Trips to Paris

This post is for Allison, Graham, and Alan, who know and care.  

If I expect to get anything done in my life, I cannot spend my time wandering around the net getting irritated by the dance history errors.  But I do pay attention when they arrive by email.  So I noticed when a mailing list query about how best to dance "A Trip to Paris" at a Jane Austen ball appeared in my inbox.  Happily, I was neither the first nor the last list member to jump in with some version of "That dance is from Walsh, from 1711, and does not belong at a Jane Austen ball!"  (Jane Austen lived from 1775-1817, and her dancing days would have started in the early 1790s.)

I did get intrigued by one comment in the ensuing discussion: that the dance had been "republished by Thomas Cahusac in 24 Country Dances for 1794" and therefore might have been danced by Jane Austen.  That's a terrifically specific citation -- hurray! -- but I instantly doubted it, since (1) very few dances or tunes of the earlier style were reprinted that late (young people, then and now, not being particularly into dancing their great-grandparents' dances), and (2) I already knew there were other tunes called "A Trip to Paris" and other dance figures printed with them.  As another list member pointed out, it's a very generic sort of title.

My immediate thought was that the 1794 publication would be a different tune and different figures and that the person who threw that comment in hadn't actually seen Cahusac and was being tripped up by the modern concept that dances and tunes are specific combinations with a unique name.  (Applying modern concepts backward in time is a great way to produce bad history.)  I'd have bet money on it, but it's hard to find anyone who'll bet against me on a dance history question.

Still, me being me, it was worth looking into.  I've been wrong before.  And in the process I made an interesting discovery: we were all wrong!

Come with me on a little research odyssey to see how!

The first stop for me in any country dance research is the wonderful Dances Figures Index: English Country Dances, 1650-1833 database (DFIE), the web version of which is, sadly, down right now due to a website hack.  

DFIE includes Cahusac's Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1794.  And guess what?  There is no "Trip to Paris" listed.  Neither is it in Cahusac's Twelve Country Dances for the Year 1794.  In fact, no dance called "Trip to Paris" is cited in DFIE as being in any Cahusac edition at all.  I wasn't able to track down who originated that citation, but it appeared to be mythical.  

(Such an oddly specific myth, though...)

As for what actually is cited for "Trip to Paris" in DFIE: two books from the Thompsons, one from Johnson, one from Walsh, and one from Playford.  That was it.  But the Walsh listing, the oft-cited source of the modern English country dance version, was for the third book, from 1728, not the second book from 1711.  

Um...what?

Isn't the Walsh citation, the citation that is everywhere, the citation I just referenced on the mailing list, to 1711?

Clearly, I was going to have to check sources one by one, and I didn't have Johnson or either of the Walsh books.  This was going to get tedious.

My next stop was my own collection of scans and photocopies.  I'd already done a quick look through it for the mailing list discussion, but now I was more methodical.  I already knew I had the two Thompson books (one of which simply collected and reprinted several earlier editions), and I turned up four other sources to add to my list.  The Playford was available online in Robert Keller's database of editions of The Dancing Master.  A fellow researcher kindly sent me a scan of the page from Johnson.  A facsimile from Walsh is in The Playford Ball...where it is dated to the third book, 1711.

Um, what?

That couldn't be right.  It was the second book that was from 1711, wasn't it?  Argh!

I asked a friendly librarian to look at microfilms of the Walsh books to see whether "Trip to Paris" was in the second or third book while I set about cross-checking tunes and making an orderly list.  

Not counting reprints, I came up with seven distinct tunes called "A Trip to Paris" across nine different sources.  The tunes in the two Thompson books were naturally identical, one being a reprint of the other.  The only repeat across publishers was between Playford (c1726) and Walsh (TBD).  Eight of the sources included dance figures.  None of them were the same except the two Thompsons and the Playford/Walsh pair.  One was not even a country dance figure.  

The librarian got back to me to let me know that "Trip to Paris" was definitely in Walsh's third book, but he couldn't help on the dating issue.

So, to recap, so far I had:

• seven distinct tunes
• six distinct sets of dance figures, one of which was a cotillon rather than a country dance
• a problem with the Walsh citation

The different tunes and figures were just what I'd expected, but there was still one more wrinkle to deal with besides the Walsh dating mystery: the fact that one of the sources in my own collection was, in fact, from none other than the infamous Cahusac, of the incorrect 1794 citation.  But my source was from 1764.  

Wait a minute...

1764...1794?  

Someone flipped a digit.  

But who?  Modern mistake or eighteenth-century typesetting error?

I looked at the cover layouts of other editions of Cahusac (1785, 1790, 1796) and at the addresses on them.  My copy was clearly not of a book from the 1790s; the cover design didn't fit.  The address was also not the one Cahusac used in the 1790s, but it checked out to 1764.  

So it seems likely that the mistaken "Cahusac 1794" citation originated when someone looked at this edition of Cahusac, saw "A Trip to Paris", and somehow noted it as 1794 instead of 1764.  It happens.  But even half-validating the Cahusac citation doesn't support using the Playford/Walsh tune and dance for a Jane Austen ball, because (1) 1764 is more than a decade before she was born, and (2), as noted above, it's a different tune and different figures from the earlier version anyway.

Cahusac resolved to my satisfaction, that just left the dating of Walsh.  I am no expert on early eighteenth-century country dance sources, and I don't have copies of enough Walsh manuals (there are several dozen) to even start working at the problem.  I really was not planning to make this a years-long project!  

I deferred the question to eighteenth-century expert Kate Van Winkle Keller, who very kindly explained in private correspondence that in the sixteen years between the publication of The Playford Ball (1990) and DFIE (2006), research on Walsh had progressed substantially, and that the correct date for the third book was now considered to be c1728.

That means that the citations for the modern version (tune and figures) of "A Trip to Paris" ought properly to be Playford Vol. 3, 2nd ed., c1726, and Walsh, 3d book, c1728.  Not 1711.  

Just thinking about all the people and websites that are very reasonably citing 1711 as their source for "Trip to Paris" compared to the number of people who will ever look at either DFIE or this article and update their references makes my head hurt.

I'll append a list of all my "Trip to Paris" citations below, but there's one last little bit of information to throw in.

As part of my research process, I did a quick dig through the online indexes at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House in London.  That didn't turn up any new versions of "A Trip to Paris", but I did notice something else interesting: a cross-listing with some dance called "Orielton House" that appeared in four editions of the second volume of Playford, dated c1710 or 1713 (bibliographies differ on this), 1714, 1718, and 1728.  

I took a look at "Orielton House" to see what inspired the cross-listing, and what I found was the very same figures as the c1726/1728 "Trip to Paris" attached to a completely different tune.  Compare the Playford printings of "Orielton House" and "Trip to Paris" and see for yourself.

So the dance figures for the modern version of "A Trip to Paris" can be correctly cited to c1710 or 1713 - c1728.  The tune and the combination of tune and figures to c1726/1728.  That should give matching headaches to the folks who insist that the currently-popular figures were composed specifically to match the 'Trip to Paris" tune, eh?

To wind things up, below is a list of my sources for "A Trip to Paris" tunes, plus "Orielton House" for the cognate figures.  I've included the text of the five sets of country dance figures for comparison.  The tune matches are 1a/1b and 4a/4b.  

Note that for the most part these are listed by publisher, and that the publisher was generally not either the composer of the music or the creator of the dance figures.  Country dance works are traditionally cited by publisher ("Playford, Vol. 3, 2nd ed.", e.g.) because that's the only information we have.

A final caveat: this list shows my best current information.  But it is quite conceivably incomplete.  My collection of country dance sources is enormous, but there are many known sources that I don't have and many still undiscovered in public and private collections.  In particular, the first edition of the third volume of Playford is not indexed in the Dancing Master database, and is not even definitively dated.  I'm not sure anyone's found a surviving copy.  It might well include "Trip to Paris" and change the earliest citation yet again.  

The evolution in the dating of the Walsh books is not an aberration; as the knowledge of country dance history expands, we get better and better at these things.  So fix "Trip to Paris" citations, by all means; that's one reason I wrote this article.  But keep in mind that no list like this can ever be truly definitive!

Special thanks to Josh Kantor for digging through microfilm for me and to Kate Van Winkle Keller for her generous assistance with the dating problems with Walsh's books!

---------------------------------------

Sources for things called "A Trip to Paris", c1710-1815

0. "Orielton House"
Playford, Henry (publisher). The Dancing Master, Vol. 2, 1st-4th editions, London, c1710 or 1713 - c1728.
(Same figures as 1a/1b below but different tune.)

1a. "A Trip to Paris"
Playford, Henry (publisher). The Dancing Master, Vol. 3, 2nd edition, London, c1726.
1b. "A Trip to Paris"
Walsh, John (publisher).  The New Country Dancing Master, The 3d. Book, London, c1728.  Facsimile in The Playford Ball.
(Same tune and figures in 1a/1b; these are the source of the popular modern dance.  Figures match 0 above.)

    The 1st and 2d. cu. set across and turn all four round single, then set again and turn to your own places || then cross below the 2d. cu. and up again to your own places, the 1st man change place with the 2d. wo. and the 1st. wo. with the 2d. man, then hands half round and cast off ||

2. "A Trip to Paris"
Johnson, John (publisher).  A Choice Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, Vol. 8.  London, c1753.

    Turn your Partner with the right hand & cast off .|.  foot it 4 at Bottom and hands 4 round .||. Lead up to the Top and cast off .|. Right and Left at Top :||:

3. "A Trip to Paris"
Cahusac, Thomas (publisher).  Twenty Four Country Dances...For the Year 1764.  London, 1764.
(Some figures on the left edge are so faint as to be unreadable.  Line breaks from the original are maintained below for clarity.)

    1st Man set to the 2d. Wo and not turn lead his partner
    ????? Cu cast up | the Wo do the same || cross over two
    ????? up to the top foot it and cast off | hands six round
    right and Left at top ||

4a. "Trip to Paris"
Thompson, Charles & Samuel (publishers). Twenty Four Country Dances For the Year 1771.  London, 1771.
4b. "Trip to Paris"
Thompson, Charles & Samuel (publishers). Thompson's Compleat Collection of 200 Fashionable Country Dances. Vollm III.  London, 1773.
(4b is a reprint collection of several previous smaller Thompson books, including 4a.  Tune and figures are the same in both.)

    Figure down contrary sides | up again on your own sides || right hands across | left hands back || sett all 4 and change places | the same back again || cross over one Cu. and turn | right and left ||

5. "Trip to Paris or French Country Bumpkin" Cotilion [sic]
Werner, Francis (publisher).  Book XIII for the Year 1780.  Eleven Cotillions two Country Dances and two Minuets... London, 1780.
(This is not the nine-person reel called "Country Bumpkin"; it is actually a version of the Boulanger.  The tune is different from either "Country Bumpkin" or the "Boulanger" recorded on The Regency Ballroom.)

6. "Trip to Paris"
Walker, G. (publisher).  Walker's Collection of Annual Dances for the Year [   ] No 2.  London, c1803.
(No dance figures given.  Year was left blank; dating is by comparison with other Walker collections.)

7. "A Trip to Paris"
Parry, John (arranger).  Goulding & Cos. Collection of New and Favorite Country Dances, Reels & Waltzes... London, 1815.
(Parry is credited as the arranger of the music, not necessarily the composer, and almost certainly not the creator of the dance figures, which are generic figures used with many other tunes.)

    Hands four round, back again, down the middle, & Allemand.

Comments

[Rostik]

Exciting peice of dance research!

[Charlie R]

where can I find the no. 5 cotillion printed?
and...WOW!

[Susan de Guardiola]

Rostik: eh, this is routine work for me. I just don't bother doing it all that often for particular names-of-tunes unless there is some reason.

Charlie: are you looking for the tune or the dance instructions? Neither has ever been reprinted as far as I know. Thanks for the WOW!

[Allison Thompson]

I echo the "Wow!" Nice bit of detective work, Susan! I have grown to be a little more tolerant of Jane Austen balls that feature OOP dances (that's out of period) because, well, otherwise one goes mad and runs screaming into the night. But I wish more English country dance callers would read articles like this and then make conscious choices to go OOP--and make it clear that they are!--rather than continue to think that anything "old" is OK for Jane. Jane didn't dance Mr Beveridge's Maggot (featured at almost every JA ball I've been to because 'it's in the movie') or Jenny Pluck Pears or Sellenger's Round or Trip to Paris!

I'm the Allison in the inscription and, yes I do care! And I am proud to be grouped with Graham and Alan.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Thanks, Allison!

[Birte Hoffmann-Cabenda]

May I add that there is Cotillion for 2 couples called "La Bohaimiene" in the Durlach manuscript (first half of the 18th cent.) to the same tune as Playford's "Trip to Paris". Nicoline Winkler taught it at the 3rd Rothenfelds conference in 2012, and Phillipe Gallens recognized the music.

[Marnen Laibow-Koser]

Fun fact: Orielton House and Playford's Trip to Paris may have the same figures, but the tunes are different lengths.