos that's what they were meanttobe and they are sometimes quite difficult as they were to be played by virtuosi.
Noel

# Posted on August 30th 2004 by noelbats

And now he knocks it for six

Jack, you're right. It's relative to whether I want to play good music or not :-D

# Posted on August 30th 2004 by Dow

I understand it must be really dificult to play Irish style on a Brit-Box, Dow. Get an anglo and it will seem easy and natural. : ¬ ]

# Posted on August 30th 2004 by Phantom Button

If by "Irish style" what you mean is "the style in which these would have been played in Ireland for stage clog dances" then that's perfectly achievable on the English concertina. If by Irish-style what you mean is how most Irish musicians play stage hornpipes these days, then I wouldn't particularly want to try and emulate it anyway :-P

# Posted on August 30th 2004 by Dow

BTW This is really nice to play in Bb on the English. Might be a challenge for the Monkey-Box though Jack. You'll have to clean all that dust that's collected in your Bb accidental due to underuse :-D

# Posted on August 30th 2004 by Dow

Bb eh... how anti-social. You must be one of those guys who shows up at sessions and plays in odd keys so that everyone is forced to sit and listen to your solo. It doesn't surprise me much that a Brit-Box would facilitate anti-social behavior though... comes with the territory I guess. : ¬ P

# Posted on August 30th 2004 by Phantom Button

Yes I know it was originally in Bb by the way... but it originated in vaudeville/music hall theaters. Audience attention is key in those settings.

# Posted on August 30th 2004 by Phantom Button

You're the one who likes sessions to be public performances, not me, remember?

Play in Bb in a session, now would I do a thing like that? Especially if there's a monkey-box player there. I wouldn't want them to feel jealous of my accidentals.

I've just lost twice at draughts on your website. Bloody stupid game anyway :-)

# Posted on August 30th 2004 by Dow

I never said I "like sessions to be public performances." My point was that the ones that happen out in public are public performances by circumstance. I don't consider my personal participation as a "public performance," but I do acknowledge that the public perceives it as such. Misquoting people is a slippery downhill slope, Dow... careful now.

By the way... I'm sitting at the other end as your opponent when you're playing draughts at my site. ;-)

# Posted on August 30th 2004 by Phantom Button

The Acrobat

This is on Alasdair Fraser's Portrait of a Scottish Fiddler and listed as "trad." It's also in the Scottish Fiddlers' Session Tune Book from Taigh Na Teud in, uh, Bb, with no composer listed. Not definitive, but maybe the composer's lost in time -

# Posted on August 31st 2004 by cj

The Acrobat

Also recorded by Alie Bain in the first LP of Boys of the Lough, in the original key.

# Posted on December 17th 2004 by Beheader

Wrong

This is not on "The Boys of The Lough's" 1st LP - look up the track listing I posted. I think it was on a much later recording, possibly "Regrouped"

# Posted on December 17th 2004 by Kenny

Written by James Hill. Name lad that wrote The Wonder, The High Level and many other great tunes.

# Posted on June 13th 2005 by tompipes

I don't think it was.

# Posted on June 14th 2005 by Dow

'Attributions' ~ some say this, others say that...

I've heard Scott Skinner blamed for this one, as well as James Hill, and even that P.T. Barnum of circus fame has something to do with it's naming, supposedly using it as a theme for his 'acrobats', though I've as yet to see that confirmed. There is a tune by this name in Kerr's Merry Melodies, but it’s not the same melody... It is also said that it is an 'adaption' of the Clog "The Nightengale" (both tunes are in "Ryan's Mammoth Collection", 1883), but it is a damned site different, and not just the key signature. In Ryan's it is listed "As performed by G.L. Tracy." My guess from the bits of scraps flying about with regards to this and Mr. Tracy, George Lowell Tracy, 1855-1921, 'composer', ‘arranger’, etc., that if anything it might be classed as Mr. Tracy's...and why not, eh? It has a bit of the ‘operetta’ about it.

Mr. Tracy was hired by Gilbert & Sullivan and the producer Rupert D’Oyly Carte to arrange and publish their operettas for the Americans. Mr. Tracy has had his name associated with a number of fine tunes, some information on that can be found at Nigel Gatherer’s fine site, a place where the name of the originator, ‘Gatherer’, and the results are worthy of much respect, hail the chief, one of several:

http://www.nigelgatherer.com/

# Posted on June 27th 2005 by ceolachan

Oh yes, pride of place for Mr. Tracy ~ Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

# Posted on June 27th 2005 by ceolachan

Acrobatics on Irish harp

Maire Ni Chathasaigh actually performs this on the Irish harp, retuning just about every other note as she plays for the chromatics. It's awesome and she brings the house down with it every time. Truly an "acrobatic" feat!

# Posted on April 9th 2007 by Dargason

Is the sheet music available in Bb?

I first heard this in Bb on an old 78 recording of Winston Scotty Fitzgerald in Cape Breton.

# Posted on January 5th 2008 by mactcampbell

"The Acrobat's" ~ history repeating itself (see gm's 3rd comment)

# Posted on January 5th 2008 by ceolachan

Fiddler's Companion ~ Andrew Kuntz (A-part: Bb Major / B-part: F Major)

http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/
Acrobat's Hornpipe
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/ABER_ACT.htm#ACROBAT'S_HORNPIPE_[1]

ACROBAT'S HORNPIPE [1]. AKA ‑ "Acrobat's Clog," "The Nightingale." American, Irish; Hornpipe. B Flat Major ('A' part) & F Major ('B' part). Standard. AABB (Cole, McNulty, Mulvihill): AA’BB (Cranford). This tune was called "The Nightengale" until P.T. Barnum began using an adapted version as a theme for his circus acrobats. The attribution "As performed by G.L.Tracy" appears in Ryan’s/Cole’s. George Lowell Tracy (1855-1921) was a young man who later composed light opera and composition books, according to musicologist Charles Wolfe. Evidently Tracy arranged music as well, for one publication from the 1880’s indicates a Sir Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert and Sullivan fame) work was arranged by him. "Can be used as a Clog" (Cole). Perhaps the earliest recording is from 1905 by violinist Charles D’Alamaine, born in 1871 in England, who died in 1943. D’Alamaine immigrated to the United States in 1888, and by 1890 had established himself as “instructor on violin” in Evanston, Illinois; by 1910 he had removed to Yonkers, and in 1920 was a chiropractor in New York City (info. from Paul Gifford). ~

# Posted on January 5th 2008 by ceolachan

Acrobat's hornpipe

There's a really good version in Bb on one of Winston Scotty Fitzgerald's LPs. I think that Paul Cranford reproduced it on one of the Classic Cuts CTs. Does anyone know where one can get the sheet music for the Bb version?

# Posted on August 25th 2008 by mactcampbell