[SCA-Dance] Early tudor dance

Barbara Webb bwebb at inf.ed.ac.uk
Tue Apr 29 04:46:41 EDT 2008


Peter Durham \(Trahaearn ap Ieuan\) wrote:

> Janelyn and I came across this while writing our Old Measures pamphlet,

Thanks - I actually discovered your footnote yesterday by googling 'the 
howe of the howse' and wondered how I missed it before, having enjoyed 
reading your pamphlet. Also spotted that the first book is in my uni 
library - thanks for noting this too - but I'll have to wait for it to 
come back from loan...

Do you spot any possible resemblance to a particular Inns of Court 
choreography?

I wrote:

>> Actually, I find it makes me think a bit of a Playford longways'
>> progression (arrgh! a period source for 'Hole in Wall'?) which would go
>> rather against the previous assumptions that this is a mid-to-late 17th
>> century development. But again there is not much to go on.

Henry of Maldon/Alex Clark wrote:

> A rash and unsupported assumption. The longways progressions in Playford
> dances could hardly have been "a mid-to-late 17th century development". At
> the latest, they could have developed very early in the middle part of the
> 17th century.

Sorry, I make no claims to Playford expertise. I was just referring to the 
previous discussion on this list that concluded, as you say, that...

> What did actually develop in the second half of the 17th century was a new
> preference for longways dances in which the entire dance is encompassed by
> a single progression.

In so far as the 'howe of the howse' seems like anything in Playford 
(highly debateable I'm sure!) it seems like this style, and not the 
typical longways style in first edition. Thanks for pointing out that 
there are at least two first edition examples of this style.

Caitlin

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