Softly Good Tummas

Softly Good Tummas is an English Country Dance. It was devised by Nathaniel Kynaston in 1718 and published in Walsh's Twenty Four New Country Dances for the Year 1718, London. It was interpreted by Andrew Shaw in 2002 and published in The She Favourite. Found in The Playford Assembly. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars. It is in the key: D minor.

Kynaston writes:

Note: The first Strain twice the last once.

The 1st. and 2d. cu. dance half round without turning turn all single and give one clap the same back again the 1st. cu. cast off all dance to your partners (the two 1st. cu.) right hands and left half round fall back two steps change place with your partners: the 1st. cu. turn down the middle

The tune, also called Softly Good Tummas, was probably composed by Nathaniel Kynaston. It was performed by Bare Necessities (Earl Gaddis, Mary Lea, Peter Barnes, and Jacqueline Schwab) on the album By Choice. The music is used with permission from the Country Dance Society, Boston Centre, Inc.

The animation plays at 111 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: set, turn single, circle, cast, lead, rights and lefts (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=SoftlyGoodTummas

< Prev Top Next >

The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2002 by Andrew Shaw. 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
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.