19 Oct
2008
19 Oct
'08
9:56 p.m.
On Sat, Oct 18, 2008 at 10:53:32PM -0400, Mark Hillegonds wrote:
There is a mistake in the definition of "count." The article says a
count is "A count (as used above) is one half of a musical measure,
such as one quarter note in 2/4 time or three eighth notes in 6/8
time."
It would be more accurate to say that a count is one "beat" of a
measure. For example, in 4/4 time, there would be four counts/beats
per measure. There are a number of 4/4 tunes played for contra
dances so say that all tunes are 2/4 or 3/8 time is inaccurate. A
slightly important mistake is to say that 1 quarter note in 2/4 time
is a count/beat. It would be a half note, not a quarter note.
You're using "count" and "beat" to mean the same thing. I think
I've
mostly heard callers use them for different things. "Beat" is usally
used as a musical term while "count" is a choreography term. A
standard contra dance has 64 counts, and also has 64 steps. The
number of beats depends on what sort of tune the band plays.
But it's very much messy terminology. Many dancers use them
interchangibly to mean "count" while many musicians use them both to
mean "beat".
One quibble with the definition of a California Twirl. The
definition states the convenient hands joined. I think of a
California Twirl specifically as the gent's right hand and ladies
left hand being joined. I've heard a couple of callers use "Navada
Twirl" for the flip situation of having the gent's left hand and
ladies right hand joined.
I'd be curious to know whether the rest of you use California twirl
to mean the more general "convenient" hands or the more specific
"gent's right and lady's left."
I've most commonly heard four different calls for the four different
combinations of man's left/right and woman's left/right:
man woman figure
--- ----- ------
R L California twirl
L R Star through
R R Box the gnat
L L Swat the flea
I've heard people advocate using "twirl to swap" for all cases. So I
would say the wiki's wrong here.
Jeff
Medford MA