1 Apr
2024
1 Apr
'24
4:47 p.m.
I assume this is an April Fool’s joke. (I have heard that story before and thought it was
a joke then too.)
According to the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society, The Petronella (which is apparently
a female given name - I knew a Petronella once) was introduced (to Scotland, anyway) by
Nathaniel Gow at his Annual Ball in Edinborough, in 1820. It (along with the music)
appears as Dance #1 in Book #1 of the RSCDS dance collection. The dance is essentially
the same as the New England version. 1820 is after the 1810 date you give for the
backwards-spelling story, so it wouldn’t be impossible for Nathaniel Gow to have heard of
it by then, but it seems unlikely.
Interestingly, Book 1 also includes a Rory O’More and although the printed music is the
same as the tune in New England, the dance is entirely different. I have always assumed
that the dance and the music made their way “over the pond,” and the dance died out but
someone wrote a new dance to the same music. The RSCDS book says simply that the dance
was “collected locally” and says the music is of “Irish origin.”
Sent from my iPad
On Apr 1, 2024, at 10:11 AM, Michael Fuerst via Contra
Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
In 1810, and for some years before and after, Sudbury MA (incorporated in 1639) was the
site of a monthly barn dance. One of the local dance masters, Allen Ortep, composed a
contra dance, where four dancers would balance in a circle, left foot then right foot,
followed by shift/spin left one place. Allen and another local dance master both had
interest in the same lady. To shorten a long story, Allen did not get the lady, and
eventually stopped attending the Sudbury dances. His successful rival then composed a
dance where four dancers balanced in a circle, right foot then left foot, followed by a
shift/spin right one place, and named it petronella (spell petronella backwards to find
out why). To honor these events, Sudbury MA was given the zipcode 01776. (Thanks to Don
Veino for pointing out Sudbury's zipcode.)
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