In the Fields in Frost and Snow is an English Country Dance. It was published by Playford (John Young) (website) in 1710 in The Dancing Master, Vol. the Second. It was interpreted by Bernard Bentley in 1962 and published in The Fallibroome Collection, Vol. 1. Found in The Playford Assembly. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 24 bars. It is in the key: D minor.
Note: The first Strain but once, and the last twice.
The first Couple Arms half round, then cast off below the second Couple, the same again and cast up This to the first Strain play'd once. Then all four lead inn to each other, and turn single and go half round, Men improper. This to the second Strain play'd once. The first Man and second Woman change Places, and the first Woman and second Man do the same, the the first Couple Sett and cast off, and so to the end. This to the second Strain play'd twice.
The tune was was first published by Thomas d'Urfey. (It has since evolved into "Old McDonald Had a Farm"). It was performed by Bare Necessities (Earl Gaddis, Mary Lea, Peter Barnes, and Jacqueline Schwab) on the album By Request. The music is used with permission from the Country Dance Society, Boston Centre, Inc.
The animation plays at 107 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily (no music plays during this slow set). Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.
The dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), set, turn single, circle, cast (and probably others).
If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.
If you wish to link to this animation please see my comments on the perils of youtube. You may freely link to this page, of course, and that should have no problems, but use one of my redirects when linking to the youtube video itself:
https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=InTheFieldsInFrostAndSnow
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1962 by Bernard Bentley. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2020 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.