Pepper’s Black, interesting tune and dance.
In looking at this website, some information is confusing and/or outright incorrect.
The website writes in the heading tune is in D major but the key signature in the transcription with its two flats suggests Bb or G minor. Or, uh, D Phrygian mode.
My curiosity of this melody got me to put the tune in my transcription program, Finale.
With Finale I could put the tune in all seven “Greek” modes. I didn’t favor D Phrygian,
but I liked D major, D Mixolydian and D Dorian. D Lydian was also actually nice. I’ve made a PDF of this effort along with a few words on modes. I had Finale make an audio .wav file of my transcription.
That way you can follow the PDF through the sound of the modes. You can
download the PDF and audio files
from here:
https://www.asuswebstorage.com/navigate/a/#/s/2BD7BDCBD4CC4B37AA41E1C4243767804
Also the website says the dance is “A circle dance.”
I’m not sure what kind of circle fits the figures unless it’s a Sicilian circle. Then the website says, “3xAABB,”
but just getting through the dance once with its four
figures seems to go through the tune with various numbers of As & Bs: I:
AABB then
II:
AABBB (or is that AABBBB?)
then
III:
AABBBB (or BBBBB?)
and IV: AAABBB (or BBBB?). How does any of this except the figures in I fit AABB, and, uh, only 3 times through the tune? (I have yet to refer and analyze the picture of the original Playford description.)
Erik Hoffman
From: John Sweeney via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2022 10:35 AM
To: 'Caller's discussion list' <callers@sharedweight.net>
Subject: [Callers] Re: Dances with fewer swings
Re " uses the square dance figure Right Hand High, Left Hand Low"
Tony does, of course, mean "uses the Right Hand High, Left Hand Low figure from the 1651 dance Pepper's Black"
http://playforddances.com/dances/peppers-black/
It's amazing how old some of these figures really are! :-) :-)
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john@modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574
http://contrafusion.co.uk/KentCeilidhs.html
for Live Music Ceilidhs
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk
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