England: history of the pipe and tabor
18th century dance
aristocratic and upper classes dance England | ||||||
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French and English court culture were intertwined until 1804 when Napoleon crowned himself. So in the 18th century, when it became fashionable for French aristocrats and the nobility to glorify the 'simple' peasant lifestyle, the vogue also spread to England. Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, lead the way playing at being a rustic peasant dressed in costly clothes. As a result many village and shepherd instruments, including the pipe and tabor, were played and danced to in highly stylised fashion in the most grandiose palaces of France and England. This proved to be a good subject for satire. | ||||||
1759 “Musicians made a living by hiring themselves out through agents for balls and private functions.
At Bedford House in 1759 quoted in Sheila M Nelson, “The Violin and the Viola” Dover, page 122 |
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1710 Description of a ball at Dudley Castle as reported in the County Advertiser & Herald for Staffordshire and Worcestershire - Saturday 16 February 1884 |
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Letter 76 To George Montagu, Esq. Strawberry Hill, May, 14, 1761 “Saturday morning, Arlington Street. I came to town yesterday for a party at Bedford-House, made for Princess Amelia; the garden was open....... The tables were removed, the young people began to dance to a tabor and pipe; the Princess sat down again, but to unlimited loo; we played till three” Letters of Horace Walpole, (1717-1797) - Volume 3 |
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1793 “Her Majesty gave a grand entertainment for a select party of the nobility at Windsor”![]() |
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middle classes dance England | ||||||
The eighteenth century saw the rise of the middle class, and more leisure time for studying the arts. At home young people were expected to play an instrument and sing, while they could demonstrate their dancing skills at the local Assemblies. [source] |
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1762 ‘The Vicar of Wakefield’ : a ball at home: by Oliver Goldsmith (1730 – 1774) [ ch 9, page 57] |
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1762 ball as reported in Ireland in the Dublin Courier - Wednesday 16 June 1762![]() |
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1763 as advertised in The Ipswich Journal - Saturday 23 July 1763: “27th A Ball at the King’s Head NB the French Horn will accompany the minuets: and the tabor and pipe the Country Dances” |
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In London dances were held at theatres during the 18th century. Pipe and tabor players were hired on occasion: there is one record Between Dec 1774 and Nov 1775 there were 59 nights when the pipe and tabor player was hired at Theatre Royal Drury Lane
In Bath the pipe and tabor was added to the orchestra on ball nights. 1791 as reported in the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Thursday 17 November 1791 The Season ran from October to early June. The Upper Rooms held two balls a week, a dress ball on Monday nights and a fancy ball on Thursday nights. Fancy Balls were much more relaxed occasions. Ladies could appear in hats or make any other elegant fashion statement they pleased. The band consisted of twelve performers including the harp, tabor and pipe. 'Each performer to be allowed a sum not exceeding half a guinea on each ball night for his attendance, which money is to be taken from the subscription of the respective balls'. Poems were made up describing people dancing to the pipe and and tabor [cannot find my source at present - ed]. |
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'personalities of social, political, literary, and artistic life took so much ...... The Great Dr. Burney, His Life His Travels, His Works His Family and His Friends |
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‘Wealth and Poverty, an allegory’ (part) |
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working classes dance France | ||||||
c 1766 Travels Through France And Italy By Tobias Smollett is to be celebrated, have a mind to make a festin, in other words, a fair, they apply to the commandant of Nice for a license, which costs them about a French crown. This being obtained, they assemble after service, men and women, in their best apparel, and dance to the musick of fiddles, and pipe and tabor, or rather pipe and drum. |
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working classes dance England | ||||||
1719 from: SONGS Compleat, Pleasant and Divertiv; SET TO M U S I C K ...Each bonny Lad shall with his loving Lass, By Dr. JOHN BLOW, Mr. HENRY PURCELL, and other Excellent Masters of the Town |
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1719 Songs Compleat, Pleasant and Divertiv ; Come Will, run Gill, .... If the Tabor do play, we thump it away, SET TO M U S I C K By Dr. John Blow, Mr. Henry Purcell, |
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1780's The Shepherds Holyday![]() |
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ARCADIA. A DRAMATIC PASTORAL. "To the pipe and tabor beat So may all thy sylvan train, Poems. By Robert Lloyd, A.M: (1733-1764) page 264 |
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1783 Entertainment in a Field near Busby Street, Bethnal-Green, London: Derby Mercury - Thursday 26 June 1783 |
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1789 “The pipe and tabor, violin and harp,
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1798 poem ![]() |
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for other types of dance see: |
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