Playford with a Difference, Volume 1

Introduction

Shepherd's Holiday

Bellamira

Old Batchelor

The Twenty-Ninth of May

The Witches

Mr Young's Delight

Nampwich Fair

Nine Elms

Nobles of Betly

Step Stately

Dick's Maggot

Cottey House

Jenny, Come Tie My Cravat

Nonesuch

Abergenny

Corrections

Shepherds' Holiday — page 8

Format should be “3 couples longways”, not “Longways duple”.

The Witches — page 23

In 2026 I rethought my interpretation and also changed a few chords and added a bass line to the tune.  See The Witches

Nine Elms — page 29

The key signature should be one sharp, not two.

Step Stately — page 34

Andrew Coates has pointed out that the third figure doesn't work with seven couples!  Since it's a double progression there are two neutral couples at the top after the first turn, and four after the second turn.  If the top three of these now start the third turn, there is a neutral couple in fourth place — not a good idea.  I don't see how the figure can work with any number except three or five — and I bet Playford and Sharp never tried it either!

Dick's Maggot — page 40

The instructions give A1 and A2, but in the music I have written these as a single line.  Play the music as written.

Not a correction, but an interesting observation: the dance “Highland Lass” published in The Dancing Master 8 years later in 1710 has word-for-word the same instructions as Dick's Maggot.

Cottey House — page 45

The two G notes in bar 4 of the B-music should each be a B.

Abergenny — page 59

Kathryn and David Wright think I should expand the description of the two-hand turns in A1 of the Second Figure.  I mean symmetrical turns, 1st man and 2nd woman (and 4th man and 3rd woman) turning in the reverse direction.

And for those who might be wondering — there never was a volume 2.  By that time the internet had taken off and it's easier (and cheaper) for me to put my new dances on the website!