This is the week of the U. S. Open, one of the four major tennis tournaments, so it's a perfect time for Lawn Tennis!
The Lawn Tennis Quadrille, usually referred to just as "Lawn Tennis", was published in 1881 as sheet music by George W. Allen with figures "composed by the society of Professors of Dancing, New York". This raises the frightening specter of a quadrille composed by committee, which is unusual but not unprecedented in the nineteenth century.
New York dancing master and author William De Garmo, in the third edition of The Dance of Society (reprinted exactly in the fourth and fifth editions) added some detail, noting that Lawn Tennis was introduced on January 2, 1881, and attributing it specifically to Lawrence De Garmo Brookes, it merely having been "accepted" by The American Society of Professors of Dancing, New York. The cover image at left (click to enlarge), from a copy online at IN Harmony: Sheet Music from Indiana at Indiana University, shows a nice mixed doubles set with a trio of spectators, the ladies in lovely "natural form" gowns. Only one of them is actually watching the game.
Lawn Tennis pops up in a number of American dance manuals and call books during the 1880s, but it's difficult to say how popular it was with the general public. Dancing masters would certainly have tried to push it with their students; it was advertised, for example, on the list of dances taught for the 1882-1883 season by A. J. Webster in Wilmington, Delaware (Daily Gazette, September 16, 1882). It turns up now and then in newspaper coverage of balls -- for example, on a list of dances from a children's recital in St. Paul Minnesota in 1883 (covered in the Daily Globe). There was enough general awareness of its existence for it to have appeared on a sort of hypothetical program from 1888 that was never actually danced (more about this program here) and in a rather gooey romantic tale in 1886, "Love to Rescue", that appeared in The Butler [Missouri] Weekly Times on March 10, 1886:
He was a fine fellow, and Betty knew it. He had never looked nobler than he did at that moment; but De Vaux was a gentleman with invisible means of support; his hands were white, and he could dance the lawn tennis quadrilles beautifully.
Regardless of its popularity in historical practice, the figures are unusual and interesting, worth reconstructing in and of themselves.
Here's a quick list of some sources for Lawn Tennis:
- Sheet music, 1881, with dance figures both within the staves and separately, at The Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection at Johns Hopkins University
- Sheet music, 1881, with dance figures within the staves only, at IN Harmony: Sheet Music from Indiana at Indiana University
- William B. De Garmo, The Dance of Society, third/fourth/fifth editions (New York, c1881-1892)
- Cartier's practical illustrated waltz instructor, ball room guide, and call book (New York, 1882)
- Interview with C. H. Rivers in the Evening Star (Washington, D. C., November 21, 1882, p.7); fifth figure only
- Mathias J. Koncen, Prof. M. J. Koncen's quadrille call book and ball room guide (St. Louis, 1883)
- C. H. Rivers, A Full Description of Modern Dances (Brooklyn, c1885)
All of these except Koncen use the same wording, the authors having presumably copied the instructions word-for-word from those published with the sheet music. Koncen's calls are mostly in agreement, with some minor differences in wording, but in figures three and four, he flat-out misinterpreted the instructions.
Since Lawn Tennis has specific music, of which I am not aware of any existing recording, dancing it is going to be limited to those with access to live musicians. The sheet music may be downloaded at the links above.
On to the figures!
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Figure One: Measuring the Ground
Music: A=8b, B=8b, C=16b, played A+ (BCA x4)
8b Introduction (not repeated)
2b Head couple forward towards center
2b Head couples turn away from partners and walk forward to sides
2b Head couples backward along side of set
2b Head couples face partners and walk forward to meet
(Head couples have moved, individually, along square tracks)
4b Head couples turn to right diagonal, sides to left; forward and back
4b Forward again and change partners, ladies changing places to return with opposite gentlemen
(Pairs are now: 1st lady/3rd gent, 2nd lady/4th gent, 3rd lady/1st gent, 4th lady/2nd gent)
4b Head couples turn to left diagonal, sides to right; forward and back
4b Forward again and change partners, ladies crossing to return with opposite gentlemen
(Ladies are now opposite their original places)
4b Ladies' Half Double Chain: all four ladies cross right hands and go round halfway to original places, then turn partners by the left hand
4b All two-hand turn partners
Repeat all of the above as written once more.
Repeat all of the above twice more with side couples leading.
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Yes, each figure comes with a name, the first and fifth of which are actually related to tennis. Here, the dancers are tracing the outlines of the four sections of a tennis court with an imaginary net in the center. Enlarge the cover image above for a good view of the lines.
This is a very straightforward figure to reconstruct and match to the music. All steps are walking steps, two per measure. On the third and fourth repeats, the side couples perform the squares and then turn to the right initially, heads turning to the left, then vice-versa. It's mildly annoying to go through this figure four times; two would be more aesthetically pleasing, since there would be no exact repeats. But the instructions do specify four times through.
The only ambiguity in the instructions is that the original description of the forward and back/forward and ladies change places on the side used the term "balance":
FIRST AND SECOND COUPLES BALANCE WITH COUPLE ON THEIR RIGHT...4
EXCHANGE PARTNERS, all the gentlemen returning to their place with opposite ladies...4
There are several ways to do a "balance" in the late nineteenth century, but the most typical for a figure like this would be simply going forward and back directly toward the other couple. This is supported by Koncen, who described the figure as:
Head Couples: Forward to the right and back - 4 bars
Forward again and change partners - 4 bars
On the second forward and back, "head couples" and "side couples" refer to the people in those places in the set, not to individuals' original roles. "Head couples" thus means the head gentlemen (who are in their original places) and whatever ladies are currently with them.
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This series continues with figures two and three here.
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