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Dashing White Sergeant (was Two Chords)
Jim Healy
March 22, 2006, 9:12 a.m. (Message 44832)
Greetings! Simon Scott writes: >As Iain Boyd said earlier two chords would be more useful in the Dashing >White Sergeant. There they would have a valid purpose. The old timers on this list will be unsurprised at my approximately biennial answer to this question. The DWS always did, and IMO should always still, start with a four bar intro. That allows plenty of time for the centre person to acknowledge both partners and both lines of three to make eye contact. Jim Healy Perth and Monaco
Jim Healy wrote: "The old timers on this list will be unsurprised at my approximately biennial answer to this question. The DWS always did, and IMO should always still, start with a four bar intro. That allows plenty of time for the centre person to acknowledge both partners and both lines of three to make eye contact." I'm glad you wrote it again, Jim, as I don't remember reading it before. In fact, I don't remember hearing it on a recording, either. Your remarks had me scurrying for my recordings of DWS. Curiously, as you certainly know, the two RSCDS recordings (Music for Collins Pocket Reference volume 2, and A Scottish Celebration) that I own both have just a single chord. A four-bar, or two-chord, intro clearly makes sense in this type of dance, but I wonder how newer teachers or MCs or musicians could discover that this is an accepted - or even preferred - intro, other than by reading your biennial contribution on the subject on the Strathspey list! I don't suppose there's anything about it in the new manual (in the Bow and Curtsey section) is there? (I don't have my copy of the manual handy.) Chris, New York.
Jim Healy wrote: "The old timers on this list will be unsurprised at my approximately biennial answer to this question. The DWS always did, and IMO should always still, start with a four bar intro. That allows plenty of time for the centre person to acknowledge both partners and both lines of three to make eye contact." Chris wrote: I'm glad you wrote it again, Jim, as I don't remember reading it before. In fact, I don't remember hearing it on a recording, either. Your remarks had me scurrying for my recordings of DWS. Chris, listen to track 9 on Bobby Brown's "Grandfather Mountain" CD, if you have it. It's a very good CD. I always remember DWS this way. Simon Vancouver
Jim Healy wrote: "The old timers on this list will be unsurprised at my approximately biennial answer to this question. The DWS always did, and IMO should always still, start with a four bar intro. That allows plenty of time for the centre person to acknowledge both partners and both lines of three to make eye contact." Add me to the list favouring the 4 bar intro for DWS. And no better version exists (in my opinion) than Ian MacPhail and his band from the tape "Scotland- The Dances and Dance Bands" (Tunes are Dashing White Sergeant, Caddam Woods, and Miss Suzanne Barbour) Jack in Beautiful British Columbia
Greetings! In reply to my original post Chris Ronald writes: >In fact, I don't remember hearing it ( a four bar intro) on a recording, >either. The most recent I know of is Bobby Crowe's Step in Time cassette that I have had transferred to CD. I don't know if that is available commercially. I have also tried, with some success, to reintroduce it when I am MC - the bands have no problem with it and, unlike dancing to the pipes, the majority of less experienced dancers seem to cope as long as they are warned. Jim Healy Perth and Monaco