Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Leo Rowsome - Hornpipes

Irish bagpipes solo, Decca F6254. The Manchester is an alternate name for Rickett's Hornpipe; also available on this site is the recording of Rickett's by piper Tom Ennis. Leo's version is faster, more free flowing perhaps, although both sound like good dancing music if the dancer were OK with the tempos (not the case these days). The Honeysuckle seems to have been a popular tune with old Dublin pipers such as Jim Brophy, whose playing of it was transcribed in a recent issue of the US publication Iris na bPíobairí/The Pipers' Review, the journal of the US Pipers' Club/Cumann na bPíobairí Uilleann.

More of Leo's 78 RPM recordings may be heard on the CD "Classics of Irish Piping" on the Topic label. Leo's 50s LP Ri Na Bpiobairi (The King Of The Pipers) has also been reissued on CD. Walton's has published an excellent book of Leo's transcriptions, the Leo Rowsome Collection of Irish Music.

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