Years ago, when I was working intensely on the “York set” of variations (see here, here, here, here, and here), I somehow skipped The Latest York, possibly because, unlike all those other “Yorks”, it does not feature the characteristic York step sequence of slide-close-slide-cut/close in “1&23” rhythm.

M. B. Gilbert published The Latest York in his Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) “by permission of Constantine Carpenter, Son, and Charles C. Martel”.  This style of credit generally refers to the choreographer of the sequence and/or composer of the music.  The same pair are also credited with the Gavotte Glide.  Carpenter is listed in Gilbert’s directory of dancing masters as living in Philadelphia.  Martel is not in Gilbert’s directory, but his name appears in Philadelphia newspapers (The Times, October 21, 1894, e.g.) during the 1890s offering parties and lessons.

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Moving right along with late nineteenth-century variations from the usual pair of M. B. Gilbert (Round Dancing, Portland, Maine, 1890) and G. W. Lopp (La Danse, Paris, 1903), here’s a short one that’s classified as a redowa or mazurka.  Lopp attributed La Rye to Gilbert, who had previously printed it in his own work without attribution.  Gilbert did not ever credit himself specifically in his own book, unfortunately, which makes it difficult to be absolutely certain of the attribution.

The name of the variation suggests that it was meant to be danced to a musical setting of the famous Robert Burns poem, “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye“, which was set in both waltz and schottische rhythms (including both alternately in the Rye Waltz, a sequence dance dating back to at least the 1890s).  The waltz version of the tune, which may be heard on this YouTube video, is not accented like a redowa or mazurka and does not offer especially good musical support to this sequence of steps.  There may have been a version published with a more mazurka- or redowa-like style, but I haven’t been able to locate one.  Skilled musicians might also be able to tweak it musically on the fly.  It’s also possible that there was a completely different tune called “The Rye”, but I actually find this less likely, as the word was so strongly associated with a particular tune.  There was a 1922 novelty dance (“The New Rye Dance”) published which combined a “redowa, Rye movement, and waltz” using “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye”, but that’s much too late to mean anything more than that people really liked adapting “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye” for dancing.

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