Antony’s collection includes over 21,000 dances from a wide range of traditions.
From Antony Heywood
Dance Figures Index: American Country Dances, 1710-1830
This resource is a guide to the basic figures in all American printed and manuscript longways country dances in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century sources. 2,738 dances were coded. In addition to the usual information such as title, page number, source name, and date, each dance was analyzed for its basic figures and number of active couples in the longways minor set.
Compiled by Robert M. Keller
American Country Dances Online
This is a collection of dances that Russell Owen edited and maintained. The contra dances are also listed in The Caller’s Box, but the squares are not.
From William Watson
This database includes many different styles of dance searchable by dance title, author, publication, and recording. It does not include the actual dance instructions or accompanying music notation.
Hugh Stewart
This online bibliography is Neil Kelley’s compendium of where to find dance tunes and descriptions.
The Dancing Master 1651-1728: An Illustrated Compendium
This is an online searchable database of all known country dances published in the various editions of The Dancing Master, published by John Playford, Henry Playford and John Young, from 1651-1728 in London, with facsimiles of each “unique” dance with its music.
Complied by Robert M. Keller
Playford’s Dancing Master: The Compleat Dance Guide
This is an exhaustive collection, catalogue, and index of all dances published in editions of the Dancing Master, 1651-1728
From Scott Pfitzinger
Dance Figures Index: English Country Dances, 1650-1833
A guide to the basic figures in major English printed longways country dances in eighteenth and early nineteenth-century sources. This database only includes sources for dances with instruction for country dances, or dances that could be identified as such. It does not include other dance forms, such as Cotillions or Allemand or similar dances.
Compiled by Robert M. Keller
Early American Secular Music and Its European Sources, 1589-1839: An Index
This is a series of indexes derived from a database of musical information compiled from primary sources covering the 250 years of the initial exploration and settlement of the United States. It consists of over 75,000 entries that are sorted by text (titles, first lines, recitatives, chorus and burden), by music incipits (represented in scale degrees, stressed notes and interval sequences), with additional indexes of names and theater works.
Compiled by Robert M. Keller, Raoul F. Camus, Kate Van Winkle Keller, and Susan Cifaldi
Early American Songsters, 1734-1820: An Index
This resource is an index of all of the known songsters currently available. Lowens defines a songster “as a collection of three or more secular poems intended to be sung.” Most of the songsters do not include music, although many contain references to the names of tunes to which the song could be sung. References to where to find the songsters is provided.
Compiled by Robert M. Keller
Thanks to the Massachusetts Cultural Council for their generous support.