The final post in my series on The Nahant Quadrilles: figure five and some thoughts on the quadrille as a whole!
The original wording:
1st two cross over give right hand. And back give left hand. Form a line. Balancez. Half Promenade. Forward 4. Half right & left to places
This one should look familiar to anyone who has danced the French quadrille: it's a slightly shortened version of the third figure, La Poule. This makes it quite easy to reconstruct, but it does present a problem with the music. The shortened figure is twenty-four bars, while the music has four strains with no indications of any repeat structure. Conveniently, however, the fourth strain is a transposed and elaborated version of the A strain, so for a twenty-four bar figure one could play A + BCA'x4 or perhaps save the A' strain for the last time through and play A + BCAx3 + BCA'. The Spare Parts recording ignores the A' strain and just plays A + BCAx4, which works fine for dancing my reconstruction.
This figure really needs no further commentary; it's La Poule minus eight bars done by the lead pair alone, and the reconstruction is completely straightforward:
Figure Five: "Sophia" A=8b, B=8b, C=8b, A'=8b; played A + BCA(')x4 (8b + 24bx4)
8b Introduction (not repeated)
4b First pair cross by right hands
4b First pair cross back by left hands, giving right to partners to form a wavy line
4b Four balance in wavy line
4b Four half promenade
4b Four forward and back
4b Four half right and left to places
Repeat three more times, led by each pair in turn as in figures 1-2-3
Steps: for the crossing by right and left hands, any of one through three here (the fourth will not work with taking hands). The first is the easiest for the cross by the left to connect with partners. The partners should step up with chassé; jeté, assemblé on the final two bars to take hands with their partners. Pas de basque or a similar in-place setting step for the balance. Three chassé; jeté, assemblé for the promenade and for the half right and left to places. For the forward and back sequence, since this is done holding inside hands with partners, I would recommend keeping it simple and using the first sequence given here.
Patri's version, which may be seen here, is exactly the same as mine. The mid-nineteenth-century American version of the figure changes the pairs into fours and involves a basket figure; perhaps he thought that was too large an alteration.
The only real problem with this figure is that it is a terrible way to end a quadrille, with only two couples moving instead of four. This entire quadrille, in fact, is rather odd that way. Look at the French quadrille, the first set, which set the pattern for quadrilles in the early nineteenth century:
1. Pantalon (four active, done twice)
2. Été (short, by pairs, four times)
3. Poule (four active, by pairs, the wavy line figure)
4. Pastourelle or Trenise (featuring a trio figure)
5. Finale (Été plus a full-set figure)
And now let's look at The Nahant Quadrilles:
1. Été variant plus a full-set figure
2. short, by pairs, four times
3. trio figure (Pastourelle variant)
4. all eight active; done twice
5. Poule variant
It's not unheard for a quadrille to just be a mediocre combination of figures, but, frankly, I would rearrange them:
4. all eight active; done twice
2. short, by pairs, four times
5. Poule variant
3. trio figure (Pastourelle variant)
1. Été variant plus a full-set figure
This gives it a more typical quadrille structure with close parallels to the first set and ends with all dancers in motion. I would further modify the new final figure (former figure 1) to start with a grand chain as well; having the full-set figure done five times bracketing the four repeats of Été is very typical of a Finale figure. The recording does not support this, but live musicians could make it work. But even using the recording, that's a better ending than the original fifth figure.
Since the composer of this quadrille, John Hill Hewitt, is well-known already, the only remaining mystery here is the identity of Miss Rebecca Willson and perhaps the other four ladies after whom the tunes were named. That will have to wait for another time.
Special thanks to Ben & Katy Bishop for first bringing this quadrille to light, to Liz Stell
of Spare Parts for input on the music, and of course to Patri Pugliese, still greatly missed.
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