12.5: Music for Dancing

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Dance music has many of the same demands as march music. It needs to be loud, so that the dancers can hear it over the sounds of their movements. It needs to have a steady tempo, so as to propel the dance forward. It shouldn’t be too melodically complex, since the dancers won’t be playing close attention. And it often needs to be repetitive, so that dancing can carry on at length.

Figure 12.5.1 : In this example, an Irish pipe band plays a pair of reels.

Unsurprisingly, bagpipes are just as well suited to dancing as they are to marching. In Scotland they are used to accompany the various folk dances, each of which is characterized by a specific meter and rhythm. Reels,3 for example, are in a fast quadruple meter with an emphasis on beats one and three and a melody that moves in steady rhythm at twice the pace of the underlying pulse. Jigs,4 on the other hand, are in compound duple meter, meaning that each pulse is subdivided into three sub-pulses. These characteristics, of course, are not randomly assigned: They reflect the steps of the dance.

Figure 12.5.2 : Here, a Scottish-style pipe band plays a jig.

Because dancing often takes place indoors, Scottish Highland bagpipes are not always the most desireable instrument. One is more likely to hear an instrument that has been used to accompany dancing throughout Europe for many centuries: the violin. The violin is terrifically convenient as a dance instrument. It is small, and therefore highly portable. It can play a fast melody, but is also capable of providing harmonies. It is fairly easy to hear, given its high range and bright timbre. And it can be played standing up—perhaps even by the same person who is calling out the dance instructions. For all of these reasons, violin has emerged as the most popular instrument to accompany dancing from Hungary to Texas.

We will begin our tour of dance music in the United States, therefore, with one of the oldest traditions: The fiddle-driven dance music of the Southern Appalachians.