| The English Dancing-Master pub. by John Playford Orig. Pub. 1651 The catches below were written sometime before the publication date shown, as they were to advertize the FIRST edition of The Dancing Master, which was published by John Carr. Mr. Carr and Mr. Playford collaborated on the catch's creation, although the idea for it is attributed to Sir John Eccles. At any rate, it may just be the first example of a commercial "jingle" in evidence! Also of interest are the changes that have occurred in musical notation since the publication of these pages (1728) which used "The New Ty'd-Note" notation of 1724 (a considerable improvement on previous methodology) For your amusement, here are two pages from the 1728 edition, showing a 6/4 tune (on your left) and a reel-type tune (on your right) and with translations into modern musical notation. (CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE) The page music is "Mount Hills" from the original 1651 publications, as amended by Brian Creer and myself. For these illustrations, I am indebted to The American Memory Site of The Library Of Congress, a most unusual and informative collection of.... everything! I recommend the following links to those further interested in this work and the music published in it. In any case, searching on the net thru “Google” (simply the best search engine going for initial web-browses) for either “John Playford”, "The Dancing Mster” or ”The English Dancing Master” will produce many more hits than most people care to pursue. Robert M. Keller’s examination and interpretations Jeff Lee’s examination and interpretations “The Round”, an English dance society’s links to Playford’s music and dances All of the “English Dancing Master’s” musics in ABC format as input by a member of “The Society For Creative Anachronisim”, Filip of the Marche. The full Playford book can be seen HERE |
| Catch to advertize the initial publication of "The Dancing Master" in linear form (for learning purposes) Same Catch in three-part form as it would sound when sung |
| Click on any illustration to see the full sized picture |
| Return to: Other Music O'Neill's Main Page Website Main Page |