Mundesse
Mundesse is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1651 in The English Dancing Master. 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.
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.A1 | 1-4 | Circle six left |
| 5-8 | Partner set and turn single | |
| I.A2 | 1-4 | Circle six right |
| 5-8 | Partner set and turn single | |
| I.B | 1-4 | M1 sets and turns single |
| 5-8 | W1 sets and turns single | |
| I.C | 1-2 | M1 honour partner |
| 3-4 | M2 honour partner | |
| 5-6 | M3 honour partner | |
| 7-8 | All honour partner (Playford says 'all embrace') | |
| I.D | 1-4 | Partner two hand turn |
| 5-8 | Corner two hand turn | |
| II.A1 | 1-8 | 1s lead forward two doubles and fall back |
| II.A2 | 1-8 | 1s lead between the 2s+3s, separate, cast around the outside back home |
| II.B | 1-4 | W1 sets to corner and turns single |
| 5-8 | M2 sets to corner and turns single | |
| II.C | 1-2 | W1 honours her corner |
| 3-4 | W2 honours her corner | |
| 5-6 | W3 honours her corner | |
| 7-8 | All honour corner (Playford: 'embrace all') | |
| II.D | 1-4 | Corner two hand turn |
| 5-8 | Partner two hand turn | |
| III.A1 | 1-8 | W1+M2 lead forward two doubles and fall back |
| III.A2 | 1-8 | W1+M2 lead between the 3s, separate, cast around the outside back home |
| III.B | 1-4 | M2 sets to partner and turns single |
| 5-8 | W2 sets to partner and turns single | |
| III.C | 1-2 | M2 honours his partner |
| 3-4 | M3 honours his partner | |
| 5-6 | M1 honours his partner | |
| 7-8 | All honour partner (Playford: 'embrace all') | |
| III.D | 1-4 | Partner two hand turn |
| 5-8 | Corner two hand turn | |
| IV.A1 | 1-8 | 2s lead forward two doubles and fall back |
| IV.A2 | 1-8 | 2s lead between the 3s+1s, separate, cast around the outside back home |
| IV.B | 1-4 | W2 sets to corner and turns single |
| 5-8 | M3 sets to corner and turns single | |
| IV.C | 1-2 | W2 honours her corner |
| 3-4 | W3 honours her corner | |
| 5-6 | W1 honours her corner | |
| 7-8 | All honour corner (Playford: 'embrace all') | |
| IV.D | 1-4 | Corner two hand turn |
| 5-8 | Partner two hand turn | |
| V.A1 | 1-8 | W2+M3 lead forward two doubles and fall back |
| V.A2 | 1-8 | W2+M3 lead between the 1s, separate, cast around the outside back home |
| V.B | 1-4 | M3 sets to partner and turns single |
| 5-8 | W3 sets to partner and turns single | |
| V.C | 1-2 | M3 honours his partner |
| 3-4 | M1 honours his partner | |
| 5-6 | M2 honours his partner | |
| 7-8 | All honour partner (Playford: 'embrace all') | |
| V.D | 1-4 | Partner two hand turn |
| 5-8 | Corner two hand turn | |
| VI.A1 | 1-8 | 3s lead forward two doubles and fall back |
| VI.A2 | 1-8 | 3s lead between the 1s+2s, separate, cast around the outside back home |
| VI.B | 1-4 | W3 sets to corner and turns single |
| 5-8 | M1 sets to corner and turns single | |
| VI.C | 1-2 | W3 honours her corner |
| 3-4 | W1 honours her corner | |
| 5-6 | W2 honours her corner | |
| 7-8 | All honour corner (Playford: 'embrace all') | |
| VI.D | 1-4 | Corner two hand turn |
| 5-8 | Partner two hand turn | |
| VII.A1 | 1-8 | W3+M1 lead forward two doubles and fall back |
| VII.A2 | 1-8 | W3+M1 lead between the 2s, separate, cast around the outside back home |
| VII.B | 1-4 | M1 sets to partner and turns single |
| 5-8 | W1 sets to partner and turns single | |
| VII.C | 1-2 | M1 honours his partner |
| 3-4 | M2 honours his partner | |
| 5-6 | M3 honours his partner | |
| 7-8 | All honour partner (Playford: 'embrace all') | |
| VII.D | 1-4 | Partner two hand turn |
| 5-8 | Corner 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.
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https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=Mundesse
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.
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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.