Durang's Hornpipe

The tune is named for John Durang (1768 to 1822), from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, often called the first American dancer. In his memoir Durang wrote that a Mr. Hoffmaster, a German dwarf musician, composed it for him in New York in 1785, a year after Durang's stage debut. Around 1790 he claimed to dance a hornpipe blindfolded on thirteen eggs without breaking one.

Durang later staged pantomimes for John Bill Ricketts's circus, the Ricketts of "Rickett's Hornpipe." The tune shows up in American musicians' manuscripts from the early 1800s and has kept its name almost everywhere. Marion Thede thought it was named for Ferdinand Durang, but Samuel Bayard and others showed it was John.