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(MP3, 1.3 MB, 2:53)
Lura Johnson, Piano

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Instrumentation: Piano

Total Timing: 20 Min.

Mycklorf's Folly Timing: 3 Minutes

For the sixth dance in this set I thought it would be fun to write a reel that holds pretty strictly to the form without sounding like The Sailor's Hornpipe and which serves as the basis for a quadrille. This seemed especially appropriate since both the reel and the quadrille are comprised of eight-measure themes.

Born in the 1600s, quadrille began as a military parade for four horsemen. Its popularity was such that two-legged dancers took to it in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Its form is quite strict and rather long-winded, so I chose to use half of the movements and entitled each continuous one A New Pair of Trousers, Happy Hen, and The Shepherdess Tries the Trousers. I used the ABACA form for Happy Hen, rather than the typical rambling ABACABA structure. Furthermore, the B and C sections of Happy Hen and The Shepherdess Tries the Trousers are variations on the B and C sections of A New Pair of Trousers, while the A sections (the reel mentioned above) of the first and last movements are identical and the Happy Hen gets her own hen-like A theme.