I have a vague recollection of hearing about sung contras one time, and was
wondering if indeed there are any, and any resources available for learning them
(from here in Australia). Just hearing Ralph Sweet on the CDSS website doing The
Auctioneer reminded me.
cheers
Jeanette
The piano - 88 little mistakes waiting to happen; Peter Barnes
Indeed, Ralph Page used to chant along with the music in quite a melodious way.
Not sure if you'd call them "singing contras" since he wasn't always following
th exact tune, but he did call some dances as one would a singing square, with
plenty of rhyming couplets and with the calls coming at the same time as the
action.
Here's an example he provided of how he'd call Lady Walpole's Reel.
http://tinyurl.com/27zv8zm
David Millstone
Earlier today on sharedweight.net, Dan Pearl credited me with devising
lyrics to Petronella. I wish I deserved it.
I've heard several callers sing dance directions to the tune, Sarah Gregory
Smith among others. But I think that most of us who are familiar with a sung
version learned it from Dudley Laufman, either live or recorded.
Dudley says that in the case of Petronella, he embellished the habit of
chanting the calls that we both remember from Ralph Page. And he adds that
several callers used to chant the calls to many dances along with the tune:
Duncan Hay, Joe Blundon, Dick Best...Today Ralph Sweet does it, too.
Years ago I did make up verses giving dance directions to some of the
classic contras, singing each either to the classic tune or to a
counter-melody that I devised if the fiddle tune was not very singable. But
I believe that the version of Petronella that Dan quoted is Dudley's
creation.
Tony Saletan
Zounds! What a topic. :-)
Maybe someone do dissertation research on this, also addressing the connected themes of perfectionism & high achievement among (a) leaders in general, from business to community to education to gov't, and (b) hard-core dancers in general. (An alternative thesis: Does the society of callers tend to attract a high proportion of analytical souls?)
I had some off-list exchanges about my post, and one person sent this:
"I often think of Sigmund Freud's phrase, 'the narcissism of small differences.'"
It may relate to keeping perspective, but in any case I thought it was a quote worth sharing w the larger list.
Chrissy Fowler
Belfast ME
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2010 10:51:12 -0700
> From: Joyce Miller joyceling(a)sbcglobal.net
(...)
> In any case, I've been wondering for many years if the society of callers might tend to attract in higher proportion folks who are hard on themselves (and therefore others), expect perfection, and have been (or want to be) high achievers. I don't recall ever seeing this topic broached on any callers' discussion group.
> But I know from my own experience how those impulses can lead to a loss of perspective.
Tony Saletan (formerly from Boston, now in Seattle) has been known to sing lyrics of his own devising to chestnut contras. For example, for Petronella:
You go
'round to the right, and you balance to your partner. You go
'round to the right, and you balance once again. You go
'round to the right, and you balance to your partner. You go
'round to the right, and you balance once again. Now
down the center with your own. Turn around come right back home.
Cast off with the twos and you right and left right over.
Right and left -- go over and go back again... etc.
What a fun question.
This is not "real" singing, but because I sang for years before learning to
call, I often find myself matching the pitch of my voice to the key the band is
playing in. At first, this happened subconsciously. Dancers have commented on
how they find that 'singing' pleasing, which at first embarrassed me since I
wasn't even aware I was doing it and it's unusual. Now when I know the tune, I
sometimes will 'sing' entire lines to the tune, just for fun.
I once heard Roger Diggle call in a way that held out certain phrases in a long
singing fashion - "there's your traaaaaaail buddy," which added considerably to
my enjoyment of the dance.
I think 'singing' contra bits can help some calls be much more integrated with
the music and dancers' moves than the more currently common 'chop chop' spoken
calling style, especially because singing the call helps us stay right on
rhythm.
Someone told me that Ralph Page used to 'sing' calls like that too. Maybe it's
time to bring it back!
Tina
Singing Call contra: "Slaunch to Donegal"
Lloyd Shaw has it.
Bob Livingston
Middletown, CT
--- On Wed, 8/4/10, Jeanette Mill <jeanette_mill(a)yahoo.com.au> wrote:
> From: Jeanette Mill <jeanette_mill(a)yahoo.com.au>
> Subject: [Callers] Sung contras
> To: "Caller's discussion list" <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
> Date: Wednesday, August 4, 2010, 9:19 AM
> I have a vague recollection of
> hearing about sung contras one time, and was
> wondering if indeed there are any, and any resources
> available for learning them
> (from here in Australia). Just hearing Ralph Sweet on the
> CDSS website doing The
> Auctioneer reminded me.
>
> cheers
> Jeanette
>
> The piano - 88 little mistakes waiting to happen;
> Peter Barnes
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Callers mailing list
> Callers(a)sharedweight.net
> http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
>
> To present a "barn dance" using recorded music sounds
> pretty shabby. If we hold to our standards I think the dance form
> will benefit from that.
Geez, Greg. Shabby? Sigh.
In my calling practice, I'm all about holding to my standards and I earnestly strive to support live musicians (and even the occasional dead one).
I imagine that's the case for every single person on this list.
However, I am also concerned with giving non-dancers a joyful experience, and with earning a living. If it's either a dance for them/gig for me with recorded music or no dance/gig at all, I choose the former, with absolutely no ethical pangs whatsoever. It's not like it's murder or theft or assault or an ethical lapse of that magnitude. But if some other caller would rather hold to different standards, well then, that's their choice. (Again, it's not on the order of egregious ethical lapses if they choose to withhold a joyful dance experience from others.)
Now, as far as benefitting our dance form and simultaneously supporting dance musicians, well there are dozens more ways** to do that than giving a fiddler a single paid gig, including these: (**And no single person can do all of these things all the time.)
1 - Produce a dance series which (a) pays musicians and callers well, both in dollars and in positive feedback for their efforts (b) carries on our dance form, (c) provides an opportunity for non-professional performers to play/call, (d) contributes to general joy in world, e=etc
2 - Serve in an organization which (a) promotes our dance/music form, (b) provides opportunities for people to learn from one another, (c) sells recordings/books/supplies connected to our dance form, (d) produces events for experienced and neophtye dancers/callers/musicians, e=etc
3 - Promote our dance form through individual efforts such as (a) advocating for worthy compensation, financial & otherwise, for self and co-performers whenever possible, (b) purchase and use recordings by dance musicians and books by callers, (c) learning new aspects of the tradition, (d) supporting others who are doing this work, e=etc
Now, this last point leads to a recent personal mission of mine. Lately it has been troubling me that many of us in our traditional dance/music subculture* choose to point fingers or name-call or criticize practices which aren't exactly like ours or otherwise belittle or tear down our peers. (*Yes, folks, remember it is a SUBculture, as in a MINISCULE proportion of the larger whole.)
But, whether it's chestnuts/modern, squares/contras, old-time/northern, totally-trad/non-trad-envelope-pushers, young/old, fast/slow, straightforward/flourishes, catering-to-hard-core/focusing-on-neophytes, recordings/live music, kids/adults, no-swings/2-swings or whatever the supposed conflict or failing, every single flavor of these callers/musicians/dancers is ADDING SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL TO THE WORLD, and that, my friends, is something I think ought to be honored and appreciated.
So what I've been doing (and, perhaps tiresomely, encouraging others of my caller/musician friends to do) is focusing on that thought in CAPS, especially when a caller or musician or dancer does something that annoys me, or isn't what I'd do, or has some sort of minor failing in my opinion, or is getting more attention than I think their work merits, etc. So I'm working to quiet the outward expression of my critical thoughts, and simultaneously to look for and reinforce the positive instead.
Because really, even an offering that I might rate with a B- or C+ or even D grade is disseminating traditional dance & music values in the larger culture, and every bit of disseminating can benefit all of us in the world.
Well, that was a bit longer than I envisioned. As David Millstone quoted, "If I'd had more time, I'd have written a shorter letter."
Maybe some other time I'll outline my "Dance as Social Change Agent" theory. Or maybe not.
Cheers,
Chrissy Fowler
Belfast, ME
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
website www.chrissyfowler.com
dance series www.belfastflyingshoes.org
telephone 207-338-0979
Hi Bill,
Wow, thanks! It sounds like the resource at UNH will soon be expanded significantly because of your help.
The lists of dances from the 1988 and 1989 weekends that Roland has put up were made by Ted Sannella, before anyone started making a full syllabus for the event. The first syllabus was the one that you scanned from 1990. I did not know (and was excited to learn) that Roland had found Ted's list from 1989, and so it was not reflected in my index. After receiving your note yesterday I updated the index to include 1989. Meanwhile, I happen to have Ted's list from 1993, and so that year is already reflected in the index. I sent Roland a scan of that list along with the updated index, so I suspect those two pieces will go up on the UNH site pretty soon.
It is even possible that recordings were made of one or more of the missing years. If so, I have no doubt that they will surface eventually and be used to make a more complete record. (That is, in fact, how the 1997 syllabus was made.)
This may be more detail than most people need or want. The short version is that the Ralph Page weekend's online resource is getting better and better over time. What fun!
David Smukler
>
> Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:19:08 +1200
> From: Liz and Bill <staf186(a)ext.canterbury.ac.nz>
> To: Caller's discussion list <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
> Subject: Re: [Callers] Ralph Page Syllabi
> Message-ID: <4C49264C.3050805(a)ext.canterbury.ac.nz>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Hi David(s) and others,
>
> I agree with you all that the Ralph Page syllabi are a fantastic
> resource. Especially so for me being at the end of the world here
> in NZ.
>
> David Millstone suggested I contact UNH library and ask about
> earlier years.
>
> Roland the librarian in charge of the Ralph Page collection
> has been very helpful and has started to scan more syllabi.
> He said it may take awhile as the scanning produced multiple
> large files which need to be combined, and he has other
> work to do.
>
> Since I'm retired, I offered to help him from here. So today using
> the power of the internet I've been remotely accessing the university
> of Canterbury (where I am still an 'associate' ) to process files
> Roland sent me for 1990, 1991 and 1995.
>
> So now there are text based pdf documents available - they are
> searchable and not too large. I've uploaded them back to Roland, so
> they should appear on the web
> www.library.unh.edu/special/index.php/ralph-page-dance-legacy-weekend
> very soon.
>
> He will send me 1994 and 1996 soon, and the search is on for 1992 and 1993 if
> they exist.
>
> Note that 1988 and 1989 are there now, however they are only one page
> programs with details.
>
> Cheers, Bill
And I've heard it called "immoral" or sometimes "illicit."
April Blum
In a message dated 8/2/2010 3:36:43 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
callers-request(a)sharedweight.net writes:
Luke asked:
> >
> > If the 1s and the 2s cross? I'd be inclined towards anti-proper or
> > maybe improper-indecent (a mouthful). This was the question that
> > prompted the query.
> >
>
So from the stage, all the men are on the left and all the ladies on the
right? In keeping with the improper and indecent themes, I've heard this
formation referred to as "downright scandalous." But it may have been more
for the schtick than the etymology.
--Jerome
