Reading Dudley and Jacqueline's Barn Dance Book

Dudley Laufman passed away last week at
the age of 95 . He's best known for his extensive contribution to
the 1970s contra dance revival, and especially for fostering live
music. Twenty years ago [1] I attended one of the "Wind in the
Timothy" dances that he and his partner Jacqueline would host at their
house in NH on fifth Saturdays, and it was clear he really enjoyed
what he was doing. As part of my project
on understanding attitudes
towards live music I thought I would read some of his own words.
Most of his words were poems, though, and I generally prefer something
more concrete and direct. He did co-write a 2009 book with
Jacqueline, however, Traditional
Barn Dances with Calls and Fiddling , which seemed more promising. As with my notes
on Tony Parkes' book , I'm more interested in what it tells us
about its authors and its context than in its primary purpose as a
dance instruction book. The feel of the book is formal and institutional, a bit stilted, with
sentences like "Be certain to ask the caller if he or she is able
to...". Passive voice, very structured prose, avoiding contractions.
A bit like real advice coming from a wooden puppet: "Do not worry
about calling the dances on the phrase", "Request that the caller not
do contra dances of the "duple proper" variety", and "Emphasize to the
caller that folks are coming to a dance party for a social good
time. They are not paying their way in to attend a workshop or listen
to lengthy explanations and walk-throughs of complicated figures."
The content is folk but the presentation is not folky. I'd speculate
Dudley didn't draft (Jacqueline wrote many educational books), the
publisher had a strong house style, or both. Here's what they have to say on hiring musicians: Live music is better than recorded music, even if it is only a
harmonica. The caller you hire may prefer to select a band whose
repertoire coincides with the dances and tunes he or she uses. If you expect a small dance (i.e., fewer than 40 people), it may be
plenty to have just one musician (fiddler or accordionist) and a
caller. This is a reasonable approach if there is not much money
available to pay for more musicians. A larger dance should have at least one fiddler and a guitar, standup
bass, or piano player, as well as a small sound system. Anything over
120 attendees should have at least three musicians. Other instruments
that make up traditional barn dance bands include mandolin, banjo,
accordion, pennywhistle, flute, and cello. Brass instrument players
must be very good in order to play in the keys that fiddlers tend to
use. A sound system for a big crowd will cost an additional amount, though
it may be included in the band's fee if they bring a
system. Sometimes, however, if the hall's acoustics are good, only the
caller needs a microphone. In the 1800s and 1900s, dance orchestras from New England typically
included fiddles, coronet [sic], and string bass. Today, a nice full sound
is provided by two fiddles, string bass, piano, and accordion. The opening preference against recorded music is very strong, and
is consistent with a vague memory I have of Dudley saying something
along the lines of that he'd rather dance to an out of tune fiddle
played by someone who only knew one tune than any recording. This is
the kind of "live music above all else" push that Enid
Cocke was reacting to. At the same time, the context here is a book that has "With Calls &
Fiddling" right in the title. It ships with "Two CDs of authentic
fiddle tunes for many of the dances with the calls on one track
followed by the music track without calls." So there's still some
pragmatism: in practice most of the teachers this book is aimed at
will be facilitating dancing to recorded music. And the authors
accept this: Eventually, the day will come when you simply pick up one of the CDs,
hit "Play," and, without even opening the book, see everyone start
dancing, regardless of whether it's you doing the calls, or Dudley, or
no one calling—which is the way it always was, because everyone knew
the dances. I was glad to see them push, though, for getting students playing for
dancing: Older orchestra students, especially those in middle school and above,
can learn to play music for a dance. In fact, string students and
their teachers can meet national standards of the American String
Teacher Association by playing fiddle tunes and learning the dances in
a mainstream classroom setting. It is crucial to keep the music at
dance tempo, as heard on the CDs that accompany this book, since a
slow tempo drags the dancing down and thus tends not to work. (For
this reason, younger students, who struggle to play the tunes up to
tempo, may need to wait a few years before playing music for a dance.) You may find students eager to play for your dance or to hold a dance
for themselves and take turns playing the music. Having older students
play while younger ones dance can inspire the young ones to practice
their fiddle tunes and learn to play for a dance like the big
kids. Let them experience being part of living history as the fiddling
tradition continues and is passed down to the next
generation—themselves! Overall this wasn't really the book for me, nor was I the intended
audience. But Dudley and Jacqueline's extensive experience with barn
dance crowds did come through the overly formal prose, and I do now
have a citable source for something close to my memory of Dudley's
very strong preference for live music. [1] Very nearly to the day. If I were a more patient blogger I would
have waited a week to be able to make it an even twenty. Comment via: facebook , lesswrong , mastodon , bluesky