[SCA-Dance] Black Almain question/speculation

[Greg Lindahl]

On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 02:50:54PM -0700, Greg Lindahl wrote:

> Which music? Perhaps the dance added repeats to the usual music? I'll
> double-check tonight that the transcription from Simpson I have is
> correct, but note that it has a lot less repeating than the dance
> does.

According to Simpson, the music that I have on my webpage is from the
Royal College of Music MS 1119. He also says:

  The unusual stanza pattern combines a ballad-meter quatrain, a
  trimeter couplet, and three or four irregular tetrameters. The music,
  comprising four four-measure phases plus a two-bar coda, will fit the
  elastic stanza if the first strain is repeated. The two pieces with
  twelve-line stanzas -- the Peel broadside and that sung to "Black
  Almaine upon Scissillia" -- require as well a repetition of the coda[2].

 2 Mr. Ward's disposition of the lines is different, for he does not
   repeat the first strain and he omits a line from the Handeful stanza.

So, that's how Simpson thinks it fits. He doesn't seem to address the
dance at all.

-- Gregory