Re: [Callers] Caller's opinions on non-contra music at dances

Gang -- It's always seemed to me that the issue with music for trad dance isn't "is it trad" or "is it modern", it's "is it good music for this kind of dance"? (I was just at a Scottish monthly party on Saturday where the change tunes for "The White Cockade" included "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" and "Whistle While You Work", played with complete lucidity and verve. Those were great choices, and played with the same kind of phrasing, they'd be great choices for contra dance.) On the other hand, I've occasionally danced to old-timey bands which played very trad material which just seemed like undifferentiated streams of notes, with no phrasing. That's not good contra dance music. (Same tunes played with appropriate phrasing and emphasis can be *great* contra dance music.) In the specific contra dance world, I've heard show tunes, TV show themes, belly dance music, medieval French tunes, and so on, played for contra dancing by bands who knew how to play for contra dancing, and they were absolutely great, exciting, contra dance music. So I've got no problem with anybody's choice of material for contra dance, so long as they make it work - with absolute clarity of phrasing and continuous propulsion. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't matter how trad it is. [Now, I apparently have fairly limited standards for what works. I sometimes go to couple dance events with recorded music where the dj is being as clever as possible - oh, somebody in the background of this Enya song is playing a rhythm that's like a schottische except too slow, I'll put it up as a schottische - and I really, really don't like it. I don't like couple dances where I have to struggle to find the beat or understand the phrasing. Meantime, there are 50 people on the floor happily dancing to it, and doing all sorts of variations which don't line up with the phrasing of the music, and that's absolutely fine for them - but I don't like it. If you play it danceably, I don't mind if I'm waltzing to the Blue Danube or the Around the World in 80 Days theme or the dark waltz from the first Addams Family movie or the Trailer Park Troubadours "Falling in Love in America" (great tune, by the way),l but I mind if it's not really a waltz.) -- Alan -- =============================================================================== Alan Winston --- WINSTON(a)SSRL.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU Disclaimer: I speak only for myself, not SLAC or SSRL Phone: 650/926-3056 Paper mail to: SSRL -- SLAC BIN 99, 2575 Sand Hill Rd, Menlo Park CA 94025 ===============================================================================