The Juice of Barley

Cold and Raw

The Juice of Barley Cold and Raw ~ RSCDS

The Juice of Barley or Cold and Raw is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1689 in A new Addition to the Dancing Master, London. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1916 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 4). Found in The Playford Ball. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 24 bars.

This dance has a rather confusing history in the Dancing Master. In 1651 (the first edition) Playford called essentially the same tune "Stingo, or The Oyl of Barly". This dance had a completely different figure though.

Then in 1689 addition to the 7th edition he published two dances with different figures but the same tune: "Juice of Barley" and "Cold and Raw". In the 9th edition (1695) the dance originally titled "Juice of Barley" became "Cold and Raw". The original "Cold and Raw" disappeared from the 9th through the 16th editions, and then reappeared as "Cold and Raw" in the 17th edition (1721) while the "Juice of Barley" figure then vanished.

The RSCDS version appears to be based on the "Juice of Barley" figure.

Playford writes:

The 1. cu. go back to back with their Partners, and the 2. cu. do the same at the same time.
The 1. cu. take hands with his Partner and turn her round, the 2. cu. doing the same at the same time.
The two we. stand still, whilest the 1. man goes round about the 2.wo. into the 2. man's place, and the 2. man goes round about the 1. wo. into the 1. man's place, then all clap hands, then all four take hands and go quite round, the we. doing the like.

The animation plays at 120 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. 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.

A1-4Partner back to back
5-8Partner two hand turn
B11-4Men half figure 8 between women (M1 starts)
5-8All clap and circle four
B21-4Women half figure 8 between men (W1 starts)
5-8All clap and circle four

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=JuiceOfBarley

< Prev Top Next >

The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2021 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
Creative Commons License 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.