[SCA-Dance] review - Playford dance instructions

[White, John]

> 
> On the selection of dances - Do I have a suitable digital recording for
> it? Would I want to dance it in the SCA? ( I omit some dances because I
> find them too repetitive - details by request.)
> 
> 
> Yves
> 
In terms of having/using digital recordings (for, at the very least, practices),
the advances of the modern age make available to us things we didn't have back
in the days when I started (32 years ago).

For example, I have managed to find (often by accident) at least a single repeat
of the melody of all but (I believe) 7 of the 1st edition Playford dances.  Once
ripped into my computer, I then use software to create usable versions from these
tracks by splicing and patching and, in the case of "as many as will" dances, using
iTunes playlists and building blocks of tunes to create versions for 3, 4, or 5
couples without having to actually splice these together (and thus giving me the
ability to create a playlist on the fly for any number of couples).  While some of
the "as many as will" dances are somewhat dull, there are others that have some
great patterns (including the "reel" figure, a la Virginia Reel) that are great fun
to do, which makes the effort of creating these building blocks and playlists quite
worth it.

Naturally, being able to provide music for live performances is also definitely to
be desired - why learn the dances if you can't do them at events?  Fortunately, there
are resources locally that mean that we can get sheet music for whatever we need.

And as for the document - very nice!

        \\Dafydd Cyhoeddwr, Barony Bhakail (East Kingdom)
        http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~white/ddance.html - please check out my ECD page, which includes
         sources of the music I have, though not music files; also, note my Italian dance pages ...