Butchers and Drovers Ball, 1842

I finally got to spend some time recently looking through Philadelphia newspaper microfilms, investigating the mysterious (and unlikely) "Cauliflower Chemi" appearing on the 1842 Butchers and Drovers Ball program transcribed by Charles K. Jones in his 2006 biography of Francis Johnson. 

I was able to find the newspaper announcement with the ball program in the pages of Philadelphia's Public Ledger (Vol. XII, No. 139, February 28, 1842).  

Printing from a very tiny newspaper ad on a low-resolution microfilm which only gets blurrier when enlarged does not produce very good results, so I can see why Jones, lacking a dance background, had trouble figuring out the names of dances.  After a lot of squinting, I was able to determine that "Chemi" was actually "Cheat", which makes considerably more sense.  The full line reads:

4. Cauliflower.  Cheat.

Both are popular "promiscuous figures", which could be substituted in for other figures in a quadrille or, apparently, danced as independent figures one or two at a time.  I'm not sure I've ever seen such direct evidence of that on a dance program before.

Since the image from the microfilm is next to useless, I'm going to retranscribe the full program, then talk a little about it below.

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

Butchers and Drovers Ball

The managers have adopted the following Programme, which will be strictly observed on the occasion, viz:

No. 1. Butchers and Drovers' Grand March composed Expressly for the occasion by Frank Johnson as a Promenade
    2. Bayadere Quadrille
    3. Sonnambula do. 
        Refreshments
    4. Cauliflower.  Cheat.
    5. Voice Quadrille No. 1
        Refreshments
    6. Cracovienna Quad Quadrille.
    7. Postillion, do.
        Refreshments 
    8. Philadelphia Firemen's Quad.
    9. Basket Quadrille.
        Refreshments
    10. Norma Quadrille.
    11. E Flat Bugle do. 
        Refreshments
    12. Grand Promenade March.
    13. Johnson's New Bird Waltz
        Refreshments
    14. Joan of Arc Quadrille.
    15. Voice Quadrille No. 2, accompanied by the Bell Harmonicon.
        Refreshments
    16. The New Year's Quadrille.
    17. Parisian do., or Spanish Dance.
        Refreshments
    18. Italian Theatre Quadrille.
    19. The Villagers' do.
        Refreshments
    20. The Lady on the Lake
    21. The Swiss Cottage
    22. Virginia Reel.

        N.B. Gentlemen are requested not to take their places on the Floor, except at the sound of the bugle.
        N.B. Children will not be admitted to participate in the Cotillion.
        Carriages will set down heads West and take up heads East.
        By order of the Managers MARTIN BORAPP, Sec'ry.

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

Isn't that fascinating?  There's so much interesting information here!  I'll put it in list form:

• The "do." that appears over and over just means "ditto" and refers to the word "Quadrille".  So all the "something-do" dances are still more quadrilles.  Most of the listed quadrilles were probably just different sets of tunes, with the dancers still dancing the figures of the standard "first set".  It might well be possible to track down the sheet music.

• The Grand March/Promenade at the beginning and the Grand Promenade March at the halfway point.  Was that already an American custom in 1842 or was it a result of Johnson carrying his militia music into the ballroom and creating a new tradition?

• No formal intermission, just little refreshment breaks every couple of dances.

• There are almost no couple dances.  We're still pre-polka in 1842, but Johnson composed galops, so I'm a little surprised not to see one on here.  And there's just the one waltz.  Perhaps the galop was going out of style?  One program is insufficient data to draw conclusions, alas.

• Promiscuous figures outside quadrilles.  Along with Cauliflower and Cheat at no. 4, there is also the Basket Quadrille at no. 9, and the New Year's at no. 16.  It's possible that the latter two are full quadrilles rather than promiscuous figures, but those are known names of popular individual figures.

• Unsurprisingly in a Francis Johnson program, his trademark Voice Quadrilles (partly sung) and his Firemen Quadrilles and New Bird Waltz (both performed with sound effects).  The E Flat Bugle Quadrille is also significant; the bugle was the instrument at which Johnson was famously very skilled.  Note that they also used a bugle to signal the dancers to take the floor.

• The Cracovienna Quadrille.  Just using music on a Krakow theme, or somehow associated with the dance called Cracovienne?

• Opera music as source for quadrille tunes?  Norma and Joan of Arc are possibilities.

• At no. 17, the option of either the Parisian Quadrille or a Spanish Dance.  I'd guess the latter to be the famous mid-century Spanish Dance (improper waltz-time country dance) rather than some sort of characteristic or fancy dance.

• I'm not sure what "Swiss Cottage" is, but in the company of the preceding "Lady on the Lake" (probably "Lady of the Lake") and following Virginia Reel, I'd bet that it's a country dance as well.  That trio is an interesting way to end a ball.

• The details about the carriages at the end and on which side of the street they will pull up for drop offs and pickups.  Not relevant to the dancing, but an amusing background detail!

• And, finally, "Children will not be admitted to participate in the Cotillion."  What cotillion?  There's none listed on the program.  I would guess that this means that at the end of the ball someone conducted a cotillion, in the "series-of-dance-party-games" sense of the word.  Even the implied documentation of this in America in 1842 is very useful data.

It's interesting to compare this program to that of an 1847 ball in Milwaukee, which had more couple dances (though still no polka!) mixed primarily with cotillions, though not the party-game sort.

Comments

[Marnen Laibow-Koser]

Very cool. A few thoughts:

• Sonnambula is probably an opera quadrille; perhaps Italian Theatre too. I was initially wondering about Bayadere as well, but the popular ballet of that name is from 1877, and I can't quickly find reference to an earlier opera or ballet of that name. But maybe.
• "Children will not be admitted to participate in the Cotillion." I gather that at some periods, "cotillion" has referred to the ball as a whole. I assume this is not such a period?
• I have a dim memory of hearing of a county dance called Swiss Cottage, but I could be wrong. Let me see if I can dig anything up.