House Dance by Dan Worrall

[gcoover]

Back in 2011, Dan Worrall published House Dance: Dance Music Played on the Anglo-German Concertina by Musicians of the House Dance Era on CD-ROM, with extensive research on historical old-style concertina playing in Ireland, England, Australia and South Africa, along with an amazing number of photographs and rare audio files.

 

Although the CD-ROM format was a great idea at the time for packaging massive amounts of data, it never really caught on. Consequently, Rollston Press has re-issued House Dance in book form with QR-code links to all of the original audio files.

 

Topics include nineteenth century social dance, global sources of the house dance repertoire, old-style octave playing on the concertina, the banning of house dances in twentieth century Ireland, biographies and playing styles of early concertina players on four continents, modern players in the old octave style, plus an extensive discography.

 

Along with extensive historical information and a detailed analysis of the music and the concertina players who played schottisches, polkas, quadrilles, waltzes, barn dances, mazurkas and varsoviannas from Ireland, England, Australia and South Africa, the book includes QR code links to 172 archival recordings of 36 early concertina players. Also included is a nine-lesson tutorial on how to play the Anglo concertina in the historical house dance style.

 

Available now on Amazon worldwide and through music retailers like Red Cow (UK).

 

 

Gary

 

 

Edited February 23, 2022 by gcoover

[Marcus]

Great news Gary - I have the cd-rom but no drive to read it any longer!

[Takayuki YAGI]

Congratulations Gary. Fortunately I own the original CD-ROM and have a drive to read it, but are there any contents updates from the first CD-ROM to this book?

[gcoover]

No new material, but there are a few minor fixes here and there. Also, the book photos are only black and white.

 

Big thanks to Alex Holden for hosting all the audio files and making them accessible via scannable QR codes!

 

Gary

[Roger Hare]

4 hours ago, gcoover said:

No new material, but there are a few minor fixes here and there. Also, the book photos are only black and white....

Do any of the scores in the book have Coover-style tablature added? The sample page posted earlier does not...

 

Thank you.

Edited February 24, 2022 by lachenal74693

[gcoover]

There are about 30 tunes with notation - 3 are from old tutors (Minasi, Hoselbarth, etc.) so will have the 1-10 numbering, but the other 27 or so tunes are like the example with notation only and no tab.

 

It's mostly a history book, but does include a tutorial on playing in octaves.

 

Gary

Edited February 24, 2022 by gcoover

[Roger Hare]

29 minutes ago, gcoover said:

There are about 30 tunes with notation - 3 are from old tutors (Minasi, Hoselbarth, etc.) so will have the 1-10 numbering, but the other tunes are like the example with notation only and no tab.

 

It's mostly a history book, but does include a tutorial on playing in octaves.

I'm sorry to appear dense, but I'm still not clear whether any of the tunes have Coover-style tablature.

Do the '...30 tunes with notation...' have simple button numbers (I'm not familiar with the specific tutors

you cite) or tablature? Thanks.

The sample page appears to straight notation with bar/measure numbers only, which I prefer.

I understand that it's mostly a history book...

Edited February 24, 2022 by lachenal74693

[gcoover]

Except for the three tunes from the historical tutors, the rest have musical notes only, no numbers or tab, just like the example.

 

Gary

[Roger Hare]

6 hours ago, gcoover said:

Except for the three tunes from the historical tutors, the rest have musical notes only, no numbers or tab, just like the example.

 

Gary

Thanks very much! That makes it absolutely clear!

 

I'll probably toddle along to my local book shop tomorrow, to see if they can get it for me...

Edited February 24, 2022 by lachenal74693