Playfords English Country Dancing Master - Leslie Bridgewater edition, 1933
Old music books are an amazing resource for ancient tunes. Traditional dancing master notebooks (like this one) were compendiums of folk music used for set dances, featuring the favourite tunes of the day.
Only the melodies were notated. The accompaniment was devised by whoever else was there to play at that particular time. The accompaniments doubtless changed as the band line-ups changed, and as preferences for harmony evolved over time.
I was delighted to find this 1933 edition of Playfords Dancing Master on Ebay, and even more excited when it arrived and I learned that Leslie Bridgewater (the author) had travelled to the British Museum to use the original Playford score, dating back to 1651, to notate this edition.
Here's what caught my imagination (it's quoted from the preface, in Bridgewater's own words): 'In making this copy I have endeavoured to give as true a reproduction of the music as possible... the original being unbarred, I have carried out this part of the work in accordance with that of the seventh edition... in the second edition, which was published two years later [1653] one noticed with no little regret, the old modal forms make way for the newer diatonic forms with their sharpened leading notes, and sometimes wholesale change to a major key.'
The first copy of Playfords Dancing Master I invested in was the most recent edition (a modern printing of the final version from 1728). Playing through the tunes, I'd long suspected that some of the raised sevenths were a little bit too modern for the original era.
I'm looking forward to arranging some of these lovely tunes in the not too distant future. I'll be reverting to the modal originals, to retain their ancient feel and sound.