13 Oct
2016
13 Oct
'16
5:36 a.m.
Remember that Ralph Page started calling in the 1930s, and became a full
time caller in 1938. If he called dances all the way through, it's because
he was used to doing things that way from the days before sound
reinforcement at dances (and remember that he probably called three squares
between contra dances!)
Here are some quotes from Page's 1937 book:
A good caller's "voice ... must be clear and distinct (not necessarily deep
in tone) and must penetrate the farthest corners of the hall."
"The best prompters baby their throats as if they were opera singers.
Their greatest horror is laryngitis. They don't drink olive oil or wrap up
in pink cotton batting, though; strange as it may seem, the oftener they
call, the better their voice. They claim that six nights a week are better
than one or two, because their vocal cords are really exercised then and so
become stronger."
So it sounds like Ralph Page, and the other callers of his generation,
didn't believe in trying to "save" their voices.
Jacob Bloom
On Tue, Oct 11, 2016 at 11:26 PM, Lindsey Dono lynzimd(a)yahoo.com
[trad-dance-callers] <trad-dance-callers(a)yahoogroups.com> wrote:
I’m curious about calling before microphones became ubiquitous. Is there
much information about callers prior to sound amplification? Did they drop
out quickly to save their voices? Were the dances just known by enough
dancers that they were danced without calling? Was there an emphasis on
remembering the figures (as in Scottish)? If the answers to these questions
are widely known, pardon my ignorance!
Lindsey
(Tacoma, WA)
--
jandnbloom(a)gmail.com
http://jacobbloom.net/