Fiddle Faddle ~ RSCDS
Fiddle Faddle ~ RSCDS is a Scottish Country Dance. It was published by Walsh in 1735 in Caledonian Country Dances with a Thorough Bass for the Harpsicord, 3rd Ed., London. It was interpreted by RSCDS in 1938 and published in RSCDS Book 12. It is S8×32 3C/4C, a proper Triple Minor dance. St32.
RSCDS Book 12 attributes this to Johnson's Caledonian Country Dances of 1748 but it appears earlier.
According to Robert Keller's site this appeared in Walsh's 2nd Edition of Caledonian Country Dances, but I only have access the the 3rd wherein Walsh writes:
The 1st Cu. foots it and casts off then foot it again, and the Man casts off, and the Wo. casts up figure contrary sides figure on your own sides Foot it corners and turn ∴ foot it other corners and turn ∵ Hey contrary sides foot it to your Partner and turn it out.
Johnson published the same figure in about 1742.
The music consists of four 4 bar strains.
There are 8 sub-figures with a mark between them, suggesting that each strain should be repeated. Unfortunately the figures seem take different amounts of time. I'd expect The 1st Cu. foots it and casts off to take 4 bars, but I'd expect figure contrary sides to take 8.
So perhaps Walsh means only half of a figure of eight. That would take 4 bars.
But we still have Hey contrary sides. That takes 8 bars (or maybe 6, but not 4). Could we do half a hey? No, that leaves the corners in the wrong place. Could the 1s do half a hey while everyone else does a full hey? Then we need to make sure the 1s don't bump into the 2s+3s as the 1s set and the corners finish.
This solution does not seem a good one, but I can't think of a better. I doubt it's what Walsh intended.
Could the final strain be played 3 times? Walsh does use a pecular mark at the end of this sub-figure. That just seems worse.
Does Walsh intend the music to be played at four counts per bar rather than two? But most of the sub-figures fit into 4 bars...
The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.
An online description of the dance may be found here.
The dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), set, cast, hey (and probably others).
If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.
If you wish to link to this animation please see my comments on the perils of youtube. You may freely link to this page, of course, and that should have no problems, but use one of my redirects when linking to the youtube video itself:
https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=FiddleFaddle-RSCDS
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1938 by RSCDS. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2024 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.