John Sweeney asked:

> Please can anyone recommend a good instrumental recording of the music for the Redwing square dance?

and Rich Sbardella repliedL

> Are you looking for the 32 bar or 48 bar (for Dip n Dive) square?

I'll add:

Are you looking for a recording suitable for use at a dance without
editing (dance length, dance tempo, maybe an intro to help get your
calling off to a clean start)? Or are you looking for some to
practice calling to at home, even if it's not full length? Or
something musicians can listen to as an example of a danceable
rendition, even if you're going to have them play it more times
through and maybe double on of the parts at an actual dance?

I think finding listenable instrumentals won't be hard, at least
for the 32-bar version. Finding a instrumental recording that you
can use as is for calling the 48-bar version of the dance seems
like a tall order unless someone happens to know of one made for
that purpose.

Note, by the way, that 48-bar version with the dip-and-dive figure
is sometimes called with an intro and possibly middle break and
ending, of different length. For example, in this recording

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ABJca4GO8Q

the main figure is 48 bars (32 bars of A music plus 16 bars of B),
but the intro, middle break, and ending are just 16 bars (B music
only), so that the overall pattern is

B AAB AAB B AAB AAB B

where the A and B parts are each 16 bars long (in contrast to the
usual 8-bar length for parts of a contra tune/dance). I've also
seen versions of the dance described with the structure

AB AAB AAB AAB AAB AAB AAB

(32-bar intro; 48-bar main figures, middle break, and ending) and
I think also one with the structure

AB AAB AAB AB AAB AAN AB .

It would be surprising if someone without such a dance structure
in mind just happened to publish a recording of "Redwing" fitting
one of those patterns.

--Jim