The 'Eightsome Reel' is a fusion of opposites: the elegant quadrille with its French roots and the energetic reel native to Scotland. In the three-part structure of the 'Eightsome Reel', which evolved from the mid-1880s to the late 1890s, communal figures derived from the quadrille frame a long core section in which individual dancers display their prowess in reel steps of their choice. The community expressed by the dance was originally aristocratic, as the dance first appeared on the programmes of the exclusive Highland balls. Dance publishers stressed its social prestige and soon included it in the canon of Scottish national dances. In particular, the vigour of the reel steps and the traditional reel tunes used for the 'Eightsome' were perceived as emblematic of the robust energy of the Scottish character. So cultural nationalism enhanced the dance's popularity, and the community it expressed grew to encompass the nation itself.
Paul Cowdell Cannibal Ballads: Not Just a Question of Taste . . .
William Makepeace Thackeray's poem 'Little Billee' was a literary parody of a traditional French song about survival cannibalism at sea. It entered oral tradition not only among its target audience in the song and supper clubs, but also among sailors. This reflects not only its closeness to its source material, but also its relation to the subject matter. This article relates the song to its sources, and to other songs about cannibalism. It also sets it in the context of the changing experience of survival cannibalism.
Herefordshire (1912), her work with Cecil Sharp and Ralph Vaughan Williams, and the role she played in the use of the phonograph for documenting traditional song. The purpose of this article is to look at the possible reasons why this situation came about, and, by providing a provisional list of the songs that she collected, to go some way towards redressing the balance.
Cover illustration 'Fearful Suferings at Sea. Lad Killed and Eaten.' Ralph Vaughan Williams Broadside Collection. Courtesy of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.