Capering & Kickery

The Mid Lothians (1820s Quadrilles), Figure 6

This is the sixth and last in a series of six posts covering the six figures of the Mid Lothians, a set of quadrilles from the 1820s.  Previous posts: The first figure; background information; and sources, second figure, third figure, fourth figure, fifth figure.

The sixth and final figure of the Mid Lothians is set to a combination of two similar Jacobite tunes, "Lewie Gordon" and "Over the Hills".  My ear isn't sophisticated enough to sort through Evans' arrangement and figure out which (or whether) individual strains are drawn from each tune.  Lewie Gordon was a son of the Duke of Gordon who fought for Bonnie Prince Charlie and was exiled after Culloden.  "Over the Hills", also known as "O'er the Hills and Far Away" and "Over the Seas and far away", has a complex history and may have originally been from England.  It is familar to many today as the theme music for the Sharpe television series based on the Bernard Cornwell novels about a British rifleman during the Napoleonic Wars.

Lyrics and background on each tune as well as MIDI files for listening may be found at Christian Souchon's collection of Jacobite songs; there are individual pages for both "Lewie Gordon" and "O'er the Hills".  Note that all Souchon's pages play music immediately upon opening!  More lyrics for "O'er the Hills" may be found on the song's page at The Compleat Sean Bean, a Sean Bean (Sharpe in the television series) fan site created by writer Winona Kent.

The Mid Lothians (1820s Quadrilles), Figure 5

This is the fifth in a series of six posts covering the six figures of the Mid Lothians, a set of quadrilles from the 1820s.  The first figure, background information, and sources are discussed in the first post in the series.  Second figure here.  Third figure here.  Fourth figure here.

The fifth figure of the Mid Lothians is set to the famous march of Clan Campbell, "The Campbells are Coming", with its rousing chorus, presumably not sung while dancing a quadrille:

The Campbells are coming Oho, Oho!

The Campbells are coming Oho, Oho!

The Campbells are coming to bonnie Lochleven

The Campbells are coming Oho, Oho!

There are many, many recordings of this tune available.  Though the lyrics were partly rewritten by Robert Burns in the late eighteenth century, the tune dates back at least to the Jacobite rebellions of the first half of the century.

The Mid Lothians (1820s Quadrilles), Figure 4

This is the fourth in a series of six posts covering the six figures of the Mid Lothians, a set of quadrilles from the 1820s.  The first figure, background information, and sources are discussed in the first post in the series.  Second figure here.  Third figure here.

The fourth figure of the Mid Lothians is set to a combination of "Peggy's Love" and "Auld Robin Gray", though my ear is not good enough to pick out which strains are from each tune when filtered through Evans' arrangements.

"Peggy's Love", or "Little Peggy's Love" is a strathspey which has also been used for a Scottish Country Dance.  It is said to have been composed by William Marshall and published as "Lady Louisa Gordon's Strathspey" in 1781.  It was apparently used as the musical basis for a ballet at the King's Theatre Opera House (the professional home of Regency-era dancing master Thomas Wilson) in the 1790s.  Evans mostly retains the strathspey rhythm in his arrangement.

"Auld Robin Gray" was written in 1772 by the Scottish poet Lady Anne Lindsay, with a tune by Reverend William Leeves.  The song is something of a sequel to the classic Jacobite song "Logie O'Buchan" (note: music plays immediately upon opening this page) which mourns for the Old Pretender under the guise of a woman missing her lover Jamie while being pressured to marry someone richer.  In "Auld Robin Gray", she actually ends up married to Robin Gray before her true love Jamie returns for her.  The tune may be heard in a MIDI file created by Christian Souchon (plays immediately upon opening).  An arrangement by Hadyn may be found at Ball State University's Digital Music Repository.

The Mid Lothians (1820s Quadrilles), Figure 3

This is the third in a series of six posts covering the six figures of the Mid Lothians, a set of quadrilles from the 1820s.  The first figure, background information, and sources are discussed in the first post and the second figure here.

The third figure of the Mid Lothians is set to "Riggs O'Barley", previously known as "Corn Rigs are bonie" but taking on a new name after being used by Robert Burns for his 1783 poem, "The Rigs O' barley".  Numerous recordings (with the Burns lyrics) are available.  It is also found on the sound track of a classic 1973 horror film, The Wicker Man, under the title "Corn Rigs".

Evans' arrangement consists of three eight-bar strains (ABC), with the A strain having an alternate second ending as well.  The thirty-two-bar figure is noted on the sheet music as starting on the A strain, so I would expect a repeat structure of A (ABACx4) with the initial A using the first ending and subsequent ones the second.

The Mid Lothians (1820s Quadrilles), Figure 2

This is the second in a series of six posts covering the six figures of the Mid Lothians.  The first figure, background information, and sources are discussed in the previous post.

The second figure of the Mid Lothians is set to a highly simplified arrangement of the "Lassie wi'the Lint-White Locks", a tune actually called "Rothiemurchies Rant" but so strongly associated with the Robert Burns poem from 1794 that Evans seems to have adopted the poem's title for the tune.  It is also known today as "The Graf Spee".  The tune is traditionally used for a Scottish Country Dance and can be heard on numerous recordings.  Some interesting background may be found at The Mudcat Café. 

Evans' version is in a different key and consists almost entirely of relatively sedate eighth notes, unlike the dotted strathspey rhythm of the original, which is given below the quadrille arrangement for comparison.

Evans trims the four strains of the original tune to three strains (ABC) of eight bars each, with the third strain being a repeat of the first with a slight variation in the last bar.  The figure is repeated four times.  Instructions on the music indicate the that the (thirty-two-bar) figure begins on the A strain, which also has repeat markings. so a repeat structure of A (ABACx4) or possibly A (AABCx4) seems indicated, which leaves the figures concluding on the same music (since C = A) as they began, as is typical for a quadrille figure.  Either way, the A strain ends up getting repeated three times in succession multiple times.  A (ABBCx4) would also be a possibility, albeit a somewhat odd one for a quadrille, and somewhat reduces the repetiiveness.  If not for the figure instructions on the music, I'd be inclined to go with A (BABCx4) just for a bit more variety.

The Mid Lothians (1820s Quadrilles), Figure 1

The Mid Lothians, A new Set of Quadrilles, was a set of traditional Scottish tunes selected by J. S. Pollock, "Professor of Dancing / late of Paris /", with the tunes arranged by R. W. Evans and new quadrille figures (given in French and English) choreographed by Pollock.  The undated music was published in London in the early 1820s (Google Books dates it to 1821), and the figures additionally appear in Pollock's La Terpsichore Moderne, Ninth Edition (London, c1824) and in Henry Whale's Hommage à Taglioni, A Fashionable Quadrille Preceptor and Ballroom Companion (Philadelphia, 1836).  The English-language instructions in all three sources are extremely consistent, though there are a few discrepancies between the French and English versions given on the sheet music. 

The set is cannily dedicated to Lady Gwydir, more familiar to students of upper-crust Regency society as one of the famous Patronesses of Almacks under her former name, Mrs. Drummond-Burrell.  Born in 1786, Lady Sarah Clementina Drummond, heiress of Lord Perth, married Peter Burrell in 1807, whereupon they both hyphenated their names to Drummond-Burrell to preserve the prestigious Drummond name.  In 1820, the couple succeeded Peter's parents to double honors as Baron and Baroness Gwydir (or Gwydyr) and Baron and Baroness Willoughby de Eresby.

The Mid Lothians refers to the area of Scotland around Edinburgh.  The title of the set and the use of well-known Scottish tunes may be an attempt to play off the success of Sir Walter Scott's popular 1818 novel, The Heart of Midlothian, or simply a reflection of the popularity of all things Scottish at the time.  Some of the tunes used are versions of those famously used by Robert Burns for his poems in the late eighteenth century.

Late 19th Century Jig-Time Dances: Le Rêve

Continuing to work my way through late nineteenth-century jig-time (6/8-time) dances, here's one attributed to New York dancing master C. H. Rivers (left) but found not in Rivers' own dance manual, but in the "Miscellaneous Dances" section at the back of M. B. Gilbert's 1890 tome, Round Dancing, as well as in American expatriate Washington Lopp's 1903 French translation and expansion of Gilbert, La Danse. 

"Le rêve" is French for "dream."  Gilbert leaves off the circumflex for "Le Reve", but Lopp, as would be expected for someone writing in French, includes it.  I have no information about the source of the name.  Possibly it was named after a particular piece of music, or the name might simply be a romantic fancy.  Gilbert states that dance was adopted by the American Society of professors of Dancing, New York, on September 4th, 1889, which dating explains its absence from Rivers' own work, published in Brooklyn around 1885.