Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

The Belfast

hornpipe

Key signature: Dmajor

Submitted on May 15th 2001 by Jeremy.

This tune has been added to 178 tunebooks.

Also known as Millicent's Favourite, Sailor's Delight, Sweep's, The Sweep's.

Recordings of a tune by this name:

A Drop Of Pure by Quilty
A Tribute To John McKenna by Mick Woods
Aislinn (A Vision) by The Celtic Jazz Collective
Ceol Tire by Lynn Saoirse
Champions Of Ireland: Flute by Grainne Kelly And Ciaran Madsen
Champions Of Ireland: Mandolin by Marina Meyler
Feenish Legacy by Marcus Hernon And Padraic Coyne
Foinn Seisiun 3 by Ennis/Dublin Session Group
Folktrax-173: Willie Clancy And Bobby Casey by Willie Clancy And Bobby Casey
Gerry MacFadden by Gerry McFadden
Give Us Another by Joe Derrane
Goldfiddle by Matt McGranaghan
Highland Mandolin by Dagger Gordon
If We Don't Help Them Now by Pol Mac Adaim
Instrumental by The Dubliners
Irish Traditional Music (on Uilleann Pipes, Hammered Dulcimer, Fiddle, Flute And Whistle) by Lynn Saoirse
King Of The Melodeon Men by Jimmy Shand
Leo Rowsome: Classics Of Irish Piping by Leo Rowsome
Milltown Lass by Rose Murphy
Old Time Irish Music In America by Terry Teahan And Gene Kelly
The Bunch Of Keys: The Complete Recordings Of Johnny Doran by Johnny Doran
The Floating Bowhand by Jim McKillop
The Gathering by Lynn Saoirse
The Legendary Down Home Recordings by Lynn Saoirse
The Master Pipers Volume 1 by Johnny Doran
Time For A Tune With Charlie Lennon by Charlie Lennon
Tom McHale: All Ireland Whistling Champion At Boyle by Tom McHale
Traditional Dance Music Of Ireland by Lynn Saoirse
Traditional Music On The Hammer Dulcimer by John Rea
Whistle O'er The Lave O't by Alex Green
Whistle Wizardry by Vinnie Kilduff

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

This is a supremely silly sounding hornpipe. It's a lot of fun to play once you get the hang of it jumping all over the place.

The last part (which always sounds to me like somebody falling down the stairs) is usually played with triplets all the way through. In other words, instead of just playing FGEF, you would play FGF EFE; instead of playing DECD, you would play DED CDC, etc. If you do this for the entire run-down, the result is pretty funny. Get used to playing it as it's shown here first, before attempting to put in all those triplets.

# Posted on May 26th 2001 by Jeremy

Harvest Home

The Belfast sounds really good if you play Hrvest Home after it - I also slip in Boys of Bluehill sometimes. They go together as if they were meant to. I think this is how James Galway played them, but that can't be helped!

# Posted on August 26th 2002 by Nutty Nessie

An Oldie But a ...

Doesn't sound silly to me at all. A really popular tune of yesteryear, overplayed and fell out of favour, I'd say. Certainly would be helped by a better setting than the one on offer here - the run down in triplets being standard in most of the sources where I've heard it over the years.

In many places a set consisting of this tune along with Harvest Home and the Boys of Bluehill (and sometimes, god forbid The Trumpet!) are usual. If you ask me this is one of the reasons these tunes are out of favour. As a set they are monotonous and too long. As individual tunes they are gems. Oh well.

# Posted on April 6th 2006 by kris

Too Much Hornpipe?

This is a very hornpipe-y hornpipe. I imagine followed by Harvest Home (another very characteristic hornpipe), it would sound nice, but adding Boys of Bluehill and the Trumpet is probably just too much hornpipe! Not to mention too much D Major... I prefer to change up the old set and play Dunphy's after The Belfast... It's a nice little tune, and it isn't as overplayed as Harvest Home. Plus the key change into G gives it some contrast and fills out the set. Both are really good for playing for dancers, and if you need to keep playing longer, you can add Boys of Bluehill after Dunphy's.

# Posted on September 28th 2006 by fiddlechick13

The Belfast Hornpipe

Here's how it's played in our local sesh. Whistle players seem to like it, though it's hard to get around the campy C part. Seems designed to please the punters, less so the musicians. One of our whistle players hauled this out a few years back in a session with Ged Foley, and Ged's comment at the end was, "I didn't know anyone actually played that one."

X: 1
T: Belfast, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: D
ag|:f/a/f df AdFA|DFAd f/g/f ef|gbeg ceAF|GABG E2 ag|
f/a/f df AdFA|DFAd f/g/f ef|gfed cABc|1 d2 f2 d2 ag:|2 d2 f2 d2 D/E/F||
GFGA Bcde|fgfe dcdB|A2f2 fe f2|G2 e2 ed eF|
GFGA Bcde|fgfe dcdB|Afed cABc|1 d2 f2 d2 D/E/F:|2 d2 f2 d2 ag||
f/g/f e/f/e d/e/d c/d/c|B/c/B A/B/A G2 ba|g/a/g f/g/f e/f/e d/e/d|c/d/c B/c/B A2 ag|
f/g/f e/f/e d/e/d c/d/c|B/c/B A/B/A G/A/G F/G/F|Eged cA A/B/c|d2 f2 d2 ag:||

# Posted on October 27th 2006 by Will CPT

If you find this tune difficult to play, you're probably not playing it as it was originally meant to be played. Of course it's your choice how you want to play it, but if you want to make life easier for yourself, do the following:

1) Slow down
2) For every bar, count "1, 2, 3, rest"
3) Even out your triplets and don't rush them as implied in the transcription above
4) Don't emphasize the 3rd beat of every bar otherwise it's going to sound "campy", as Will puts it
5) Imagine you're playing in 12/8, like this:

# Posted on May 8th 2007 by Dow

If you do that then you have the space to do stuff with it, like vary it with some more triplets, like this:

# Posted on May 8th 2007 by Dow

James Hill?

I know this may sound blasphemous, but does anyone else think the Belfast sounds a bit James Hill-ish? Would anyone know who composed it?

# Posted on July 1st 2007 by Key Maniac Lad

You know how I hate agreeing with you, KML, but I think you're right. It's definitely in the same style, and the tune was around during his lifetime. I wouldn't be surprised if someone discovered that he'd written it.

# Posted on April 3rd 2008 by Dow