Tina wrote:
To add to the history that Bree offered, the last time
Honor Among Thieves was
posted on this most excellent list (by John McIntire), Alan Winston took it
further back yet. So the whole story, as I can put it together from what
everyone has said, is as follows:
Alan said that the 'chase' figure was
originally found in Playford’s 1701 ed,
Cheshire Rounds, a longways duple minor formation like contra. It then migrated
across the sea to become incorporated into Appalachian dancing. Ted Sanella
encountered the move in these old-time southern Appalachian square dances, and
in the mode of artists everywhere, nabbed it to incorporate into modern American
contra - the first to do so with this particular move. Then in 1986, Penn Fix
took Ted's dance and added a P-Sw for all, to appeal to modern contra tastes.
It also occurs to me that a variation of the figure is the core of the Scottish
dance "Flowers of Edinburgh". (It's in a triple-minor set, so the lady
casts
off past two couples and the gent cuts through after two, but it's otherwise
the same figure, done with skip-change step in eight bars instead. FoE was
published in the 1790s, I think.)
-- Alan
--
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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
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