Step Stately ~ Hume (3 in 7)

Step Stately ~ Hume (3 in 7) Step Stately ~ Hume Step Stately ~ Duple, Hume (Old Style Progression) Step Stately ~ Palmer Step Stately

Step Stately ~ Hume (3 in 7) is an English Country Dance. It was found in the Lovelace Manuscript (written somewhere around the 1640s) and later published in The English Dancing Master. It was interpreted by Colin Hume (website) in 1995 and published in Playford with a Difference. It is a proper 7 Couple Longways dance. It is a multipart dance. The minor set lasts 112 bars. Someone thought this dance was Intermediate / Hard.

Playford says this dance can be danced with 3, 5, 7 or 9 couples (I presume any odd number would work).

The dance consists of three parts, the first is whole set, the second is duple minor, and the third is double progression triple minor. Because double progression triple minors don't work well, it is this section which imposes the constraints. So it is this triple minor part I want to look at.

The permutation used in a double progression triple minor, also works for progression in a 3 couple longways set. Sharp uses this.

Colin Hume shows it works well as a three couple dance in a five couple set.

With 3 and 5 couples there is never any ambiguity about who should be dancing. But when we come to 7... after two iterations of the dance there are 4 couples out at the top. Now there are three possibilities:

  1. No one starts to dance at the top when there are 4 couples out. Instead way wait for the 1s to reach the bottom, and then the top couple starts. Each iteration of the dance puts the 1s two places further down the set, so given that that start at the top they will end up progressively in 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th places just as Playford says. And presuably 11th or 13th if anyone wanted to try it.
  2. The top couple starts dancing when there are 4 couples out at the top. This is what you would expect... but it has the drawback that the 4th couple down is not part of any set. In this case it is better to think of the dance as a quadruple minor (yes, there were some) with the 4s inactive.

    But the problem with this approach is that a double progression quadruple minor can also be made to work with 6 couples or 8. There's nothing to restrict it to 5, 7 or 9 so I think it is safe to say this is not what Playford intended.

  3. The second couple from the top could start dancing when there are four couples out at top. This is unexpected, but it works and produces a triple minor set. But as with the previous case there is nothing special about 7 or 9 couples. This will work with 6 or 8 as well. So is not what Playford had in mind either.

In the Lovelace Manuscript the instructions for this dance are incomplete, they do not even reach the third part of the dance.

Playford writes:

Lead up all a D. change places each with his own, keeping your races still to the Presence, the men slipping behind the we. and the we before the ment, face all to the wall Men hands, and we. hands, 1 man and 2. wo. lead all the rest round to the bottom facing all to the Presence The first man and wo. being in the middle, lead up all abreast a D. and back We. slip before the men to the right, and men behind the we. to the left going a compass to their places as at first

The first cu. lead up a D. change hands and lead down a D. Take hands with the 2. cu. and all four half round, 1. man and 2. wo. change places The 2 we lead up between the 2 men, then crossing over, the 1. wo. go behind the 2. man, and the 2. behind the 1. Men change over by the right hands, then giving left hands to their own we. turn the 1. cu. into the 2. place, and the 2. into the 1.

First cu. cross over, meet in the 2. place, change places The three uppermost men and the three we. hands, fall a D. back, 2. and 3. cu. change each with his own while the 1. cu. meet, then fall a D. back again three and three Now standing as in Greenwood, the 1 man between the 2 and 3. wo. and the 1. wo. between the 2. and 3. man, the 1 cu. lead up, cast off and meet below whilst the 2. and 3. we and the 2. and 3. men change places The 1. cu. being in the 3. place, arms, whilst the other four take hands and go half round to the left

Although Playford published a tune for this dance, Cecil Sharp choose to use the tune from Jack Pudding instead. The music was synthesized by Colin Hume's software

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 (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.

An online description of the dance may be found here.

The dance contains the following figures: circle, cast, lead, cast and lead, lead and cast, siding, arming, cross go below (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=StepStately-3in7

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1995 by Colin Hume. 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.