Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel

Subject: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: GUEST,RaLynne_P
Date: 02 Jul 03 - 01:25 PM

I have never danced the Virginia Reel. I have been asked to figure it out and teach a group of girls. I've got the instructions on the steps, but I have no idea what music to put it to. Any suggestions?

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: KateG
Date: 02 Jul 03 - 01:49 PM

When I taught it to a bunch of Girl Scouts 35 or so years ago we sang "Skip to My Lou" since there was no power in the cabin where we were camping. Most of the girls knew it sort of, and by the time we stopped dancing they ALL knew it very well.

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: JennieG
Date: 02 Jul 03 - 07:23 PM

'Turkey in the Straw' works well, so does 'The Girl I Left Behind Me'. 'Arkansas Traveller' would be another song. Something fairly bright and cheerful!
Cheers
JennieG who has both danced and taught Virginia Reel

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: masato sakurai
Date: 02 Jul 03 - 07:33 PM

Scarlett O'Hara danced the Virginia Reel to the tunes (not songs) of "Irish Washerwoman" and "White Cockade" in the movie Gone With the Wind.

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: masato sakurai
Date: 02 Jul 03 - 07:59 PM

I have a 78rpm of "The Virgina Reel" by Henry Ford's Old Time Dance Orchestra (Victor 35771-A). The tunes are "Larry O'Gaff", "Miss McLeod" and "Tom Brown's Body" ("John Brown's Body").

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: masato sakurai
Date: 02 Jul 03 - 08:11 PM

These (from the Levy collection) are among the earliest collections of the "Virginia Reel" melodies.

Virginia Reels. (1) Killie Krankie; 92) Republican Spirit; (3) Natchez on the Hill; (4) The Two Sisters; (5) Speed the Plough; (6) Slighted Jenny; (7) Mississippi Sawyer; (8) Forked Deer; (9) Whiskey Barrel; (10) Love in the Village. Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Selected and arranged for the Piano Forte By G.P. Knauff.
Publication: Baltimore: Geo. Willig, n.d..

Virginia Reels, A Collection of the Most Admired Reels, Dances &c. (1) George Booker; (2) Where Did You Come From; (3) Colonel Crockett; (4) Rose on the Mountain; (5) Billy in the Woods; (6) Juniper Hall; (7) Lady of the Lake; (8) Scott's Favorite; (9) Miss Clark's Hornpipe; (10) Old Dominion Reel; (11) The Fox Hunt; (12) James River Reel. Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Selected & Arranged for the Piano Forte [na].
Publication: Baltimore: F.D. Benteen, 137 Baltimore St., n.d..

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 02 Jul 03 - 08:38 PM

If it is feasible, get a local old time band or at least an old time fiddler to provide the music. They or he or she will know what to do.

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: masato sakurai
Date: 02 Jul 03 - 08:45 PM

See The Fiddler's Companion: Result of search for "virginia reel".

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 02 Jul 03 - 11:17 PM

G'day Ra_Lynne_P,

Here in Australia, we usually use 3 different tune types for Virginia Reel: A reel for the facing lines section, a jig for the "Strip the Willow" and a march for the section where dancers turn out, pass around and the top couple ends up down the far end.

the dance can be done to any lively reel - but the tune (and key) changes can lift the atmosphere very effectively ... and signal to the dancers at what stage of the dance they should be! I'll post a few sets that work for us ... when I get home.

Regards,

bob bolton

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: alison
Date: 03 Jul 03 - 07:07 PM

typcial sets they do over here (straight from the "blue book" bush dance tunes)

turkey in the straw
clare jig
maid of fyfe

the girl I left behind me
kesh jig
10,000 miles away

this one also works well

turkey in the straw
"insert any jig here"
yankee doodle

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: cobber
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 09:50 AM

This was such a popular dance in Melbourne, Australia that with the Cobbers we always saved it till the end of the night. Like Bob Bolton says, it's easier on the dancers if you use the time changes of reel/jig/march. The old bush music club used to use Kelvin Grove/Muckin' o' Geordie's Byre/Loch Lomond back in the sixties so we always used that for the first set as a sort of tribute to those who went before. It's also much easier if you set up the sets with exactly seven couples as this times perfectly for the strip the willow part in the middle. If you have less, dancers tend to get finished before the band and if you have more the head couple don't get right down the set.

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: masato sakurai
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 10:04 AM

A picture of "The Virginia Reel" is in Thomas Nelson Page, Social Life in Old Virginia Before the War (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1897, p. 99). Tunes are not mentioned.

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: Candyman(inactive)
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 10:11 AM

A perfecr song to dabce the Virginia Reel to is Guy Clark's "Virginia's Real." Both Guy and Bill Staines have done versions on CD.

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: LadyJean
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 11:23 PM

"Will Your Horse Carry Double Uncle Joe". It's a Scottish reel tune.

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 03:00 AM

G'day Alison and Cobber,

Thanks for saving me the post I had promised, but not delivered - the "Blue Book" (Bush Dance - (tunes), David Johnson, Bush Music Club, Sydney, 1984/1987/2001) would have been my starting point ... since I published all three editions! Cobber's set was picked up by the old Victorian Bush Music Club from John Meredith of the original (Sydney) Bush Music Club - so it's what I started playing around 1963.

I might also note that, in Selectors, in the 1980s, our standard set was:

Kelvin Grove(reel)
Cock o' the North(jig)
Loch Lomond(march

and then

Rose Tree [Portlairge](reel)
Cunnamulla Stocking Jig * (jig)
Loch Lomond march

* This is not the Connemara Stocking Jig ... but an Italian Tarantella that went feral on the Queensland canefields and was naturalised as a jig!

BTW: Alison - Is "insert any jig here" related to Any Jig Will Do ... a workable choice?

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: GUEST,Jenna
Date: 16 May 11 - 09:02 PM

i've looked here i looked there and can not find music for the virginia reel

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: GUEST,Peter C
Date: 17 May 11 - 05:52 AM

Our band (The Amazing Matchless Band) do 'Golden Slippers' and 'Camptown Races' for Virginia Reel - we usually do not do American tunes at all for dances, but for a (probably) American dance, seems appropriate!

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: Mo the caller
Date: 17 May 11 - 07:58 AM

Sometimes for barn dances with non-dancers this is simplified to leave out the Strip the Willow figure.
If you are teaching it to girls it may be a good idea to do this at the first practice, and put the strip the Willow in later, so that they don't have too many new things to remember at once.

We use Turkey in the Straw.

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: Mo the caller
Date: 17 May 11 - 08:01 AM

Will you have a musician or recorded music? There are advantages and drawbacks to both, but a musician who knows about playing for dancing is a gem to prize.

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 May 11 - 06:01 PM

Hello, Jenna.

We need more information.

1. Do you have a set of directions that you are working from? (The dance is an old one, and can vary.)

2. Does it say what kind of dances you need? Such as reels or reels plus a jig?

3. Do you understand the difference between a reel and jig?

4. Are you looking for recordings or for music for musicians?

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: GUEST,Noah landry
Date: 01 Apr 15 - 11:38 PM

I've been dancing Virginia reel ever since I was a little boy if any body needs help you should come to the confederate ball dances in west Monroe louisiana they do a bunch of Virginia reels its once a year and I'm sure they are going to have it again this year!

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: GUEST,Truman Price
Date: 19 May 16 - 04:14 PM

I've called it about a thousand times (literally!) using Old Joe Clark as the tune. I especially like Old Joe because at times during the dance I'll find places to sing out some of the lyrics, a verse or two and parts of the chorus... round and round, old joe clark, round and round we go... What could be more appropriate?
   And I never tire of the tune. Oh, sometimes my right arm has gotten a little sore after about thirty repeats, but once you're over the hump, so to speak, you're home free and can create... that's when it gets good.

   In the Christmas Carol by Dickens, when the visit Christmas Past, the fiddler played "Sir Roger de Coverley", followed by a precise description of a version of the Virginia Reel

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: GUEST,Marcia Palmater
Date: 19 May 16 - 07:54 PM

I believe that Sir Roger de Coverley was the original tune for the Virginia Reel

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: GUEST,Tattie Bogle
Date: 19 May 16 - 08:47 PM

Well I might go so far as to say that there are as many ways of doing this dance as there are callers in existence! Some insist it is a 40-bar dance and others a 32-bar one. And others insist it can only EVER be a 4-couple set dance ad others perfectly happy to accommodate a 5-couple set!
And in UK terminology it's "tunes" rather than "songs" we talk about, tho' have had the "Old Joe Clark" tune in one of our sets for a long time, and then someone came along and actually sang it!

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: Mr Red
Date: 20 May 16 - 08:48 AM

FWIW John Kirkpatrick calls Sir Roger de Coverley for 8 couples. When I queried the version he responded "As written"!
Though as written it would be "Roger of Coverley" AFAIK.
JK likes to use the tunes that were documented with the dance, usually from the EDM.
The screening of "Gone with the Wind" I last saw only had barely 32 bars, if that, of the Virginia Reel in it. Where is Sato san these days?

Subject: RE: Need a good song to dance Virginia Reel
From: GUEST,zaphod77
Date: 13 Apr 22 - 04:47 PM

If it's for four couples, this was, more often than not in the USA, done with MacGregor square dance record #7345. "Virginia Reel" (Haste to the Wedding) with calls by Fenton "Jonesy" Jones. The record was instrumental on the other side, and came with a cue sheet. Assuming you use four couple groups, there's enough time to get it all done, complete with the strip the willow figure (A once and a half with the elbow swing, and left to the side, the same old thing. Back to the center with the elbow swing...).

People who remember doing the dance as a diversion at square dance meets almost certainly heard that tune.