[SCA-Dance] singing accompaniment

Aaron Elkiss aelkiss at umich.edu
Fri Jun 26 09:08:20 EDT 2009


I should clarify that most of the ballads were not intended to be sung
at dance tempo, they just happened to use the same tune. So, your
mileage may vary when trying to sing them for dancers.

Steve Hendricks has a fairly large collection of ECD tunes with lyrics:

http://sca.uwaterloo.ca/Hendricks/

Search for "Playford Dances and Ballads", then look for things with
the 'Vocal' tag.

There are some others (Nonesuch, Jamaica, If All the World were Paper,
probably more) that have associated ballads that aren't here -- for
Nonesuch, the ballad is A la Mode de France
(http://www.lukehistory.com/ballads/allamode.html); for Jamaica, for
Jamaica, it's The Jovial Broome Man,
http://tigerlilyworkshop.com/Wordpp/Jamaica.html; and for If All the
World Were Paper, a song of the same name:
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/if-all-the-world-were-paper-2/
(which probably predates the dance).

I should also mention that the ballads were intended for a solo
singer, possibly with accompaniment. You could certainly arrange them
for a small group, although the effect might be a little odd. (We have
tried that with Hearts Ease and Sellenger's Round to mixed success.)

-Aaron Drummond

On Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 8:44 AM, David
Learmonth<david.a.learmonth at gmail.com> wrote:
> Actually, for planning my Friday night ball next week, I just went through
> this whole discussion with Aaron Drummond, who has this information to
> provide:
>
> " In the past we've sung for Belle Qui, Hearts' Ease, Sellenger's Round,
> and Stingo. Hearts' Ease and Sellengers don't really work that well --
> the words that go to them are intended to be sung at a much slower
> pace that works well for the dance, and it just feels rushed if you
> try to sing them at dance tempo. Stingo works okay, but not great;
> Goddesses and Quen Quer Que could also work. There are several other
> Playford dances that have a ballad set to the tune as well:
>
> Bonny Bonny Broome (should work well at dance tempo), Jamaica (might
> be okay, would have to try it),
> Daphne (for Daphne or HIt and Miss, would probably be a bit rushed),
> Cuckolds All A Row (should be okay),
> Drive the Cold Winter Away (probably rushed),
>
> And several I have no real idea how well they would work:
>
> Confesse
> Spanish Jeepsy
> Upon A Summer's Day
> Jacke Pudding
> Jog On
> The King's delight
> Lull me beyond thee
> Madge on a tree
> The merry, merry milkmaids
> Nonesuch
> Once I loved a maiden fair
> Row well, ye mariners"
>
>
> There is an excellent group of singers in the Cynnabar area, so they are
> good people for this discussion.  That, and get back to us after next week,
> and we can let you know how some of these dances faired  (to see if they
> could be sung at the right speed to be danced).
>
> Darius
>
> P.S.  Here are the main ones I've decided to use in my ball:
> Upon a Summer's Day
> Cuckolds All A Row
> Goddesses
> Confesse
> Quen Quer Que
> Belle Qui pavanne
> Nonesuch
> If All the World were paper
> Lull me beyond thee
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 7:36 PM, Andrew Draskoy <pub at andrew.draskoy.net>wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> I'm looking for ideas for dances that have associated songs that can
>> be used as accompaniment.  Anyone got suggestions?
>>
>> Thanks, & Cheers,
>> Miklos
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