50 Playford Dance Tunes

This album contains 50 of the most popular Playford dances in simple arrangements for soprano recorder and continuo.

These pieces are arrangements of dance tunes from Playford’s The Dancing Master, which appeared in 18 different editions from 1651 to around 1725.  The diverse origins of the Playford tunes, and the fact that many were actually quite old by the 1650s, presents a bit of a problem in choosing a style for the arrangements. I have worked under the assumption that music in normal circles, away from the prevailing fashions of the court, would have been quite conservative, and so have harmonised many of these tunes in a style of around 1600.

Playford’s tunes are often perceived as quintessentially English, but many have clear origins from the mainland. His Mundesse is found in Susato’s famous dance book of 1551, his Italian Rant is (unsurprisingly) a popular Italian dance tune known as La Mantovana/. Parson upon Dorothy is a popular Almaine found in many mainland sources, and Parson’s Farewell turns out to be the famous Bourée d’Avignonne made famous by Michael Praetorius. And there are many Playford tunes that seem to use the standard Italian bass progression known as the Passamezzo antico.

So it is clear that these tunes were part of a living tradition, even if they were sometimes arranged by church-trained musicians. In other words, these little arrangements should be treated as a starting-point for further improvisation. When you play to dancers, you have to repeat the tune over and over again: some variation and invention is necessary in order to preserve your sanity.