[MR] Winter Solstice on December 11 in Winston Salem, NC - Dance #4 Black Almain

[Lady Alexandra Scott]

Good evening, all ~

Hopefully, you have been viewing and reviewing and practicing the Dances 
1-3 sent in the past few weeks.  If you need them again, please let us know.  If 
you have any comments or additions, we would like to hear these, too.  We will 
be dancing to live music with the talents of 4-5 individuals.  Please come 
celebrate the season with us!

Dance #4 is Black Almain.

Video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvd5rYxW5dk
MP3 Music:    http://ieee.uwaterloo.ca/praetzel/mp3-cd/inns_srt/08blac.mp3
Sheet Music:    http://sca.uwaterloo.ca/~praetzel/Stockton/black_al.pdf and 
http://sca.uwaterloo.ca/Arianna/BLACK_AL.pdf
Black Almain
Source: Inns of Court manuscripts. 
Setting: A processional line of couples. 
Version: 1.1 
 1- 8  4 doubles forward.  9-12  Face partner and drop hands. Double backwards 
away from partner, double         forward towards partner. 13-16  Quarter-turn 
left (men face up the hall, women face down the         hall), double forward up 
or down the hall, turn around over your right shoulder,         double back to 
place. 17-20  Face partner; men set and turn in place. 21-24  Women do the same. 
25-26  Take both hands, turn halfway using one double into partner's place, 
27-28   4 slip steps up hall. 29-32  Turn halfway back to your own side, 4 slip 
steps down hall. 33-36  Drop hands, double backward away from partner, double 
forward towards partner.   1-36 Repeat with the women setting and turning in 
place first,        followed by the men. 

Transcription: 
Honour. Fowre doubles forward, part handes with a .d. backe, meete again with a 
.d., A .d. on your lefte hand, a nother on your right hand, the man doe .2. .S. 
& a .d. rounde, the woman as much, take both handes, change places with a double 
& slide upwardes .4., Into your own place with a .d., Slyde downe .4., backe a 
.d. one from another, meet againe. The same againe.  Bodleian Library MS Douce 
280 (c. 1605/6), transcribed by Wilson 

Discussion: 
A comment in one of the Inns of Court manuscripts, mentioned by Wilson, says 
that the dance was one of `the newest tunes that are now in vse' in 1584. 
However, this ballad to the tune is reprinted in Collmann's Ballads and 
Broadsides chiefly Of the Elizabethan Period; this ballad can be dated to 1570-1 
via the Stationers' Register. 

A proper new balade expressyng the fames, Concerning a warning to al London 
dames.  To the tune of the blacke Almaine.  You London dames, whose passyng 
fames  Through out the world is spread, In to the skye, ascendyng hye  To euery 
place is fled : For thorow each land and place, For beauties kyndely grace :  
You are renowmed ouer all,  You haue the prayse and euer shall. What wight on 
earth that can beholde More dearer and fayrer dames than you?  Therefore to 
extoll you I may be bolde,  Your pace and graces so gay to vieu. 

See you soon!

Graciously,
Alexandra
_________________________________

 
Alexandra Scott de Northumberland

Argent, a stag statant and on a chief azure an increscent between two mullets of 
six points Or

Haus Von Rothenburg
Aire Faucon, Sacred Stone, ATLANTIA