[SCA-Dance] Maundering about "Glory of the West"

[Yves de Fortanier]

Bonjour from Yves,

Disclaimer: I haven't heard or done Glory of the West myself.

According to Filip's transcription of the First Edition, the instructions
for four of the dances mention "open and close" - Prince Ruperts March
(L-4C), Aye Me (L-4C), The Glory of the West (2C), and The Slip (L-many).

I'm thinking the open and close takes a bar/measure each and the movement
for "open" could be [1] branle out twice, [2] slip out twice, or [3] "step,
cross in front, step, pause" for as much as to reduce the bouncing inherent
in the other two options. 8-)

Setting to another dancer without turning - I count at least seven dances
having that, including Stingo and Newcastle.

Since there's two bars in which to do two sets, I see two options: do it
once at half speed or do it twice at normal speed. There is a similar
situation with "The Health": the instructions say simply "set" and the music
gives two bars for it.

There's more sheet music (for pianoforte) for The Glory of the West on this
page:
http://larkcamp.com/CecilSharp.html (see Set 3).

Hoping this helps,
Yves de Fortanier

-----Original Message-----
From: sca-dance-bounces+yves.de.fortanier=comcast.net at sca-dance.org
[mailto:sca-dance-bounces+yves.de.fortanier=comcast.net at sca-dance.org] On
Behalf Of Tim McDaniel
Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2010 11:46 PM
To: SCA Dance
Subject: [SCA-Dance] Maundering about "Glory of the West"

(Since I remembered the magic sigil in the Subject line, this should escape
moderation and may hit the list before my original question from earlier.)

I did "Glory of the West" a few years ago at a kingdom dance symposium, and
I remember liking it, so I tried to dust it off.
I have little experience in interpreting and redacting, so I'm wrapped
around the axle on this.

I couldn't get the steps in the Terpsichore at the Tower booklet to work
as-is (<http://www.rendancedb.org/dance_detail.php?id=41> points to the 14th
ed., which matches the current 16th).  It shows Ch1 as 10 measures, Ch2 as
9, and Ch3 as 12 (with half of a handed square hey as
4 measures, about half speed).

I checked Playford (all these are linked to from that DB entry).
Dafydd's version looks closer to Playford and looks easier to dance to me.
E.g., Playford doesn't say to repeat the first chorus, and if done once it's
a good speed.

What's now puzzling me are the verses.  Playford has

     Meet a D. fall back, open and close _._
     fall back a D. meet, open and close _:_

     Sides with the Co.We.set to them _._
     sides with your owne Wo. set to
     her _:_

     Armes as you sided _:_

Dafydd's version has "set and turn".  I notice that Playford has "set"
without "and turne".  Of the Playford dances that I'm really familiar with
that have set-and-turn, Rufty Tufty, Argeers, If All the World Were Paper,
Grimstock, Jenny Pluck Pears, all specify "set and turn".
I got corrected here when I asked about Halfe Hannikin and assumed that
"sides all" meant "side left, side right".

On the other hand, the three sets of sheet music linked to all have an "A"
section of 8 measures (4 measures repeated a total of twice).  If
1651 music notation is like modern, I think Playford has a 4-measure "A"
followed by ||.  (The recorded versions I have have 4-measure "A"s
both.)  If that's literally set without turn, that would require a 6-measure
"A" -- or if 8 measures, it's a slow darned set, and whatever "open and
close" is would require 2 measures each time.
I'm no musician, but it's not obvious to me how to transmogrify the music
into a 6-measure version.

So I'm tentatively thinking "set and turn".  For "open and close", is two
bransle steps away from one's partner and back too un-English Country Dance?
I can't think of any ECD that has bransle steps, unless I justify them as
slow slips, but Dafydd's notion of "take a small double sideways away from
your partner, still holding hands"
doesn't strike me as obviously right.

Danett de Lincoln
--
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com
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