DHDS

John Playford and
The English Dancing Master 1651

Abstracts

That againe: An exploration of the formulaic sequences in early English Country Dance

Jennifer Kiek

Comparatively little is known about the long period of development of the English Country Dance preceding Playford's 1651 publication, and it behoves us to examine carefully what tantalising few clues we have. The formulaic sequences - Lead up a D. forwards and back, Sides, Armes, with the associated set and turne S, - are a well-known feature of many of the dances included in The English Dancing Master. The steps used, deemed to require explanation in the book, clearly relate to the fundamental step-units of European aristocratic dance as recorded from the fifteenth century onwards. Certain movement sequences coalesced into the characteristic pattern with an esoteric terminology of such currency that further clarification was apparently deemed unnecessary. These sequences will be explored with particular reference to the English manuscript sources known collectively as the Inns of Court Manuscripts. Finally, a consideration of the nature and function of these sequences in the choreographies may indicate a possible context for their performance and thereby may also suggest a possible origin for this group of country dances.

A Missing Link: the Double Step in The English Dancing Master 1651

Anne Daye

Playford's publication of The English Dancing Master in 1651 is of major significance as the first printed record of English dance, and the first record of the English genre of country dancing. Important as this recognition is, the document's value as the only record for dance in mid-seventeenth century Europe must also be asserted.

Dance scholars are aware of a profound change in social dance technique and repertoire between c. 1600 (the 'Late Renaissance' style) and c. 1700 (the 'Baroque' style), with sufficient documentation available at either end of the century to support a good understanding. However, no other practical handbook or theoretical treatise exists for the mid-point of the century, to throw light on the process of transition from one major dance system to the other. This paper will propose that sufficient evidence lies within The English Dancing Master to trace some features of the major change, particularly in the relationship of the core step, the double, to the musical phrase. This relationship was of prime importance in the dance aesthetics of the early seventeenth century, and was referred to as measure' in English.

The paper will consider John Playford's sketchy account of the Double Step in the light of information on the double step in the Late Renaissance style, and its equivalents in the Baroque pas de bourrée and fleuret. It will also discuss the richer information on the relationship of the double step to the musical phrase provided by Playford's method of laying out the dance instructions beneath the strains of music.

In the absence of any theoretical writing on the subject, the main research method is practical reconstruction. This reveals both a remarkable consistency in the relationship of the double step to the musical phrase (concordant with the Late Renaissance system of measure) and the inadequacy of this double step in the execution of many figures. It is also noted that many of the dance instructions make no reference at all to the double step. Reconstruction reveals a serious ambiguity in the role of the double step in the dances of 1651. The paper will argue that this ambiguity is related to the transition from the Late Renaissance system to the Baroque system, and that The English Dancing Master provides evidence of the co-existence of the two. It is therefore argued that the document is an invaluable record of an important European cultural phenomenon.

The English Dancing Master 1651: John Playford's Accidental Misprints

Jeremy Barlow

The music in The English Dancing Master, printed with movable type, contains many mistakes. The second edition, published a year later and called The Dancing Master, claims on its title-page to have been 'Corrected from many grosse Errors which were in the former Edition'. Yet plenty of new mistakes are introduced, and some of the corrections are apparently trivial.

The paper investigates possible reasons for the misprints and puts forward the theory that some were necessitated by a shortage of certain characters in the fount of Playford's printer Thomas Harper.

The Dancing Master, 1651-1728. An Illustrated Compendium. An On-Line Resource for the Analytical Study of English Country Dances

Robert Keller

The entire run of The Dancing Master (1651-1728) contains the music and verbal instructions for over 6,200 dances with many duplicates and near duplicates. In his "The Assembly" (1985), Tom Cook attempted to bring some order to this mass of information by studying each dance, extracting its salient features, and then creating a hand index of the dances by title and by progression type. His sharing of "The Assembly" with me on the other side of the pond motivated me to, first, understand what he was doing, and then to apply computer technology to the problem of analysis of English country dance.

My project carries Tom's work into the electronic age and then permits extensive analysis of the dances as well as making the contents of The Dancing Master available to everyone in the world to see freely on the Internet. In cooperation with the English Folk Dance and Song Society and the Country Dance and Song Society, it will soon be part of the resources available at the University of New Hampshire on the website of the New Hampshire Library of Traditional Music & Dance.

The Dancing Master 165]-] 728. An illustrated Compendium is a database containing information from all editions of The Dancing Master as published by John Playford, Henry Playford and John Young. The Dancing Master eventually encompassed 1,053 unique dances and music. Many were copied from one edition to the next so that the entire contents, with duplicates, amounts to 6,217 dances, including 186 tunes without figures and three songs. This data was collected and put into the database with a graphic image of each unique or "Ur" dance and tune. The figures for every dance were reduced to a code enabling comparison with similar dances.

The subsequent analysis brought dances with similar titles and/or music together as well as showing which dances were recycled under different titles completely. Using the recorded data we can also analyze how figures evolved or changed over the seventy-two years and twenty-four editions. Some of the most interesting aspects that can be traced are the changes in form from set dances for a fixed number of dancers to longways for as many as will. Other changes come in: shape such as lines with partners opposite or at the sides, or squares and rounds; progression, such as none, to the bottom and back, down one, or cross-over. The waning of the "USA" figure (up a double, siding, and arming) can be precisely tracked as well as the introduction of specific honors, triple minor sets, improper formations, and new figures such as "right and left" and "poussette."

Circling the Square: The country dances of Thomas Bray

Diana Cruickshank

The connection between Thomas Bray and the Playfords is tenuous but perhaps real enough. Although Bray's collection was printed by William Pearson, it was "Sold by Mr. Plaiford. at the Temple Change, Fleet Street". It is also possible that Bray was closely connected with the publication, by Henry Playford, of the Second Part of the Dancing Master in 1696. Many of the dances in that collection are not only similar in construction to Bray's but are also identified as being from plays of that period. Thomas Bray dedicated his Country Dances Being a Composition Entirely New to Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, in 1699. The first part of the book presents twenty country dances, each given with their music now presented for the first time in both treble and bass parts.

This paper, and the associated demonstration, will look at Bray's consummate use of pattern in country dances and present a brief analysis of the figures he uses. Although many of these are recognizably the standard figures to be seen in the country dances of the late seventeenth century. Bray's treatment of them is considerably more elaborate. Most of the dances are quite unusual if not unique in their patterning. An analysis of the patterns shows that Bray possessed a remarkable ability to manoeuvre the standard figures of the longways country dance formation to produce startling results. Not only does he use concentric circles to considerable effect but his particular speciality, which I have termed 'circling the square', reveals Bray as an outstanding choreographer within the country dance idiom. The theatricality of many of his dances is also obvious. Even a simple dance like Brave's Magott (No. 11) possesses an extra dimension by its unusual presentation of two otherwise simple figures, the hey and the poussette. Bray's use of lines, both longways or across the set, his occasional use of diagonal patterns and his outstanding use of concentric circles provide a visual drama not often seen in the standard country dance.

Bray was both dancer and dancing master and worked as dancer and choreographer in the theatre, often working with visiting professional dancers from France. Several of his country dances use music from - and may well have been created for - works like Purcell's indian Queen, 1695, Dryden's Amphitryon, 1690. for which Purcell wrote the incidental music, and Motteux' The Island Princess, 1699, the music for which was composed by Jeremiah Clarke. It is therefore possible that quite a number of the dances in this collection were composed specifically for performance in or at the end of these and similar works. It is clear that many of them are of sufficient complexity to preclude their being danced at a ball or an assembly without some considerable preparation on the part of the dancers.

Country Dancing in the French Style 1700-1730

Ann Kent

Short discussion of the French appropriation of English country dances, by Feuillet (Paris, 1706) and Dezais (Paris, 1712), and their subsequent return home via the translation of Feuillet into English by Essex (London, 1710). The importance of all the above, in their descriptions of steps generally used for country dances, the inclusion of diagrammatic floor patterns, and other specific steps from the French baroque dance repertoire as described in Rameau (Paris, 1725) and Tomlinson (London, 1735). Brief look at the few references in Playford as to the use of steps in the dances.

Framing One's Own Fortune: Hogarth's 'Analysis of Beauty' and the Country Dance in Comic Drama

Annie Richardson

Hogarth's 'Analysis of Beauty' (1753) proposed an alternative to existing definitions of beauty. This paper considers why he chose to illustrate his theory with the country-dance. He disagreed with philosophical treatises which equated perception of beauty with the judgement of morality, and separated operations of taste from appetite, in the face of efforts by influential philosophers to represent humans as basically motivated by self-interest. The paper argues that contemporary comic drama and its use of the country dance provided Hogarth with an alternative arena of discourse on beauty. In dramas, the country dance generally accompanies a declaration of successful courtship or the display of female beauty to a suitor. It is a metaphor for the complexity of the intrigues initiated by characters seeking financially advantageous and/or sexually exciting liaisons. Its choreographed complexity also symbolises the skills of playwrights in representing modern urban life. Hogarth certainly celebrated the beauties of the country dance for their own sake, as spectacles offering his key aesthetic pleasures of variety, intricacy and serpentine curvature; as an aesthetic of the urban picturesque for a socially inclusive public. When we examine the country-dance in literature, we find it has further connotations useful for Hogarth's alternative position: its association with moral ambivalence, with lives created not through existing positions in the social and gender hierarchy, so much as actions initiated through appetite and interest.

Long Division and the Circle Squared: 'How the Quadrille and Couple Dances came to supplant the English Country Dance in the Ball repertoire of the Nineteenth Century

Ellis Rogers

This paper will investigate how at the beginning of the nineteenth century contemporary ballroom practice, together with the social and political atmosphere at the conclusion of a fierce struggle for survival against Napoleon and France, would contribute to the ready acceptance of the new dance forms of the Quadrille and Waltz.

The argument is further developed that additional contributing factors in
this acceptance of new dance forms over the indigenous country dances
would be:

Throughout the paper, attention will be drawn to the use of steps common to the country dance, quadrille and couple dances and their progressive reduction in complexity throughout the nineteenth century. The paper will conclude at the point where Cecil Sharp began his collecting of the remnants of the 'country dances'.

English Country dances in Northern Germany around 1800

Birte Hoffmann-Cabenda

Longways country dances became popular in Germany around 1700; they stayed in fashion until the 1830s. The country dance type that was most popular about 1800 was called "Anglaise", "Angloise" or "Englische Tanze", correctly referring to their origin.

In this paper I would like to look at these "English dances" as they were danced especially in northern Germany around 1800, a time when the waltz had already started to conquer the European ballrooms. I will have a closer look at some dance collections of that period, in particular:

The manuscript "Wernigeroeder Tanzbbuechlein" from the little town Wernigerode in the Harz mountains is a collection of more that 100 dance melodies for a violin, written in different hands, about 30 of then with notated dances, almost all of those Anglaises.

In the rural area Artland in Lower Saxony some collections with notated dances and the melodies for these had been found: most of them again longways country dances, written by the local dancing master Johann Wilhelm Heine around 1800.

"Beckers Taschenbuecher zum geselligen Vergnuegen" was a series of almanacs, published in Leipzig between 1791 and the early 1830s. The editions 1791 to 1827 all contain dances, mostly notated plus some verbal explanations. Usually the music for the dances is supplied as well. Appearing annually, they reflect changes in dance practise.

I will discuss the choreographical structures of the dances and the differences in their notation, in perspective to other German sources of that period, showing that the casually scribbled dance notations from unknown local musicians in Wernigerode, the carefully written collections of Heine, perhaps meant for his pupils, and the pretty, tiny prints of dances by professional ballet masters in the almanacs reflect a common dance practice.

Sir Roger - Scharutscha: a Ballroom Dance of the Fin de Siecle and a Current Austrian Folkdance

Hannelore Unfried

This paper will discuss traces of English Country-dancing in Austria starting from the first known reports at the beginning of the 18th century, and dealing inanely with the ",Scharutscha", the only descendent practiced by Austrian folk dancers at present.

In the year 1717 the execution of longways for as many as will at the end of Viennese balls is mentioned in a letter of Lady Mary Wortley Montague. The Viennese nobility new only a small number of these dances and their performance was not estimated by the writer. In the middle of the 18th century "Englische Tanze" are repeatedly recorded in the imperial court protocolls.

During the 19th century a descendent of "Roger of Coverly" (included in the 17th edition of the Dancing Master, 1721) as described by Thomas Wilson in his "Companion to the ballroom" (1816) "Sir Roger" became popular in many countries of Europe and of North-America. This dance was also known as "Gigue Americaine" and "Virginian Reel".

The corrupted title "Scharutscha" (Scharutza, Surrotscha) refers to a dance still practiced and performed by some folk-dancing groups of Lower and Upper Austria and also of Vienna. During the 1920s the Scharutscha is reported to have been still taught in local dancing schools in the secluded hill country called "Bucklige Welt" in Lower Austria, approximately 90 kilometers south of Vienna. The folk-dance researcher Franz Schunko heard about the existance of this dance, went there and was invited to join in the dance in the year 1957. Three years later he published the "Scharutscha" for the first time. Ludwig Berghold, a leading folk-dancer of LowerAustria performes this dance with his group and still teaches it at workshops. These longways for as many as will represent an alien element whithin the Austrian folk-dance repertory with it's dominant round dances (as waltzes or polkas) performed by individual couples. The "Scharutscha" is considered as odd and queer by Austrian folk dancers, who don't have any further experience in dances of this structure.

The preserved choreography is remarkably close to some sources of the 19th and early 20th century of England, France, Austria and America. The structure of the dance, the dancefigures, the number of couples, the style of performance and the dance-music will be compared in selected examples.

Gym Knickers and Street Cred! The place of traditional music, dance and song in English education: its chequered history through the twentieth century and its current fortunes.

Diana Jewitt

This paper will take chronological snapshots through the twentieth century at how traditional music, dance and song have been used and abused in our schools and colleges. Staffing with Cecil Sharp, and progressing through later EFDSS staff members to current practice among folk animateurs the vital importance of the individual enthusiast will be examined. The study will also focus on the response to government policies, funding and the discussion between the 'Health and Beauty' aspect of Physical Education versus the 'Arts'.

The continuing development of a multicultural society as much as any other social change has once again prompted the Government to advise the use of traditional folk dance as part of 'Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural Education, beginning in September 2000. In view of this development the presentation will conclude with current examples of successful folk projects in schools and colleges, either organised by the writer or by other folk practitioners known to the writer.

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