The Scotch Morris

The Scotch Morris is an English Country Dance. It was published by Wright in 1719, London. It was interpreted by Tom Cook in 1975 and published in Come Let's Be Merry. Found in The Playford Assembly. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

Playford writes:

Note: Each Strain is to be play'd twice over.

The first Man Sett to the second Woman and turn Single, then turn his Partner Then the first Woman Sett to the second Man and turn Single, then turn her Partner Then the first Couple go the whole Figure with the second Couple, then clap and cast off Then the first Man cange Places with the second Soman, and the first Woman with the second Man, and Hands all four half round, then turn Single all four.

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 dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), set, turn single, circle, cast, lead, figure eight, set and turn corners (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=TheScotchMorris

< Prev Top Next >

The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1975 by Tom Cook. 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.