# The English Dancing Master



## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Playford's publication of _The English Dancing Master_ in 1651 is the start of a new trend of dancing manuals in English.

The aim of this thread is to examine the dance forms, the tunes and the people. Who, for example, was Mr Isaac (a choreographer) after whom the maggot is named? Or Mr Beveridge?


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

You might want to explore Martin Erhardt's group have done with improvised dance music, a group called Al Improvviso. And Guillermo Pérez too, with his group Tasto Solo, though in his case the focus is earlier. I'm sure both of them will be friendly if you emailed them.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Thanks for that :tiphat: - they're mostly too early and too European. Much more interested in the Broadside Band and Jeremy Barlow who has edited a complete Playford or (slightly later) Green Ginger who also do Scottish dance and of course Jennifer Thorp (Archivist, New College Oxford and part of the editorial advisory committee for Historical Dance) who has researched widely in the area.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Freddy Eichelberger on that Witches recording you were listening to is very good, there’s a Attaignant recording by him too which I like - Attaignant another compliler/publisher like Playford.

There’s a recording with some Playford by one of my favourite ensembles, called The Harp Consort.


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## Dorsetmike (Sep 26, 2018)

Some Playford and other dances


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## Dirge (Apr 10, 2012)

This site seems to provide the kind of info that you're looking for:

https://tunearch.org/wiki/TTA

You can search for a tune directly using the search box atop the page or browse all tunes in the archive:

https://tunearch.org/wiki/Category:Tune

The main tune page gives the music and basic data; click the *Tune annotations* link to get historical info, etc. Here's what you get for "Mr. Isaac's Maggot":

https://tunearch.org/wiki/Mr._Isaac’s_Maggot (main tune page)
https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Mr._Isaac’s_Maggot (tune annotations page)

The site is slow and hesitant to respond at times, but it seems to have a lot of information.


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