Paul's Wharfe

Paul's Wharfe is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1651 in The English Dancing Master, London. It was interpreted by Scott Pfitzinger (website) in about 2019. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. It is a multipart dance. The minor set lasts 144 bars. It is in the key: D Major.

Playford writes

Lead up forwards and back That againe Set and turn S. That againe

First foure hand and go round Then crosse over between the 2. place As before

Sides all That againe As before

First two on each side hands and goe back a D. then meet and crosse over Then goe halfe round towards the right hand into each others places As before

Armes all That againe As before

First two men take both hands and change places, the We. as much Cast off all foure, and come to your places Do thus to all. As before

This consists of the three standard introductions each followed by a short progressive figure. In Playford's day each figure would run until everyone was back where they started.

The only instruction I have difficulty with is "Cast off all foure", generally "cast off" means "cast down" and the 1s are at the bottom of the minorset and can't cast down. Scott's interpretation that the 2s should cast down and lead up, and the 1s follow (lead up and cast down) seems likely to be what was intended.

In the second figure Playford seems to assign 6 bars of movement to A1 and 2 bars to A2, so I've moved the last "partner change" from A1 to A2.

At the start of the last figure Playford says First two men take both hands and change places, the We. as much Playford does not say "at the same time" so I presume these are sequential. Scott might be implying that they happen together, in which case both could do a two hand turn once and a half, but I think they are intended to be sequential.

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.

The transcriptions and interpretations of Playford dances found on http://playforddances.com/ from the various editions of The Dancing Master are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
An online description of the dance may be found here.

Up a double
 
Up.A11-4Up a Double, and back
Up.A21-4That again: Up a double and back
Up.B11-4Partner set and turn single
Up.B21-4That again: Set and turn single
Figure 1 repeats 2 times
 
I.A11-4Circle left
I.A21-41s cross, go below, and partner change as 2s lead up
I.B11-4Partner set and turn single
I.B21-4That again: Set and turn single
Siding
 
Side.A11-4Right Siding
Side.A21-4Left Siding
Side.B11-4Partner set and turn single
Side.B21-4That again: Set and turn single
Figure 2 repeats 2 times
 
II.A11-4Fall back with neighbor, and come forward
II.A21-2Partner change
3-4Circle right half
II.B11-4Partner set and turn single
II.B21-4That again: Set and turn single
Arming
 
Arm.A11-4Right Arming
Arm.A21-4Left Arming
Arm.B11-4Partner set and turn single
Arm.B21-4That again: Set and turn single
Figure 3 repeats 2 times
 
III.A11-2Men two hand turn half
3-4Women two hand turn half
III.A21-41s lead up and cast down as 2s cast down and lead up
III.B11-4Partner set and turn single
III.B21-4That again: Set and turn single

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=PaulsWharfe

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © ~2019 by Scott Pfitzinger. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2021 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA 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.