Red House
Playford in 1695.
Interpreted by Bolton in 1991.
Duple minor, longways
Recording: red_house-063_bn6atb-01.mp3.zip
red-house-bsbnd15.mp3.zip
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns67GtPNeAA
Part Bars Description A1 4 1's forward and back 4 1's set and cast down while the 2's move up A2 8 1's repeat A1, casting up B1 8 1st man, followed by 1st woman: cast below 2nd man, cross up above 2nd woman, go clockwise around 2nd woman and end in 2nd place while 2's move up on the last four beats. All end progressed B2 8 2nd woman, followed by 2nd man, cast off around 1st woman & cross up above 1st man & cast back down, ending in original places C1 8 2nd man hey with 1's, start passing 1st woman by right shoulder C2 8 2nd woman hey with 1's, start passing 1st man by left shoulder. End the hey with the 1's casting down, 2's leading up (this feels natural for the three people doing the hey, but 2nd man must be alert to move up)
Where the Commedia was well established, as in Venice and many other places around Italy, it often used quite elaborate scenic effects, but when the players had to travel, they almost invariably used flats on each side that depicted houses of red brick, to suggest those respectable establishments that the players’ antics would soon turn upside down, The deviser of ‘Red House,” then, may well have seen one of the traveling troupes of the Commedia and borrowed one of the repertoire’s best tunes and one of its visual trademarks for a dance that adapted the comic pranks of the Italian Comedy for the social dancers of William and Mary's England.