Frank Nordberg wrote: > Yet in a early 20th Century collection of Scottish fiddle tunes I found > "Orange and Blue" (usually known as a strathspey) presented as a > "Highland Schottische." What does that mean? The Scots trying to imitate > Scottish music? Did the dance at some point make it to its assumed > home country? Or does the schottische actually have some genuine roots > in the highlands?
If you asked this question over on SCOTS-L or the strathspey list you'd likely get a ton of more informed replies, but since nobody else is jumping in, here's a quote from Hugh Thurston's "Scotland's Dances": "About 1800 a type of dance music in 4/4 time, a pleasant easy-going tempo, and a prominent dotted rhythm, was popular in Europe; this was the ecossaise or schottische. Beethoven, Schubert, and Chopin all wrote ecossaises. The music was almost certainly inspired by the strathspey... The dance to this music was a kind of polka of continental, not Scottish, origin; according to G. Vuillier's "A History of Dancing", 1898, it was invented by Markowski, who brought the mazurka to western Europe... A more elaborate step, resembling, and perhaps derived from, the 'Highland Fling' style of dancing, was used in the 'Highland schottische', which can be regarded as a Scottish schottische." He also writes, referring to the late 1800s: "The countryside yielded one style of dancing not mentioned in any of the books I have referred to...: country dances to strathspey or schottische tunes employed a characteristic setting-step, the common schottische, which is essentially a polka step. A few employed the more complex and vigorous highland schottische step. The travelling-step was similar to the chasse [he means the common skip-change step used in reels and jigs], the differences being much what one would expect the schottische rhythm to dictate." At any rate, Highland schottische setting is a setting step occasionally used in Scottish Country dances as done by the RSCDS (generally danced to Strathspey tunes), it's considered a bit advanced but any experienced dancer will have encountered it. -Steve -- Steve Wyrick -- Concord, California To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
