Wanted: Clarification...

9/28/2011

For some reason it had never really occurred to me before, but the tradition of the so-called "singing squares" (for which several rather talented callers are known and some of which get thrown into contra dance evenings) use somewhat more modern songs to integrate with the calls, and yet this seems to have a different reception than a similar practice in some contra circles (lines?).

The one I've got in mind here is Nils Fredland's "I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)" singing square, which incorporates the 20th century popular song's refrain into the break figure, but off the top of my head I can think of a few more that are somewhat regularly worked in, around Glen Echo at any rate:

(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window? (1950s)
Just Because (1928, I think...also covered by Elvis Presley and others)
I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter (1935...also covered by Nat King Cole, Willie Nelson, and Frank Sinatra, among others)
The Auctioneer (1956)

Maybe I'm just running in the wrong circles (I am much more heavily in the contra scene than the square scene), but I don't see the same level of resistance to these in the square dance or the traditional contra dance communities that I've heard to contras done to music from the 1970s-2010s (I have heard some rather irksome disparaging comments about techno contras and recorded music, but even sometimes when live bands are doing covers of more recent tunes they get flak, despite that apparently for a while back there, using contemporary, non-traditional, and even recorded tunes for contra dances wasn't even all that uncommon).

Anyone got any good ideas as to why 1970ish (of all places) seems to be The Line After Which Popular Music Is No Longer Acceptable For Traditional Dance Unless Specified? The above examples are just as anachronistic to the original dance tradition of the 17th/18th century (or for squares, the 18th/19th century) and don't necessarily "conform to the Tradition," they're just from a different period than our own. How come the square dances can be called to (older) popular music in an acoustic contra event, but a similar attempt in a contra dance is frowned on or "just thrown in as something silly?" (Although I will admit, the conundrum does call to mind this XKCD webcomic....)

Or is it merely a question of aesthetics? Sound off (or inform me of facts I'm lacking) in the comments....

Terra Price

9/27/2011 05:14:23 pm

Trying to organize a techno contra I have run into the same thing. The first thought that popped into my head was that people get stuck in their ways. But upon more thought, a lot of contra dancers seem to see our dances as a way to preserve not just the danceing but the folk music. So even though we are keeping the dancing we are attacking the music. I personally think there is room for all different kinds of music, but I guess that makes us contra liberals. Bravo on the comic link BTW

Ryan link

9/27/2011 11:51:34 pm

I guess the heart of what I'm getting at is that somehow the singing square community got carte blanche to use "recent" songs creatively for their calls and contra hasn't as much and I'm trying to figure out why that is, since the traditions of squares and contras are sort of cousins to one another.

I'm wondering if the actual time period of music used in question -- e.g., not quite contemporary to the folk revival really gaining steam -- had anything to do with it, but I suspect an ethnomusicologist (or just someone who has studied more music history in more depth than I have) would be in a better position to answer that.

I also wonder if maybe the singing square community went through the same thing, once upon a time, and just now in 2011 everybody's gotten over the novelty of having popular tunes in singing squares and thus leaves them alone, whereas popular tunes in contra are still a novelty and thus will attract more attention.

The whole "contra is the last bastion of live music" issue probably plays a part too, as mentioned in previous discussions on this site, but I'm thinking something different might be at work to explain the difference between these two particular communities since they're at least in some ways related; I might be wrong.

Hollis link

9/28/2011 02:35:16 am

I'd be inclined to think it has something to do with the generalized Not In My Back Yard phenomenon, by which I mean that messing with music and turning it into "some weird dance thing" might be fine but not for music *I* really care about.

Looking at the age ranges of contra dancers, most of the ones I know are between 15 and 65 years old. That means most of 'em were born after the mid-1950s. I have the hunch that humans tend to internalize the music they're hearing as teenagers and twenty-somethings and turn it into this sacred golden era... I certainly feel that way about some of the stuff from those ages!

So I think it's likely to be less about 1970 or the music of that period and more about the overall age of contra dancers minus twenty years.

I'm probably wrong, but it's a fun idea.

Perry

9/28/2011 03:34:03 am

One thing about singing squares is that they are sung live and the music is played live. That's one thing. And let's be honest here - let's compare the musicality of techno songs vs. the old-time 1920s songs. They are NOT comparable.

But let's talk about singing squares. I actually find them somewhat undanceable. They are nice songs and pleasant for the callers to sing, but when I dance them it's hard - especially for contra dancers, who like to linger on swings. In singing squares you're lucky to get one turn around in a swing.

Back to squares vs. contras - there are New England squares and there are Southern squares, and there are singing squares. NE squares are squares where the music is important - like contra dancing you have 64 beats of music to do a figure. In southern squares, phrasing becomes unimportant, but most dancers really look for phrasing in the music to do their figures. It feels awkward to do things that are not strongly phrased.

Now contra bands HAVE put popular music in their repertoire, but even so I still find it hard to dance to them. When the Avant Gardeners to "My Girl" or Giant Robot Dance does "Smells Like Teen Spirit" or PeM does "Eleanor Rigby", it is hard to follow along the dance with the music. That's one of the things I find difficult about techno contra. As I said previously, you are taking music not meant for contra dancing and trying to contra dance to it, kind of forcing it. Whereas when you do contra dances to live music, it fits much more nicely. Also it should be noticed that in singing squares the lyrics are changed to be dance calls - so that kind of fits the dance and the music there too. Flo Rida isn't telling me to allemande left or swing my partner.

This isn't to say that techno contras are bad or worse. This is to say that it's different. It's something new and not so easily danced. And what is stated above is only my personal views - not necessarily shared by anyone else.

dest/jess(ie)/etc.

9/28/2011 06:37:38 am

dest/jess(ie)/etc.

9/28/2011 06:54:46 am

Darn submission thing got a little quick on the draw.
I was just going to point out that from my perspective, the singing squares ryan mentions actually aren't so much acceptable as they are really *really* *annoying*. Yes, i've heard them done by people with really nice voices. Yes, i'm sure that whatever caller you've heard does them very well. I still think they suck by definition, so no amount of great voice or lovely band can redeem them. In fact, i hate them so much i often deliberately sit them out if i can because i'm not able to be terribly pleasant while dancing them.
And i hadn't thought about the length of the swing, myself, although too many swings that are too short to do anything interesting with would get kind of dull.
My primary frustration is more of a psychological one. Singing squares move briskly, but they don't tend to include much that interests me, and there's this consistently hokey quality to the marriage of that music to that dance that makes me feel like i'm back in kindergarten learning the dreaded pattycake polka (heel and toe and heel and toe and slide, slide, slide, slide...). It's in the singlaongs on the promenades and the cheesy rhymes and the zippity-doo-dah mood. That wasn't exactly a joyous moment in my life. I don't want to feel like that when i'm dancing.
Now i'm wondering, however, how much the hokey pre-70's era music is contributing to my hatred of the singing square. I know i love it when contra bands work covers into their sets. If someone choreographed something interesting and fun to something recent, would i hate it less? Would it help if we started doing the dance and the singing happened after the calls were more established? I think i'd probably still hate it, but i just don't know...

Ryan link

9/28/2011 07:08:24 am

Jess,

In a moment of facetiousness (or maybe I just stayed up too late last evening and was getting really punchy), I looked at Steve and said, "Okay, so where's the Katy Perry square? Giant Robot Dance has already proven that her stuff's contra-able!"

...And if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go try and get a running head start on the angry mob with the torches and pitchforks that's coming after me for having the audacity to *suggest* such a thing now. :)

Ryan

Kevin

9/28/2011 10:05:51 am

Singing squares are de rigeur in "Western" Square Dancing. At least I think that's what it's called. Canned music (used to be 45s), dedicated square dancing sound system (turntable), a single caller. Never saw live musicians. Generally a given song has a given pattern but the caller can vary that. That's where I learned all the moves, way too many years ago.

While I enjoyed it a lot for awhile, it had way too many lessons (Basic / Plus / A1 / A2 / C1 / C2) and way too many complicated sequences to remember and I just didn't enjoy it much (heck, sometimes I have a hard time remembering the sequence in a 30 second contradance!).

I suspect those squares moved to adapted modern music as the supply of appropriate musicians diminished (I can't remember ever running into a fiddler when I grew up in Iowa).

Once I found out about contradancing I switched and never looked back. As for squares at contras, they are usually a good excuse for a break for me...

Peter

9/28/2011 03:37:11 pm

I think it's just a matter of different people liking different things. Squares being called at contra dances have been at least as controversial as techno contra in some communities I have been a part of. I have even heard reports of people leaving communities for good over squares being called. Likewise, there are people who won't attend local dances on evenings that feature an old time band.

My guess on why singing squares are accepted by some of the folks who don't like crossover contra would be that there is still a live band. Also, it's pretty difficult to see singing squares as an encroachment of current mainstream pop culture. I'm fairly certain I could find some square dancers opposed to the use of early-mid 20th century pop music for square dances, though (I have one in particular in mind...)

Of course, I appreciate that the point of the article is to question the folk police. As I see it, we're better off with different interest groups having different events according to their tastes as opposed to debating the One True Way of having a contra dance community. After all, if an event just doesn't appeal to you, it's ok not to attend. And, if there aren't any events that appeal to you, it's ok to start your own series to fill the void.

Comments are closed.

Wanted: Clarification...

Author

Archives

Categories