Kind People,

I wondered if any one can tell me an early source for the 'Bear's Dance', popular at sessions some years ago. The 4/4 tune, usually played in Aeolian began something like EAA, EAAB,CCBC,E.

I suspect it's not the Bear's Dance found in Playford's Apollo's Banquet, but I wondered if it might be in Susato or some other early collection.

The reason I ask is that it has a similar 'feel', harmonic pattern and circular dance form to the Newlyn Reel, about which nothing is known before about 1914.

Oll an gwella

Crowder