On 11th November I presented at the Folk Song Conference held at Cecil Sharp House.

I spoke about the folk song recordings made by Tony Wales at the end of the 1950s and beginning of the 1960s. I acquired the recordings which were all recorded on reel-reel tape in the the 1990s, and part of the sales agreement was that I would make them available in the future, That I have done and they can be found on the Sussex Traditions website.  Look here: https://sussextraditions.org

I am satisfied with my presentation. I was within my 20 minute limit, I spoke clearly and at a good speed. There was a problem with some of the embedded sound files, they all finished about 10 seconds early.

Tony Wales wrote about Sussex and its traditions. He wrote for a public audience, which means that it does not necessarily have academic rigour. His writing often includes stories or comment without the evidence to back it up fully.

Tony was one of many collectors operating at that time in small localities such as Horsham where he lived. They were self-funding and often worked alone. Although their work may be flawed, we do owe them a huge debt: without them our knowledge, and in this case actual recordings of the singers would not have taken place and we would have been poorer for that.

It is about a month before I need to submit my essay.

I have been looking at the development of Country dance between about 1650 and 1900. Country dance includes the dances published by Playford, the longways dances that developed during the 1700s, quadrilles, waltz, polka and many others. I have found out many things. In particular I would like to draw your attention to three items.

Firstly, during this period dancers have started dancing closer together for longer period of time. Think about this for a minute. In longways sets that were common in the 1700s, partners stand in opposite lines from each other, maybe between 1.5 and 2m. However, once the waltz was fully developed by about 1840 and then the introduction polka, it was possible for partners to have contact for 100% of the time.

Secondly, the introduction of different musical meters stopped dancers becoming to board. Meters such as 9/8 allowed faster dances to take place. 9/8 was used in dances such as the Scotch Reel.

Thirdly, the introduction and development of so many different formations such as the longways, squares, couples, three and four people in a line allow dance figures to develop. In longways dance, the figures generally used two or three couples. Once the square formation had been introduced, the figure could be performed with 2, 3, or 4 couples. Much more variety.

One thing that has remained constant through this time is that this type of dance is social  Not only do you need a parter to dance with, you generally need to dance with other people also.