England's Ritual Dances

Author(s): Douglas Kennedy

Source: Journal of the International Folk Music Council, Vol. 2 (1950), pp. 8-10
Published by: International Council for Traditional Music
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/835685 .
Accessed: 22/09/2014 14:07
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

International Council for Traditional Music is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Journal of the International Folk Music Council.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 67.241.78.38 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 14:07:26 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

INTERNATIONAL

FOLK MUSIC JOURNAL

Professor A. E. CHERBULIEZ(Ziirich) expressed the Council's gratitude to Ente

Nazionale Assistenza Lavoratori-Comitato Italiano Arti e Tradizioni Popolari for making
all the arrangements for the Congress. He welcomed the increased importance that
was being attached to the scientific study of folk music and dance, and he congratulated
Italy in having created a University Chair for these studies.
Professor Cherbuliez said that the Congress was fortunate in having the assistance
of several eminent Italian folklorists, some of whom would take the Chair at subsequent
sessions.
He concluded by thanking all those who had prepared papers and demonstrations
for the Congress.

Chairman: PROFESSORA. E. CHERBULIEZ(Zuirich)

ENGLAND'S RITUAL DANCES

by
DOUGLAS KENNEDY (London)
With musical illustrations
I WELCOME the opportunity given to me by the Council to describe to members
of the Congress the various forms of ritual dance found in England. I do not
propose to have these dances illustrated on this occasion, for they will be seen at
the various displays which have been organised. The English ceremonials, examined
by themselves, would be difficult to interpret for they are merely fragments of a
culture which has been disintegrating over a long period of time. Fortunately,
during the last 25 years it has been possible to compare them with similar surviving
fragments in other parts of Europe. Since I attended the first International Congress
at Prague, which led to the organisation of CIAP, numerous opportunities have been
presented to me for the study of men's dances in other countries. It would be
difficult to exaggerate the value of these international meetings from this point of
view: one meets the experts who have been working along their own lines, who
are glad to share their knowledge and help to fill in the missing parts of the picture.
Now in England we know that our Morris Dance has its counterpart in France
and Spain; that there are related dances which have even more of their primitive
background adhering in Yugoslavia and Rumania, and that the ancient custom,
in all probability, belongs to the culture which was inherited from our original
Aryan-speaking ancestors. Only on some such conclusion can one account for
the stick-dances and hobby-horses which are found as widely separated as the
West of England and the Dominions of Pakistan and India. It is convenient,
in England, for us to divide our men's ritual dances into the Morris dance on the
one hand (which is mainly a mid-summer festival), and the sword dances on the
other hand (which are mid-winter customs). Although they probably originate
from a common source, the division does represent two streams of culture which
reached England by different agencies at different times. The distribution of the
Morris dances suggests that they have been in England longer than the swordin fact, there are indications that they are pre-Celtic, whereas the sword dance
follows the track of the later Danish colonisation and the culture connected with
this particular dance is a comparative newcomer. Both Morris and sword are
still practised traditionally in England, and examples are being shown by members
of the English Folk Dance and Song Society at this Festival. Other fragments

This content downloaded from 67.241.78.38 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 14:07:26 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

ENGLAND'S

RITUAL

DANCES

that are not to be classified as dances, but which are worthy of the attention of
folklorists, are the hobby-horse customs on May Day in Cornwall and Somerset,
and the processions through the streets, which are characteristic of many places
at the Whitsuntide and May festivals. The best-known example of this in England
is the Helston Processional, which has become an object of interest to tourists
and one of the great attractions of the town.
The most interesting of the English ceremonial survivals is a dance which cannot
be easily identified as either a Morris or a sword dance. It contains the elements
which are at the basis of both, and the meaning and significance of the dance is
more obvious than in any case I have yet described. The sword dance was originally
an enactment of death, and the Morris dance the celebration of returning life. The
themes of each being suited to the season. The dance which does not fit into either
category is called the horn dance, and it survives at only one place-the small town
of Abbots Bromley in Staffordshire. This region is midway between the Morris
and the sword territories, and the form of the dance is also a sort of "halfway house."
The performers consist of six men who carry stags' antlers on their shoulders; three
antlers are painted black and three white. They dance in single file, the three
blacks leading the whites, and they are followed by three dramatic characters in
the guise of a Fool, a Hobby-horse and a Maid Marian (or Man-Woman) and a boy
bearing a cross-bow. In the single file procession the cross-bow "fires" at the
leading stag-and the characters process at a jog-trot. The dance, with its winding
figures and challenging movements between the two sets of stags, is a fertility rite
belonging to the pagan religion of the past. It could not have survived in England
had it not been protected by the local church, where the costumes and regalia are
housed from year to year. Local history does not record when this protection
was first offered, but it must have been many hundreds of years ago. Although
the local explanation of such survivals is nearly always inaccurate and incomplete,
yet the country people have a reverence for tradition, particularly strong in England.
In some ways they have never lost their pagan background and are only superficially
converted to Christianity. Their close connection with animals and their countryside
enables them to identify themselves with the annual cycle of life and death, even
if it is now in unconscious terms. The old ceremonies, fragmentary though they
now are, are rooted very deep in this primitive belief which civilisation has been
gradully undermining. A visitor who knows England but does not know its "folk"
would be astonished to see the horn dancers at Abbots Bromley and the hobby-horse
ceremony at Padstow. In these particular localities the effect of industry has been
slight but over a vast tract of England the countryside has been changed out of
recognition and the country customs completely obliterated.
It used to be stated by some of the experts at these Congressesthat the customs
of the folk were merely degenerate versions of what had once been an aristocratic
culture. Our increasing knowledge of these subjects leads us to believe that the
opposite is true, and that the musical and artistic traditions of the people are the
product of the people and only decay when they are brought in touch with civilisation.
Our aim should be to protect them from such influences and to encourage all the
elements which express the true side of the tradition. At this Festival we can see
examples of true folk art and folk art that has been affected by sophistication and
artificiality. It is a disappointment to me that we are seeing them at a distance
and have not more opportunity to mix and share directly the dances of the other
countries. We must be on guard against these big festivals becoming just spectacles
and missing their raison d'dtre,which is the sharing of experience.

This content downloaded from 67.241.78.38 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 14:07:26 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

INTERNATIONAL

IO

FOLK MUSIC JOURNAL

Although I have no dance illustrations to this talk, I have asked Miss Elsie
Avril if she will play on her fiddle some of the characteristic tunes that are wedded
to our traditional customs.
(Musicillustrations)
WOLFRAM
Professor RICHARD
(Salzburg) said the Morris dances were found in Germany

as well as in the countries mentioned by Mr. Kennedy. The "fool" was also found all
over Europe. In the Black Forest of westernGermanythere was a ceremonyat carnival
time at which the "Narrensprung"was performedby 300 "fools," each wearing6o bells
and using special sticks.
ProfessorVIDOSSI(Torino)referredto the ancient sword dance of Piedmont which
wouldbe shownat the Festival. The old musicof his solemndance had been entirely lost.
Professor FAUSTOTORREFRANCA
(Rome) mentioned a book by Giuglienio Ebbraio

containing a description of a Festival at Siena in the fourteenth century at which a

Moriscawas danced. It appeared to be a dance of the court performedin humorous
vein. He wondered if the Morris had begun as a dance of the nobility, eventually
reaching the common people, or vice versa.
Mr. KENNEDY
replied that the Morris had its roots in ceremonies far older than
the Moriscasof the fourteenth century.

DES DANSES D'ANATOLIE ET DE LEUR

CARACTERE RITUEL
far
AHMEDADNAN SAYGUN (Ankara)
JE pense qu'a l'origine,toute danse a fait partie d'un rite. L'hommeprimitif,
esclave de mille croyancesirrefl6chieset plong6 dans ses experiencesmystiques,
n'a d'autreid6eque cellede se d6fendrecontreles p6rip6tiesde la natureindomptable,
et contre la force irresistibled'un monde surnaturelet plein de mystbres. II ne
se contentepas d'uned6fensepassive,mais il essaiede dompterses ennemis,visibles
ou invisibles,parde multiplesmoyens. L'ensemblede ces diversmoyens,rassembl6s
d'unefa*on ou d'une autre selon l'exigencedes circonstances,mais toujoursdans
un ordrebien d6termine,formentce qu'on appelleune "ceremonierituelle." Chez
de rencontrerune action qui ne fasse pas partie
le primitif,il est presqu'impossible
elle sera,
d'un rite, qui soit vraimentune actiongratuite. S'il s'agit de la musique,
'
par exemple, un chant fundbre,destin6a calmerl'esprit du defunt, et ce titre,
il ferapartieint6granted'uneceremonierituellecomplexe,dont le but est l'obtention
des vivants. S'il s'agit de la danse, elle
de la bienveillancedu defunt l'agard
g
sera, par exemple,la prefigurationd'une scene de combat,et fera partie,elle aussi,
d'une c6remonie rituelle.
Or, si en laissant de c6t6 les peuples primitifs, nous consid6rons les diverses
manifestations folkloriques des peuples dits "civilis6s," nous constatons, que toutes
ces coutumes des temps lointains, se conservent chez eux. Elles sont, 6videmment,
d6guis6es, transform6es, d6form6es meme, sous l'influence de divers facteurs, mais
elles s'y conservent, elles s'y perp6tuent. Ceci est bien naturel, d'ailleurs. Je me
souviens d'une phrase de Van der Leeuw: " ...

Des que nous oublions notre attitude

devant la vie, attitude pseudo-scientifiqueet rationnelle, nous sommes des ritualistes,

c'est-~i-dire des hommes qui r6petent actuellement, les 6v6nements du temps
originel."

Moi-meme, avais-je dit quelque part: " . ..

Notre vie est loin d'etre

This content downloaded from 67.241.78.38 on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 14:07:26 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions