The Triumph ~ Preston
The Triumph ~ Preston is an English Country Dance. It was published by Preston in 1793 in Preston's Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1793, London. It was interpreted by George Williams in 2021. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 24 bars.
This is an early version of The Triumph but without the final triumphal arch.
The 1st. Lady set to the 2d. Gentn. & turn The 1st. Gentn. set to the 2d. Lady & turn The 1st. Lady take the 2d. Gentn. by the right hand & lead him down to the 3d. Cus. place · The 1st. Gentn. cast off & his Partr. all 3 lead up to the top together ·· the 1st. Cu lead down the middle up again & cast off ··
In 1809 Wilson writes:
3 PARTS
Single Figure.
The second Gentleman leads down the top Lady, at the same time the top Gentleman crosses over and leads down outside on the Ladies' side, the two Gentlement then lead the Lady up in triumph to her place ··, then the top Gentleman leads down the second Lady, and the second Gentleman crosses over and leads outside on the Ladies' side, the two Gentlemen then lead the Lady up to her place in triumph ··, lead down the middle, up again, and right left .
Or thus:
Set and change sides ··, the second Gentleman leads down the top Lady, at the same time the top Gentleman crosses over and leads down outside the Ladies' side, the two Gentlemen then lead the Lady up in triumph to her place ··, down the middle, up again, and right and left .
Graham Christian, in The Playford Assembly says there is an even earlier version in Thompson's annual of 1790 (called La Triomphe), but, as yet, I have not found a copy of that work.
I have changed this from a triple minor to a duple. The 3s did nothing.
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.
The dances of George Williams (including interpretations like this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
| A1 | 1-4 | W1 set forward to M2 and two hand turn him |
| A2 | 1-4 | M1 set forward to W2 and two hand turn her |
| B1 | 1-4 | W1 lead M2 down and wheel around |
| B2 | 1-4 | M1 cast down, take his partner's hand in a line of three and lead to places |
| C1+2 | 1-8 | 1s lead down, turn alone, lead back and cast off as 2s lead up |
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.
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https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=TheTriumph-Preston
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2021 by George Williams. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2021 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.