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Issue 763: The Swan and the Tay

Object
The Swan and the Tay (Dance)
Submitter
Campbell Tyler
Assigned to
Eric Ferguson
Priority
Normal
Disposition
Fixed
Description

There seems to be two dances with this name, the one in the database written by Audrey Saunders, and another one that appears in the Kangaroo Paw book from Western Australia. Can you confirm this and if so, can someone add the extra dance?

Previous Actions

  • Date  Aug. 11, 2015, 5:44 a.m.
  • User  Unknown

New issue submitted

  • Date  Aug. 11, 2015, 5:27 p.m.
  • User  Eric Ferguson (EricFerguson)

Assigned changed to »EricFerguson« (previously »None«)
Disposition changed to »Fixed« (previously »New«)

The original booklet “The Kangaroo Paw” has 13 dances, all entered into SCDDB. There is no reference to “The Swan and the Tay” or anything similar on its pages. I have a full PDF scan of the booklet “The Other Kangaroo Paw”. All of its 10 dances are entered into SCDDB; there is no dance “The Swan and the Tay” among these.

Campbell, your information must be in error. Can you please check the source and post a new issue if needed?

  • Date  Aug. 12, 2015, 11:05 p.m.
  • User  Anselm Lingnau (anselm)

This dance is originally from Western Australia (where John Brenchley, the publisher of the Kangaroo Paw books, comes from). It is not entirely unreasonable to assume, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that somebody made a typo when writing up the programme.

See this issue of the Perth (Scotland) newsletter, which explains the significance of the title of the dance. I think it would be very unlikely if there were two dances of that name.

  • Date  Aug. 13, 2015, 1:10 a.m.
  • User  Eric Ferguson (EricFerguson)

Thanks Anselm. The Perth & Perthshire Branch Newsletter “The Highland Gateway” for January 2011 has the following text:

“From locally here in Perth, Scotland, the links spread internationally to Perth, Western Australia where the RSCDS Branch was asked to contribute a reel and a strathspey in honour of the Perth 800 anniversary. The dances “The Swan and the Tay” (which represents the two city rivers) and “Perth meets Perth” (representing dancers crossing the world to join together in the dance) were submitted. Appropriately their tunes “Mo Rutherford’s compliments to Frank Thomson” and Jim Johnston’s “The Carse of Gowrie” were arranged by Mo Rutherford, former RCDS Musical Director, and of course one of Perth‘s best known musicians.”

This makes it clear that this dance did come from Perth (Australia), but was published in Perth (Scotland) in the RSCDS booklet “Perth 800”.

I have added the text above as “Extra Info” for both dances.

Issue solved. Eric.