Annotation:Cushion Dance (3) (The)

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CUSHION DANCE [3], THE. English, Country Dance (6/8 time). C Major/A Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCD. The melody and dance date to the late 16th century. "The Cushion Dance" was a Barley Brake ("a blatant, if rather silly, mating display", says Merryweater {1989. See also the air "Barley-Break" for more information}), a dance game in which in which the men chose a partner by laying a cushion on the floor before the woman, upon which she would kneel and receive a kiss. She would then arise, take up the cushion, and the couple would dance while singing:

Prinkum-prnkum is a fine dance,
And shall we go dance again.
Once again and once again,
And shall we go dance again.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Merryweather (Merryweather's Tunes for the English Bagpipe), 1989; p. 30.

Recorded sources:

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