Ed Gilmore - live recording - 1958
This live recording of three dances called by Ed Gilmore comes from Don Ward's Podbean site.
After a musical introduction, the recording starts with Ward's comments and then moves to the dances:
3:15 Hash
7:00 Quadrille with Grand Square, with extensive teaching
13:55 Singing square, "Whispering"
The second dance is using the tune commonly associated with the Grand Square Quadrille, but is different. Different pieces of the choreography appear, with no source credited, as "Hundred Pipers" and "Nancy's Fancy" in Don Armstrong's Square Dance Workbook #3 (1956).
The third dance is Ed's original call to the song "Whispering," a 1920 hit recorded by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. Ed used only the 32-bar chorus.
Ed made two studio recordings of "Whispering" with calls. The earlier one is what appears in this recording; the later one has a figure that includes a weathervane, wheel and deal, and swing thru.
In his first recording, Ed used "Promenade her home today" for the last line of the break; he kept silent during the promenade of the figure, and directed his musicians to cut loose a bit. In the second recording, he used "Whispering I love to dance with you" for both the figure and the break. This comes close to the original lyric of "Whispering that I love you."
Don Ward's podcast begins with an introduction. Among his comments:
===
Back in the 1950s, we had a 6-10 week introduction to square dance. In southern California, the six-week program matched the programs for the Parks and Recreation Department. After six weeks, you moved into club level dances. You were welcomed with open arms and everybody seemed to enjoy just having fun! We didn't try to see how many puzzles we could solve...just go ahead and dance!
When callers wanted to expand the evening, they might introduce another figure that you didn't learn in the introduction to square dancing in the first six weeks, so they would teach it on the fly. There's a case in point of this in this excerpt.
I'd like to call your attention to a few things:
• Ed believed that in order to dance, you had to feel and hear the music. You will notice that in all three dances the music is in your face, right up there almost as loud as the calls.
• Ed did not jockey around, raising and lowering the volume up and down. You got the music. It stayed there. It was to dance to.
===
The SDHP website contains several dozen items related to Ed Gilmore, testimony to his influence and importance in the development of modern square dancing.
Subjects: Transitional/Western 1950s
Tags: Ed Gilmore, Grand Square, live recording, Whispering
Item Relations
| This Item | is related to | Item: Whispering - Ralph Sweet |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Grand Square - Bob Osgood |
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This live recording of three dances called by Ed Gilmore comes from Don Ward's Podbean site.
After a musical introduction, the recording starts with Ward's comments and then moves to the dances:
3:15 Hash
7:00 Quadrille with Grand Square, with extensive teaching
13:55 Singing square, "Whispering"
The second dance is using the tune commonly associated with the Grand Square Quadrille, but is different. Different pieces of the choreography appear, with no source credited, as "Hundred Pipers" and "Nancy's Fancy" in Don Armstrong's Square Dance Workbook #3 (1956).
The third dance is Ed's original call to the song "Whispering," a 1920 hit recorded by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. Ed used only the 32-bar chorus.
Ed made two studio recordings of "Whispering" with calls. The earlier one is what appears in this recording; the later one has a figure that includes a weathervane, wheel and deal, and swing thru.
In his first recording, Ed used "Promenade her home today" for the last line of the break; he kept silent during the promenade of the figure, and directed his musicians to cut loose a bit. In the second recording, he used "Whispering I love to dance with you" for both the figure and the break. This comes close to the original lyric of "Whispering that I love you."
Don Ward's podcast begins with an introduction. Among his comments:
===
Back in the 1950s, we had a 6-10 week introduction to square dance. In southern California, the six-week program matched the programs for the Parks and Recreation Department. After six weeks, you moved into club level dances. You were welcomed with open arms and everybody seemed to enjoy just having fun! We didn't try to see how many puzzles we could solve...just go ahead and dance!
When callers wanted to expand the evening, they might introduce another figure that you didn't learn in the introduction to square dancing in the first six weeks, so they would teach it on the fly. There's a case in point of this in this excerpt.
I'd like to call your attention to a few things:
• Ed believed that in order to dance, you had to feel and hear the music. You will notice that in all three dances the music is in your face, right up there almost as loud as the calls.
• Ed did not jockey around, raising and lowering the volume up and down. You got the music. It stayed there. It was to dance to.
===
The SDHP website contains several dozen items related to Ed Gilmore, testimony to his influence and importance in the development of modern square dancing.