Sharp uses the term "whole-gip" in part II of the country dance book. I have scans here: http://www.jefftk.com/p/history-of-the-term-gypsy
He doesn't use the figure in the first part at all. On Oct 26, 2015 8:13 PM, "Jacob or Nancy Bloom via Callers" < [email protected]> wrote: > I've changed the name on the thread, to reflect the change of subject to > historical background. > > I acknowledge Alan's point, that, unless a pre-Cecil Sharp source shows up > for the use of the term 'gypsy' as a country dance figure, the bulk of my > hypothesis falls apart. > > As for the use of the terms 'gyp' and 'gypsy' in Morris dance, *The > Morris Book* by Cecil Sharp and Herbert Macilwaine defines the figure > "Half-Hands or Half-Gip" in part I, page 65, and defines the figure > "Whole-Gip or Gipsies" on page 32 of Part III. > > No explanation for the derivation of the terms is given in either volume. > > I do not have a copy of Sharp's Country Dance Book at hand. Did someone > say that Sharp did not use the term gypsy in it? > > Jacob > > On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 4:40 AM, Alan Winston <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> >> >> On 10/24/15 10:32 PM, Jacob Nancy Bloom via Callers wrote: >> >> See the link below for more information on the dance The Spanish Gypsy >> (or Jeepsie), the song from which the tune for the dance came, and the 1623 >> play from which the song came, which had the title "The Spanish Gypsy". >> >> http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/lod/vol4/spanish_gipsy.html >> >> I'll go out on a limb and make some historical pronouncements which >> cannot be proven, but which seem most probable to me: >> >> The dance title The Spanish Gypsy came from the dance being done to a >> tune associated with the play The Spanish Gypsy. >> >> Sure, extremely plausible. >> >> The dance figure Gypsy got its name from the prevalence of the figure in >> the dance The Spanish Gypsy. >> >> >> If true, only true in the modern revival. (Basically, Cecil Sharp made >> up *and named* the Gypsy figure. In Spanish Jeepsie - reconstructed at the >> link you have above- the figure isn't a gypsy, and it isn't called a >> gypsy. It's a back to back.) >> >> Point me toward dance notation published before 1900 that uses the term >> "gypsy" as the name of a figure, and then we can talk. Until there's some >> evidence that Elizabethan dancers used the figure name, your argument dies >> here. >> >> The Morris dance figures whole-gyp and half-gyp were originally called >> whole-gypsy and half-gypsy. (Although parts of England had and ancient >> tradition of seasonal dancing under the name Morris Dance, it seems likely, >> from the nature of the dances, that the form of the Cotswold dance >> traditions collected by Cecil Sharp only went back to the Elizabethan >> period.) >> >> I think you're saying that Cotswold dances as collected by Sharp and >> others reflected Elizabethan country dances as shown in Playford, and that >> whole-gyp and half-gyp were therefore originally named after the (notional) >> country dance figure and were thus properly named whole-gypsy and >> half-gypsy. Please correct me if I've misunderstood this. >> >> This is irrelevant unless you can show that Elizabethan country dance >> actually had a figure called gypsy, which you haven't. (And it's actually >> irrelevant even if you can, since once you draw a line from the play to the >> tune to the dance you've said what you can about it not being an ethnic >> stereotype.) >> >> But if it *were* relevant, I'd ask you to explain why these >> Playford-following Elizabethan morris dancers used "half-gypsy" for what >> Playford called "sides all". >> >> -- Alan >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net > >
