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Inwhich We Re-Introduce Ourselves To A Couple Of Familiar Faces
Yes indeed it is
Ashley Hutchings and John Kirkpatrick, we've met them both before, as those of you who have kept
up with the doings of the albionchronicles will already know, and Ashley and John's paths have crossed numerous times in the
passing years, none to fuller effect than on that seminal album by the
Albion Country Band, The Battle of the Field, a
link to our website concerning the said album can be found, as usual, to your right. Then there is this amazing piece of work.
The Compleat Dancing Master, the title taken from John Playford's works on the art of the dance
John Playford published a new book called The English Dancing Master in
London in 1651. This volume contained the figures and the tunes for 105 English country dances, the first printing of these
group social dances that were to dominate Western ballrooms for the next 150 years. The book appeared at a time of great upheaval
in England. Civil disorder and natural disasters forced city residents to seek refuge on remote country estates; expanding
trade and emigrations to distant lands carried Englishmen far from their homeland. Both phenomena affected the social life
of the upper classes for whom these dances were a satisfying vehicle for leisure time recreation.
Playford’s slim volume sold quickly and he issued a second edition with nine additional dances the next year. Two
editions of a third appeared in 1657 and 1665. He dropped the term “English” in the second edition and thereafter
the books were simply called The Dancing Master. The books evidently filled a real need in Englishmen's lives and copies
were very likely carried or shipped to country homes and colonial outposts as soon as they appeared in Playford’s shop.
The series eventually grew to eighteen editions of the first volume (1651–1728), four of a second (1710–1728),
and two of a third (1719?–1726?) and long out-lived its originator. The three volumes eventually encompassed 1,053 unique
dances and their music. Many were copied from one edition to the next so that the entire contents, with duplicates, amounts
to 6,217 dances, including 186 tunes without dances and 3 songs, which were Dunmore Kate, Mr. Lane's Magot, and The Quakers Dance
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Steeleye Span:
a country tapestry
our celebration of
the finest album ever
the one that started it all
the sights, the sounds'
the time and place
and the Ridgeriders Band
the album
a celebration of the tree
and its off-spring
our record of the end of an era
based on the Albion Country Band
album
Morris On, the son, the grandson
and the great grandson.our look
at the Morrison On family
the album
nature and human nature.
what's your relationship?
our website combination of
the Human Nature
and
The Wild Side Of Town albums
the season seen through
different eyes and from
different points of view.
our celebration of the season
with AH and the folks
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