The Biddlestone

hornpipe

Key signature: Gmajor

Submitted on November 7th 2006 by nicholas.

This tune has been added to 8 tunebooks.

X: 1
T: Biddlestone, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: hornpipe
K: Gmaj
|:D/|G>d B>G F>A D2|E>G c>e d>B G>B|(3cde (3ABc (3Bcd G>B|1 A>B A>G F>A d>:|2 e>c A>F G2 G||
|(3d/e/f/ |g>d B>d f>a d2|(3efg c>e d>B G>B|(3cde A>c (3Bcd G>B|A>^c e>g f>d e>f|
g>d B>g f>a d2|(3efg c>e d>B G>B|(3cde (3ABc (3Bcd G>d|e>c A>F G3|

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

The Biddlestone Hornpipe

A Northumbrian tune by the great Northumbrian piper Billy Pigg, who composed several others. (He died in 1968.) I find it hard to imagine it going quite as well on an instrument other than the Northumbrian pipes, but I like the tune and others out there might as well.

# Posted on November 7th 2006 by nicholas

The Biddlestone Hornpipe

The first part's played through TWICE, in the usual dance tune manner - my notation erred ( as usual), so the midi only plays the first part once.

# Posted on November 7th 2006 by nicholas

The Biddlestone hornpipe

Nice hornpipe. Whats a biddlestone ?

# Posted on November 7th 2006 by cruiser

Biddlestone

It's a hamlet in Coquetdale, Northumberland (UK) where Billy Pigg lived for some time. He learned the pipes young; he worked on the buses; later he worked as a shepherd; he had a heart attack, and it's really after that that he devoted himself to playing. There is a farm there - I assume Billy worked and / or lived on it, but don't know for sure. Ancient Monument map-script indicates "Biddle Stones" - they must be stones positioned or inscribed by early people.

# Posted on November 7th 2006 by nicholas

True origin of the "Biddlestone"

In ancient times in Northumberland there used to be a custom of inscribing the name of the village's most hated person onto a stone. Every man on his way home from a night's drinking would have to "biddle" on the stone to show their disrespect for that person and whatever atrocity they had committed, e.g. adultery. Some women would even biddle on the stone when nobody was looking. The word "biddle" is an old dialect word for "widdle" ("biddle" is the older form; as time passed the hard "b" plosive came to be pronounced with the lips slightly apart, and this sound eventually became the "w" we know today).

# Posted on November 8th 2006 by Dow

Another definition of "Biddlestone"...

Well, noxious, I nearly put down the following, which I now present:
"HA! Well, a biddle-stone was a round stone about two inches in diameter, which had to be swallowed by the loser in a Northumbrian drinking bout. If it wasn't passed in the normal manner within a week and returned to the landlord, the unfortunate carrier would be banned from the only pub in thirty miles, while the landlord eagerly awaited his demise and the subsequent autopsy..."

# Posted on November 8th 2006 by nicholas

Biddlestone Hornpipe - each part's played through once only, acc. tunebook

According to the Northumbrian Pipers' Second Tune Book where my reference to the tune resides, each part is down to be played ONCE only -that's what caught me out transcribing it. That cancels my above comment that the first part was to be played twice...(though it needn't stop people playing each part 47 times if they really want to...)

And now to try and find out what "Biddlestone" REALLY means...

# Posted on November 8th 2006 by nicholas

...I haven't found what "biddle" means, but I gather there's a stone circle there.

# Posted on November 8th 2006 by nicholas

I wouldn't want to swallow one of these biddlestones
http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://rockart.ncl.ac.uk/images/rockart/thumbs/Biddlestone.gif&imgrefurl=http://rockart.ncl.ac.uk/panel_images.asp%3Fpi%3D656&h=79&w=71&sz=1&hl=en&start=26&tbnid=Zaz0Pc54G2dHjM:&tbnh=73&tbnw=66&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbiddlestone%26start%3D18%26ndsp%3D18%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN
Lovely tune though

# Posted on November 9th 2006 by McMandolin

Biddlestone Hornpipe

Nicholas, I have a transcription of this with the parts played twice. If played only once, it sounds too flingy, so I think that might be a mistake in the NP tunebook. Here's how I have it:

# Posted on May 8th 2007 by Dow

A couple of little typos in there. Anyway, here's one without the swing notation:

# Posted on May 8th 2007 by Dow