Mundesse

Mundesse is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1651 in The English Dancing Master, London. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1922 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 6). It is a 3 Couple Circle dance. There is no progression in this dance. It is a multipart dance. The dance lasts 280 bars. It is in the key: G Major.

Playford writes:
Hands and two D. round, set and turn S. That again First man set and turn S. His Wo. as much First man honour to his Wo., 2 as much, 3 as much, all embrace. Turn your own Turn Co.

First man lead his Wo. 2 D. forward and back Lead forwards again, go each between the2. Cu. and come back again in the same First Wo. set and turn S. To the Co man The man as much Honor to her next man, honor to the Co. Wo. 3 honour, embrace all. As before

First Wo. lead the Co. man as before Second man set and turn S. to his own Wo. The Wo. as much Honour to her next man, first honour, imbrace all your We. As before

Lead in, every man doing as the first

(Playford says this is a dance for 6, but it could easily be danced with more couples)

When Playford says "embrace all", I assume he means "everyone embrace your partner" not "everyone group hug".

I have made a slight change to Sharp's interpretation. In the D section I alternate between turning partner first or turning corner first, because the flow of the dance seems to work better if that happens.

The tune, called Mundesse, was published in The English Dancing Master, by Playford in 1651. It was performed by MGM and Reunion on the album Old Friends.

The animation plays at 103 counts per minute. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color.

I.A11-4Circle six left
5-8Partner set and turn single
I.A21-4Circle six right
5-8Partner set and turn single
I.B1-4M1 sets and turns single
5-8W1 sets and turns single
I.C1-2M1 honour partner
3-4M2 honour partner
5-6M3 honour partner
7-8All honour partner (Playford says 'all embrace')
I.D1-4Partner two hand turn
5-8Corner two hand turn
II.A11-81s lead forward two doubles and fall back
II.A21-81s lead between the 2s+3s, separate, cast around the outside back home
II.B1-4W1 sets to corner and turns single
5-8M2 sets to corner and turns single
II.C1-2W1 honours her corner
3-4W2 honours her corner
5-6W3 honours her corner
7-8All honour corner (Playford: 'embrace all')
II.D1-4Corner two hand turn
5-8Partner two hand turn
III.A11-8W1+M2 lead forward two doubles and fall back
III.A21-8W1+M2 lead between the 3s, separate, cast around the outside back home
III.B1-4M2 sets to partner and turns single
5-8W2 sets to partner and turns single
III.C1-2M2 honours his partner
3-4M3 honours his partner
5-6M1 honours his partner
7-8All honour partner (Playford: 'embrace all')
III.D1-4Partner two hand turn
5-8Corner two hand turn
IV.A11-82s lead forward two doubles and fall back
IV.A21-82s lead between the 3s+1s, separate, cast around the outside back home
IV.B1-4W2 sets to corner and turns single
5-8M3 sets to corner and turns single
IV.C1-2W2 honours her corner
3-4W3 honours her corner
5-6W1 honours her corner
7-8All honour corner (Playford: 'embrace all')
IV.D1-4Corner two hand turn
5-8Partner two hand turn
V.A11-8W2+M3 lead forward two doubles and fall back
V.A21-8W2+M3 lead between the 1s, separate, cast around the outside back home
V.B1-4M3 sets to partner and turns single
5-8W3 sets to partner and turns single
V.C1-2M3 honours his partner
3-4M1 honours his partner
5-6M2 honours his partner
7-8All honour partner (Playford: 'embrace all')
V.D1-4Partner two hand turn
5-8Corner two hand turn
VI.A11-83s lead forward two doubles and fall back
VI.A21-83s lead between the 1s+2s, separate, cast around the outside back home
VI.B1-4W3 sets to corner and turns single
5-8M1 sets to corner and turns single
VI.C1-2W3 honours her corner
3-4W1 honours her corner
5-6W2 honours her corner
7-8All honour corner (Playford: 'embrace all')
VI.D1-4Corner two hand turn
5-8Partner two hand turn
VII.A11-8W3+M1 lead forward two doubles and fall back
VII.A21-8W3+M1 lead between the 2s, separate, cast around the outside back home
VII.B1-4M1 sets to partner and turns single
5-8W1 sets to partner and turns single
VII.C1-2M1 honours his partner
3-4M2 honours his partner
5-6M3 honours his partner
7-8All honour partner (Playford: 'embrace all')
VII.D1-4Partner two hand turn
5-8Corner two hand turn

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=Mundesse

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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.