{"items": [{"author": "Victor", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/243392542422352?comment_id=243420482419558", "anchor": "fb-243420482419558", "service": "fb", "text": "Where do people get the idea that they should cross their arms over their chest when doing a do-so-so? I'm sad that most halls no longer have pianos.", "timestamp": "1331040702"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/243392542422352?comment_id=243470685747871", "anchor": "fb-243470685747871", "service": "fb", "text": "@Adam: an instrument people have used for contra dances for a long time?", "timestamp": "1331047411"}, {"author": "Josh", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/118273920476267337216", "anchor": "gp-1331047499824", "service": "gp", "text": "Those Everett guys notwithstanding, one thing is that a traditional piano isn't very portable, so I can see why people hiring you for a wedding might be surprised to learn that you come with a piano. But I don't see why they think it's non-traditional, unless contra was traditionally danced in impromptu spaces that wouldn't already have a piano set up. (Which is not my experience at all, but I've only been doing this since 1990 or so.)", "timestamp": 1331047499}, {"author": "Josh", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/118273920476267337216", "anchor": "gp-1331047554244", "service": "gp", "text": "Oh, meant to add: In modern times, of course, you could easily have a very portable high-quality electric keyboard type object, and have a piano in your band even when you're playing in Davis Square.", "timestamp": 1331047554}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/103013777355236494008", "anchor": "gp-1331050967196", "service": "gp", "text": "@Josh\n My understanding was that until very recently most halls would have a piano. Many still do, though they're usually in sad enough shape we do better to bring our own keyboard.", "timestamp": 1331050967}, {"author": "Yaron", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/243392542422352?comment_id=243599489068324", "anchor": "fb-243599489068324", "service": "fb", "text": "This is interesting on numerous levels.
First off, a musical spot-check: I scanned through the tracks on New England Chestnuts vol. 1 and 2 (originally on Alcazar), and all but one track have piano. I scanned through the tracks on \"Boston Fiddle: The Dudley Street Tradition\" (Frank Ferrel, Rounder) and all the tracks have piano; however, this is apparently an album of more Irish and Cape Breton music than New England music, and I am aware that the piano is firmly a part of the Cape Breton tradition, so it may or may not be a conclusive re New England music. And I scanned through the tracks on \"Brave Boys: New England Traditions in Folk Music\" (New World), on which the majority of the tracks are solo vocals; about half the instrumental tracks have piano on them.
Another viewpoint: It's interesting to compare this to levels of snobbery in the world of Eastern European music/dance afficionados, with which I personally am more intimately familiar. There are those who spurn instruments such as the piano (or even more so, the electronic keyboard) and drumset as being non-traditional (I have to admit to intermittent guilt of this level of snobbery). Then there are those who go on to spurn the accordion, b/c the modern accordion (button or piano) was \"only\" invented about a century ago (a little more), and even the clarinet, which was popularized in Eastern Europe about a century and a half ago, and in many cases (e.g., klezmer, some mainland Greek) displaced the violin as the lead instrument. (In many other cases it displaced zourna-family instruments.) (The violin itself was a relative \"newcomer\" in some of these places, having been popularized about a century earlier.)
How does the piano feature in other Celtic-family traditions? As I mentioned, I know it is (and \"always\" has been) firmly a part of the Cape Breton tradition (which, in the big picture, is not all that old). How does it feature in the Irish tradition? The Scottish tradition? The Quebecois tradition?
And how long has it been an integral part of the New England contra dance tradition? And how does it feature in other American dance/music traditions, especially ones that have influenced the contra dance tradition?
Of course, pinpointing the deep history of the New England contra dance tradition is tricky in itself, and of course, the New England contra dance tradition has changed dramatically over the years, decades, centuries (esp. the last half century). And that is another point: The NE contra dance tradition is a living, evolving tradition, and we New Englanders should be proud for having a living cultural tradition. Many other cultural and regional groups (which many of us are a part of - in today's day and age, everyone is a part of numerous communties and cultural groups) have lost touch with their traditions, with some making desparate efforts to reconnect with them - but it's not the same, and it's sometimes hard to say whether a \"revived\" tradition is indeed \"living.\" And there are other groups that still have a living tradition, but that tradition is in a process of being watered down and thinned out, rather than being enhanced and nurtured.", "timestamp": "1331062653"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/243392542422352?comment_id=243601232401483", "anchor": "fb-243601232401483", "service": "fb", "text": "@Yaron: I don't think track-by-track analysis of New England Chestnuts is so useful: it's a CD put out by a fiddler and a piano player, so you're going to get a fiddle and a piano.", "timestamp": "1331062847"}, {"author": "Yaron", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/243392542422352?comment_id=243886595706280", "anchor": "fb-243886595706280", "service": "fb", "text": "Well that is an authoritative album, and so it is telling that the main operatives behind it are a fiddler and a piano player... :-)
Regarding the do-si-do: A couple of summers ago I as at a square dance in the picturesque village of Little Switzerland, NC, in the mountains northeast of Asheville. (Their community hall is called \"Geneva Hall\"... How cute/cheesy is that?) The caller was an older man who has been calling that dance since he took it over from his father. People were actually worried about the future of the dance, b/c he had no kids, and had not passed his skill on to anyone, and anyway, the locals weren't very interested - most of the attendees were vacationers (most of whom seemed like they've never folk-danced, or danced at all) - the locals were much more interested in the bar just down the hill, where contemporary \"folk\" music was being played. ANYWAY: Among his calls were a \"grandpa dosido\" and a \"grandma dosido.\" With two facing couples, the \"grandpa dosido\" was a gents dosiso with the arms crossed in front and a stern look on the face. The \"grandma dosido\" was a ladies dosido, the stylistics of which I've forgotten.", "timestamp": "1331100333"}, {"author": "Yaron", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/243392542422352?comment_id=243886922372914", "anchor": "fb-243886922372914", "service": "fb", "text": "When did people get the idea that they should twirl during a dosido?", "timestamp": "1331100394"}, {"author": "Andy", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/243392542422352?comment_id=243889552372651", "anchor": "fb-243889552372651", "service": "fb", "text": "crossing the arms in a do-si-do was, I believe, put in place to control kids in gym classes. Gives them a direction and assists in the teaching of the figure. The twirling came from the impish( term used with love) and energetic behavior of any kid (the child in adults included) dancers in dance halls. please correct me if I am wrong. Just my observations on the twirling from a few years of experience. From dances w/ Ralph Page where it was frowned upon, to dances w/ Dudley and others which allowed and sometimes promoted it as folks doing dance. Don't want to squash enthusiasm.", "timestamp": "1331100927"}, {"author": "Rick", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/243392542422352?comment_id=243966675698272", "anchor": "fb-243966675698272", "service": "fb", "text": "I agree with Andy about the twirling while dosidoing. When I was in college, the younger folks at dances would add flourishes, much as they do today, including clapping while doing a petronella turn, twirling your partner instead of a courtesy turn, and twirling while dosidoing.", "timestamp": "1331118195"}, {"author": "Yaron", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/243392542422352?comment_id=244535908974682", "anchor": "fb-244535908974682", "service": "fb", "text": "...And when were you in college? :-) It would be interesting to know (interesting to me, anyway) when twirling during dosidos started catching on, and when it essentially became the \"norm\"... ...And how folks expressed their enthusiasm in the Before Twirling era... And when the current crop of twirlers gets old, will they stop twirling, or will they be twirling old folks (as long as their bodies physically allow them)? Will some begin frowning on the twirlers? 40 years from now (should our species survive that long), will young'uns find a different way to express enthusiasm (jumping jacks?), and would some of today's twirlers frown on that?
\"Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as... as... as a fiddler on the roof!\"", "timestamp": "1331188177"}, {"author": "Rick", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/243392542422352?comment_id=245853678842905", "anchor": "fb-245853678842905", "service": "fb", "text": "I was in college (Hampshire) from 1973-1977, and did a lot of contra dancing during that period.", "timestamp": "1331377482"}]}