On 8/14/17 6:52 PM, Philip Jamison pjamison(a)warren-wilson.edu
[trad-dance-callers] wrote:
Prior to the popularity of the practice of dance calling at public
dances in the mid-nineteenth century, dancers could learn "the newest
and most fashionable" dances of the day from dance manuals such as Asa
Willcox's book.
I'm certainly aware of the existence and use of published
handbooks/collections, going back in the US as far as Griffiths in 1788
and in England to 1650.
I don't think Asa Willcox's book of figures was one of them.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?ammem/musdibib:@field(NUMBER+@band(mu…
What we see in the LoC link is that somebody typed up (maybe on a mimeo
stencil) a *manuscript*, not a published dance manual. When whoever
typed it up in 1918 did so, they added a foreword that says
*NOTES*
"The 'Book of figures' is a little manuscript that has recently been
presented to the Newberry Library by the Librarian. The book appears to
be a guide such as would be used by a fiddler or other musician in
calling off the successive movements of dances. It was found some years
ago in the attic of an old house in one of the smaller towns in Hartford
County, Connecticut."
(I haven't seen the manuscript or a reproduction of the manuscript and I
don't know if it still exists. In 1918 they seem to have thought this
was somebody's fiddlecase book of calling notes. If they were right that
would suggest that there was calling in New England a bit earlier than
your New Orleans example. I don't know that they *were* right in 1918.
It's also possible that the little booklet which is dated 1793 was
acquired blank by Willcox in that year and then filled out years later.
It was 6.5 by 2.75 inches, so not a full size book.)
-- Alan