Issue 2219: Dance Origen

Object: The Duke of Edinburgh's Welcome to Shetland (Dance)
Submitter: WILLIAM KEENAN
Assigned to: Viktor Lehmann
Priority: Normal
Disposition: Fixed
Description: TO: DANCE DATA

William N Keenan Toronto, Canada (Ulsterman by birth, but with a grandmother frae Ayr no less!) e-mail: nigel.keenan@yahoo.co.uk Tuesday 26th JANUARY 2021

Dear Info, I’m a certificated teacher from the RSCDS, and am looking for info on a dance called “The Duke of Edinburgh’s Welcome to Shetland” which was recorded on the “Ah’m askin’” CD by the GLENCRAIG Scottish Dance Band. The dance I understand is by a “Son of Shetland” Tom Georgeson, perhaps better known as a fiddler & composer. The dance is unpublished in any customary publication, although the RSCDS Archives list it as having been published in “The Shetland Times” circa 1950’s. Now the “Duke” himself visited Shetland in 1953 to open a park dedicated to King George V, but the Shetland Archivist can find no trace of any such dance published c1950’s. I wondered if you somehow got hold of the original instructions, as otherwise how the ‘eck did you come up with the “Pillings” diagrams? . The “lead” tune you used “Fitful Head” is listed as being scored by two “Sons of Shetland”, Tom Georgeson himself & Tom Anderson MBE or as I laughingly refer to them “G&A”. Now I’m familiar with this tune being used for the dance “The Black Black Oil” by John Drewry, so it may just have been an “inspired” choice by the band leader! Do you have some “insider” info that Fitful Head has been previously “assigned” to “The Duke of Edinburgh’s Welcome to Shetland” by the dance devisor? The Shetland Archivist having done some more “Sherlock Holmes” sleuthing again could find no reference to the tune “c1950’s”, but did find a newspaper article about the1969 visit of “The Duke & The Queen”. In it there’s refence to a special composition in honour of their visit, and a “decorated” copy prepared for The Queen!

It would be mighty strange if “G&A” (Georgeson & Anderson) had written different pieces of music for both the Duke’s solo visit 1953 & he and “The Queen’s” visit in 1969, as on every music database I know Fitful Head is THEE only tune assigned to both “G&A”! The first dance I ever heard using Fitful Head was one called “The Black Black Oil” by John Drewry devised in 1971, so if the tune was scored in 1969 it would have been possible for him to be aware of it. In order to clarify matters I HAVE written to “The Queen” as YES I am THAT committed, although some might suggest I should be “committed” to the nearest loony bin!

H.I.S.C.D. (Happiness Is Scottish Country Dancing) William

DANCE DATA Web: https://my.strathspey.org/dd/index/

Previous Actions

Date Jan. 26, 2021, 6:34 p.m.
User Unknown

New issue submitted

Date Dec. 17, 2022, 10:29 p.m.
User Viktor Lehmann (tone2tone)

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

Hi Eric, ignore the majority of the original request for the time being. William has a point in asking how Keith could come up with a diagram. Do we have a source for this dance on stock? If so, I could double check a few things (I am pretty sure nonetheless that the current recommended tune is as is just because the 2010 recording decided that this is the tune to go with). You can assign this issue back to me later on.

Date Jan. 7, 2023, 10:42 p.m.
User Viktor Lehmann (tone2tone)

Assigned changed to »tone2tone« (previously »EricFerguson«)
Disposition changed to »Fixed« (previously »Needs help«)

Hi William, thanks for your input. I will try to answer your questions. One of our team members got the a scan of the original print; I am checking if we can put this resource online or not, legally. I can tell you a bit more on this dance, and I changed various bits in our database (check the dance page again, please).
The sheet shows no publication date, therefore I can’t answer your historical questions. It states that both Georgeson and Anderson have devised the dance (I changed that, as our website only listed Georgeson as deviser), plus each of them provided two tunes for it in a distinctive order, and you’ll find that on the dance page too (with a corrected assignment of who composed what according to this publication). So, the recommended music is not random, but the deviser’s choice. Of course, this tells us nothing about the year of when the tunes were composed or if they existed way before the dance was devised.
There might be one reference to help you with historics. Underneath the scribbled diagrams, there is a text which I copied over to the notes on our dance page. The credits on the last page just state: “Copyright: T. Georgeson and T. Anderson, Lerwick. Printed by The Shetland Times Ltd., Lerwick.”