“Fisher’s Hornpipe” is one of the most widely circulated fiddle tunes in the British Isles and North American traditions, with its origins in late-18th-century England. The tune was composed by James A. Fishar, a dancer, ballet master, and musical director at London’s Covent Garden in the 1770s, and was first published in 1778 as “Hornpipe #1” in his collection Sixteen Cotillons, Sixteen Minuets, Twelve Allemands and Twelve Hornpipes.
The tune spread quickly. A few years after the first London publication it appeared in England under the alternate title “Lord Howe’s Hornpipe” (in Longman and Broderip’s 5th Selection of the Most Admired Dances, c. 1784) and in Scotland in Neil Stewart’s Select Collection. In the Shetland Islands it crossed traditions further, played as a reel for dancing the Shetland Reel rather than as a hornpipe.
“Fisher’s Hornpipe” crossed the Atlantic with the broader transmission of British Isles fiddle music to North America and settled into the American old-time, bluegrass, and contradance repertoires. It remains one of the most-played tunes at sessions and jam circles where Anglo-Celtic and American traditions overlap, and continues to be a staple of fiddle-contest and stage repertoire across both sides of the Atlantic. The tune’s clean two-part structure and memorable opening phrase make it a natural workshop piece for fiddlers and flatpickers learning the hornpipe idiom.
