The "Baden-Baden Polka" is another polka contra dance that appears in both Elias Howe's Complete Ball-Room Hand Book (Boston, 1858) and his American Dancing Master and Ball-Room Prompter (Boston, 1862). I have no other sources for the dance, which is not unusual; my suspicion is that most of the contras in his books were Howe's own calls rather than any sort of universally accepted choreography.
Howe seems to have been willing to put contra dance or quadrille figures to just about any piece of music. He presumably named this contra after the "Baden Baden Polka", generally attributed to Philippe Musard, though some music lists him only as the arranger, rather than the composer.
It is not a particularly unusual or challenging contra dance, but it is a good example of a "generic" American contra with very popular figures and a bit of polka attached.
Here are Howe's figures:
First couple down the outside, back--down the centre, back and cast off one couple--first and second couple polka round each other--right and left.
This is about as generically American as you can get. The down the outside/back, down the centre/back/cast off combination is a very common opening for American country dances from the early nineteenth century onward, and a ridiculous percentage of them end in right and left. Only the polka round makes it in any way distinctive from many other contra dances, and that is a very typical figure for polka contras in particular (and waltz contras as well, including the popular "Spanish Dance") either in progressive or (as here) non-progressive versions.
Reconstruction
This is a "proper" contra dance, meaning all the ladies on one side of the set and all the gentlemen on the other, not a couple-facing-couple contra. The reconstruction is quite straightforward:
8b First couple goes down the outside of the set and returns to places.
8b First couple promenades down the middle of the set (2b), turn individually (2b), returns (2b), and casts off to second place (2b)
8b The two couples take closed position and polka completely around each other.
8b The two couples right and left.
This would most likely have been danced triple minor, with the third couple having nothing at all to do. While a top-down start was still typical, Howe specifically said there was no reason not to have every fourth couple start off at once.
Other polka contras specify to polka down the middle and up, which suggests that polka steps were used for more than just the polka-round. It's possible Howe just assumed this or was careless in his editing and forgot to put that particular instruction into this contra. It's also possible that the figures were walked, with the exception of the actual polka-round. I am comfortable with either interpretation.
My current theory on the right and left is that it should be performed with taking hands, right to partner/left to neighbor/right to partner/left to neighbor. This is not a quadrille right and left; ladies take hands with ladies and gentlemen with gentlemen on the sides of the set.
There is no handhold specified for the down-the-middle-and-up; my preference is a promenade handhold (right in right, left in left, in front) which makes it particularly easy to reverse direction.
I sometimes think Howe did not quite think through his use of polka-round and waltz-round figures in proper couple dances. That figure is slightly more awkward for the top couple (in this dance, the second couple, in progressed position) because from their position in the set, the gentleman is effectively on the lady's right instead of her left. The second couple should come together as they move up the set (while the first couple casts off) the lady moving above the gentleman so they are ready to polka. They will also need to break a little bit early to open up to their correct sides again at the end. The first couple (progressed to below the second) will have no particular difficulties.
Music for the Baden-Baden Polka
Period sheet music is online at the Levy Sheet Music Collection at Johns Hopkins University. Another edition is online at the University of Tennessee, and a third (in a different key, with first and second parts) at the Library of Congress. None of these are arranged for a contra dance, however, so musicians would have to do some work.
Howe himself has an arrangement in The Musician's Omnibus (Boston, 1861), shown below (click to enlarge), with strains of A=8b, B=16b, C=8b, and D=8b arranged for use with a quadrille figure. It could be played alternating AAB and AACD or something similar for the contra dance.
A modern arrangement with three eight-bar strains that could be played ABAC or AABC for the contra, is included in dance band Spare Parts' The Civil War Ballroom Band Book.
I am not aware of any recordings of "Baden Baden Polka".
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