I assume this is an April Fool’s joke. (I have heard that story before and thought it was a joke then too.)
According to the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society, The Petronella (which is apparently a female given name - I knew a Petronella once) was introduced (to Scotland, anyway) by Nathaniel Gow at his Annual Ball in Edinborough, in 1820. It (along with the music) appears as Dance #1 in Book #1 of the RSCDS dance collection. The dance is essentially the same as the New England version. 1820 is after the 1810 date you give for the backwards-spelling story, so it wouldn’t be impossible for Nathaniel Gow to have heard of it by then, but it seems unlikely. Interestingly, Book 1 also includes a Rory O’More and although the printed music is the same as the tune in New England, the dance is entirely different. I have always assumed that the dance and the music made their way “over the pond,” and the dance died out but someone wrote a new dance to the same music. The RSCDS book says simply that the dance was “collected locally” and says the music is of “Irish origin.” Sent from my iPad > On Apr 1, 2024, at 10:11 AM, Michael Fuerst via Contra Callers > <[email protected]> wrote: > > In 1810, and for some years before and after, Sudbury MA (incorporated in > 1639) was the site of a monthly barn dance. One of the local dance masters, > Allen Ortep, composed a contra dance, where four dancers would balance in a > circle, left foot then right foot, followed by shift/spin left one place. > Allen and another local dance master both had interest in the same lady. To > shorten a long story, Allen did not get the lady, and eventually stopped > attending the Sudbury dances. His successful rival then composed a dance > where four dancers balanced in a circle, right foot then left foot, followed > by a shift/spin right one place, and named it petronella (spell petronella > backwards to find out why). To honor these events, Sudbury MA was given the > zipcode 01776. (Thanks to Don Veino for pointing out Sudbury's zipcode.) > _______________________________________________ > Contra Callers mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] _______________________________________________ Contra Callers mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
