Simonet's Parisian Quadrilles, Third Set, c1820

There are many, many sets of early nineteenth-century quadrilles, most of which are simply new music for the First Set or include only minor variations on the standard figures.  While I don't normally publish reconstructions of the figures for random sets of quadrille music, this set is of particular interest because a high-quality recording of it is available on The Regency Ballroom CD by Spare Parts.

The music is from the first series of T. Simonet's Fashionable Parisian Quadrilles, Performed by the Bands of Messrs. Michau, Musard and Collinet, with their appropriate Figures as danced at Almack's, the Argyll Rooms and at the Bath & Cheltenham Assemblies.  The manual is undated, but in February, 1823, the fashionable magazine La Belle Assemblée reported the publication of "Nos. 42 and 43" of the series, commenting positively:

This is really an elegant little work both in its contents and its typography.  We recognize many of the quadrilles as being great favorites in the French metropolis, and the whole of them are composed in a very characteristic and original style.

The typography of this edition is certainly eye-popping by modern standards of design; the front cover alone features a dozen different fonts.  The first series includes only sets one through six and presumably is dated somewhat earlier.  

The names given are those of the music rather than the dance figures.  Each of the five tunes is associated with one of the standard five figures of the First Set:

1. "L'Annette" (Le Pantalon)
2. "L'Hipparchia" (L'Eté)
3. "La Corinne" (La Poule)
4. "La Belle Parisienne" (La Trenis)
5. "La Rosalinde" (La Finale)

It would be perfectly appropriate to dance those figures to these tunes, and the recording matches the standard figures perfectly.  But Simonet also gives an alternate set of figures for those who want some variety.  These are the figures reconstructed below.  This post is aimed at those who already have substantial experience with the quadrilles of this era, so I am not going to go into much detail about the appropriate footwork or how to dance the common figures.  Suffice it to say that these figures are not meant to be walked through.

I have given the original text for each figure below, with all its original typos, grammatical errors, and unusual terminology, followed by my reconstruction and notes.  I've used the standard terminology in my reconstruction for clarity.

Figure 1 (8b intro + 32bx4)
Chaine Anglaise entiere; Le cavalier seul en avant; La Dame le même; Chaine des Dames entiere Balancez à vos Dames; Tour des mains.

8b    Chaine anglaise entière (head couples right & left)
4b    Le cavalier seul en avant & en arrière (first gentleman forward and back)
4b    La dame (vis-à-vis) seul en avant & en arrière (opposite lady forward and back)
8b    Chaine des dames entière (head couples ladies' chain)
8b    Balancez et tour des mains (head couples balance & turn partners)

This is a minor variation on the standard Pantalon figure.  The figure is led by the first gentleman and the opposite lady, followed by the second gent/opposite lady, third gent/opposite lady, fourth gent/opposite lady.  Having the figure led by the gentlemen rather than the ladies is typical in this series of quadrilles.  The first two times the four-person figures are done by the head couples; the third and fourth, by the sides.

Because of the leading by pairs, the figure must be repeated four times, which is not usual for a Pantalon figure.  Spare Parts' recording is the standard twice through; either the music must be looped or something must be fudged.  In the latter case, I would recommend having both the head gentlemen perform the en avant followed by both the head ladies the first time through.  The second time, it would be the two side gentlemen and the two side ladies.


Figure 2 (8b intro + 24bx4)
En avant deux et en arriere; Chassez à droite et à gauche.  Traversez; Chassez; Dechassez; Retraversez, en ballancant; Tour de mains

4b    En avant deux et en arrière (lead pair forward and back)
4b    Chassez à droite et à gauche (same two dance to right and left)
4b    Traversez (same two cross over to the opposite side of the set)
4b    Chassez à droite et à gauche (same two dance to the right and the left)
4b    Balancez à vos places (return to places, balancing)
4b    Tour de mains (turn partners)

This is a absolutely standard L'Eté figure.  It would be led initially by the first gentleman and opposite lady, as in figure one, and danced four times in all.  Note that the same figure is given two different terms in the original text: "Chassez a droite et a gauche" and "Chassez; Dechassez".  This is typical of this source, which is blithely unedited for consistency, grammar, or spelling.  I've previously posted some suggestions for step-sequences for balancing (setting), crossing over, and dancing to right and left.


Figure 3 (8b intro + 32bx4)
En avant deux; Traversez; Chassez; Dechassez; Retraversez; En avant 4 et en arriere; Changez des Dames et à vos places; En avant 4 et en arriere; Reprenez vos Dames et a vos places.

4b    En avant deux et en arrière (first gentleman and opposite lady forward and back)
4b    Traversez (same two cross over)
4b    Chassez à droite et à gauche (same two dance to the right and the left)
4b    Traversez (cross back)
4b    En avant quatre et en arrière (head couples forward and back)
4b    En avant quatre; changez les dames (forward again, ladies changing places, and back)
4b    En avant quatre et en arrière (forward and back again)
4b    En avant quatre; changez les dames (forward again, ladies returning to partners, and back)

Figure three departs completely from the First Set.  It begins rather like the second figure, with a similar sequence by the first gentleman and opposite lady, followed by a sequence for both head couples in which they go forward and back four times, with the ladies changing places the second time to retire with the opposite gentleman, and again the fourth time, to return to their partner.  While the gentlemen do a simple forward and back sequence each time, the ladies will need to continue through a full sequence of three chassé, jeté-assemblé the second and fourth times as they trade partners.  As with the first two figures, this is danced four times, led by each gentleman and his opposite in turn.


Figure 4 (8b intro + 40bx4)
En avant deux; Traversez; Chassez; à droite et à gauche; A vos places; Chaine des Dames; Chassez sur les cotes; Changez des Dames; En avant tous; Reprenez vos Dames et Chassez croisez tous.

4b    En avant deux et en arrière (first gentleman and opposite lady forward and back)
4b    Traversez (same two cross over)
4b    Chassez à droite et à gauche (same two dance to the right and the left)
4b    Traversez (cross back)
8b    Chaine des dames entière (head couples ladies chain)
2b    Figurez à droite sur les côtés (head couples advance to right-hand side couples)
2b    Chassé ouvert (turn person facing halfway, opening out into facing lines top & bottom)
4b    En avant huit et en arrière (all eight forward & back)
4b    Tour des mains à vos places (turn partners to places)
4b    Chassé-croisé huit (all eight chassé-croisé across and back without balancing)

This figure was the most challenging to reconstruct, since I did not immedately recognize the chassé ouvert sequence in Simonet's "Chassez sur les cotes; Changez des Dames".  I've discussed that figure at great length in a previous post, in which I quote French dancing master J. H. Gourdoux claiming in 1819 that the figure is no longer danced.  Apparently they hadn't gotten that little fashion update in London.  I've given the more common terminology in my reconstruction and recommend that earlier post for details on how to dance chassé ouvert. 

Departing completely from the standard fourth figure, this one opens the same way a the third figure with a short sequence for the first gentleman and opposite lady and is danced four times, led once by each gentleman and his opposite.  I've chosen to make the following chassé ouvert sequence a simple four-bar version, without balancing, since that is not mentioned, and to keep the half-turn as the dancers separate with their new partners, since the early-19th-century descriptions of chassé ouvert generally include that half-turn.  Again, see my previous post for reconstruction details.

It would also be very reasonable to use a full eight bars for chassé ouvert, adding balancing after each two-bar segment.  This would necessitate also making the final chassé-croisé eight bars (adding balancing) in order to match the sheet music.  This would produce a 48-bar figure.  While Simonet was not especially careful about matching the lengths of the original first set, 48 bars is quite long for a fourth figure, and there is some utility in matching the 40-bar length of the original figure and the available recording, so I've chosen to use short versions of both figures in this reconstruction.

For the en avant huit, Strathy (Edinburgh, 1822) recommends a sequence of chassé, jeté-assemblé, sissone dessous-assemblé (left foot), sissone dessous-assemblé (right foot), which leaves the partners conveniently close for the turn to places.  During that turn, the head couples (first two times; side couples third and fourth times) will need to drop outside hands a little early as the gentlemen pull their partners outward and to the left to re-form the original square set.  The other couples are already more or less in place and simply make a turn and a half.

Figure 5 (8b intro + 32bx4 + 8b)
Chassez croisez quatre; Chaine des Dames; Le Cavalier et sa Dame en avant deux fois; La Dame reste vis à vis; Les deux Dames chassent autour du Cavalier; 6 Balancez à vos places.

8b    Chassé-croisé quatre (head couples chassé-croisé)
8b    Chaine des dames entière (head couples ladies chain)
4b    Le cavalier et sa dame en avant et en arrière (first couple forward and back)
4b    En avant, laissez la dame avec le cavalier vis-à-vis (forward again; gent retires alone while lady joins second couple)
8b    La Trenis (see below)

Coda figure, once only at the very end:
8b    Chassé-croisé huit (all eight chassé-croisé)

The figure is danced four times, led by each couple in turn.  It is fairly straightforward to reconstruct once one gets past Simonet's odd terminology for the Trenis figure, normally found in figure four.

La Trenis breaks down into two parts: four bars for the two active ladies to cross to the opposite corner of the set while the single gentleman opposite moves to the center, turns, and balances to them, followed by four bars for all three to move back to original positions.  An excellent set of diagrams for La Trenis from a much later manual may be found here and here.  Note that the ladies must move outside the single gentleman in the first half.

The peculiar "6" in the final "6 Balancez a vos places" puzzled me at first.  There is simply no logical way to have six dancers balancing during the second half of La Trenis.  But one other figure in Simonet actually numbers its parts, and if you count the parts of this figure, separated by semi-colons, that is in fact the sixth part.  I believe that the "6" is just an editing (or lack-of-editing) error.

The final chassé-croisé is not given in the source, but as fifth figures go, this one is not very well-constructed in ending with only three dancers actually moving.  It's quite common in Regency-era quadrilles, including some of the others in Simonet, for the final figure to end with an extra eight bars, often a chassé-croisé for all, so I've chosen to add it here.

This reconstruction is dedicated to my wonderful Russian students, with their superb dance skills and boundless interest in new material for this era.  Have fun, and keep asking questions! 

Comments

[Alena Shmakova]

Dear Susan,

Thank you for your wonderful and informative articles. This one together with the post about chase ouvert gave me a clue of what "Figurez à côte changez des Dames" means. I am reconstructing the 2nd set of Nathaniel Gow's quadrilles published in Edinburgh in 1817 and these instructions puzzled me before I read this text.

However, I have a question. Here in Simonet's quadrilles you decided to use only 8 bars of music for these instructions. Would it be possible to increase it to 16 bars? As the Nathaniel Gow's score suggest this length for this movement.
Thank you

Alena

[Susan de Guardiola]

Alena -
I apologize for not spotting this comment sooner. I don't expect the answer is useful to you at this point, but for anyone else -

I think it unlikely to use 16 bars for this figure, because it's already usually padded out with four bars of setting just to make eight bars. I don't think there's enough dance there to fill out another eight. But I'd have to see the Gow quadrille music and instructions to offer a fully informed opinion.