Half and half

Who knows anything about this old dance? It is mentioned in Vernon Castle's "Modern Dancing" of 1914 who says: "the time . . . is a little difficult because it is entirely new to dancing" and: "it is a quiet and pretty dance and I hope it will become popular". Presumably it never did, or ever cross the Atlantic, as PJS Richardson doesn't mention it at all in his "History of English Ballroom Dancing" of 1945. I tracked down two mp3 files: "Francine" by the Mont Alto Ragtime and Tango Orchestra, and "Castles' Half and Half" by the National Promenade Band. They are as Castle says quiet and pretty, a bit like waltzes but not, as the time signature is 5/4. "Francine" reminds me a bit of Archibald Joyce's waltz "Dreaming" of 1900. Using Castle's instructions, my partner and I tried out the dance in the living room. It felt nice and fitted the music, but whether Vernon and Irene would have recognised it I couldn't say. Any further information gratefully received. I have also seen a reference to the Castles experimenting with 7/4 dances: anybody know anything about this?

Wow! I thought there were absolutely no dances for 5/4 time! And not that many real “dance” pieces I would think? I thought 5/4 was an rare time, but perhaps a musician can enlighten me. I look forward to seeing what people know about this.

It's Wonderful said:

Wow! I thought there were absolutely no dances for 5/4 time! And not that many real “dance” pieces I would think? I thought 5/4 was an rare time, but perhaps a musician can enlighten me. I look forward to seeing what people know about this.

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It is quite rare, outside of various forms of "musician's music" (classical, bebop jazz, progressive rock). In fact, off the top of my head, I can only think of two songs that are entirely in 5/4 time: the Dave Brubeck bebop classic "Take Five", and King Crimson's "Indiscipline".

piimapoika, do you have any links to the MP3 files you mentioned?

Yeah. I'd like that, too.

It's Wonderful said:

Wow! I thought there were absolutely no dances for 5/4 time! And not that many real “dance” pieces I would think? I thought 5/4 was an rare time, but perhaps a musician can enlighten me. I look forward to seeing what people know about this.

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Try dancing to Dave Brubeck's "Take 5". Think of it as a modified Viennese Waltz. Use 3 beats for the forward or backward step and use beats 4 and 5 for the side/close or side/cross. You need to control the forward and backward steps to fill the 3 beats, but the whole pattern has a great feel.

That's a cool idea. I've never attempted dancing to stuff with weird time signatures, myself. But I have to admit that those pieces do have a lopsided but balanced kind of feel to them. Must try take five the next time I'm dancing around my house.

That is a nifty idea - que interesante! *rushes off to find a copy of Take5*

Links:
http://www.mont-alto.com/dance/dance.html for "Francine"
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/ - you will need to search for "Castles' Half and Half". When I tried it just now the search facility wasn't working.

I thought of one other 5/4 song that nearly everyone has heard: the theme to "Mission: Impossible".