strathspey@strathspey.org:44622

John Chambers

Re: Islay

March 10, 2006, 8:05 p.m. (Message 44622, in reply to message 44618)

Bryan McAlister remarked:
| I have found in the past that sometimes this kind of situation arises
| when someone pinches and alters an existing dance for some local
| occasion and little is heard of it again.
| A few years ago I was asked to call a "Fair Isle Jig" at a dance,
| couldn't find it anywhere and by anywhere I mean contacting musicians in
| Fair Isle etc. to no avail.  Ten minutes before the dance started I was
| handed a crib by the dance organiser someone had just taken the Virginia
| Reel, decided to play it to a jig and call it the Fair Isle Jig.

It's somewhat conventional to point out that the  American  "Virginia
Reel"  is essentially the same dance as the one published by Playford
under the title "Sir Roger de Coverly", whose tune was a slipjig. Forms
of the dance go way back all over northern Europe.

The dance doesn't really have a strict  relation  to  the  tune,  and
that's  part of why it's commonly used with novice crowds.  So people
can and do use pretty much any tunes that  they  like  (that  can  be
played at a walking tempo).

I wonder if the actual origin of the dance is known.  More likely it's
one of those dances that lots of people have (re)named and claimed.


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   O   John Chambers
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