Corri and Dussek

Jan Ladislav Dussek (February 12, 1760 – March 20, 1812) was a Czech composer and pianist. He was an important representative of Czech music abroad in the second half of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century.

Dussek was one of the first piano virtuosi to travel widely throughout Europe. He performed at courts and concert venues from London to Saint Petersburg to Milan and was celebrated for his technical prowess. During a nearly ten-year stay in London, he was instrumental in extending the size of the pianoforte and was the recipient of one of John Broadwood's first 6-foot pianos. Harold Schonberg wrote that he was the first pianist to sit at the piano with his profile to the audience, earning him the appellation "le beau visage." All subsequent pianists have sat on stage in this manner. He was one of the best-regarded pianists in Europe before Beethoven's rise to prominence.

In the spring of 1791, Dussek appeared in a series of concerts, a number of which featured Sophia, the young daughter of music publisher Domenico Corri. In a concert on June 15 that year, the pair played a piano duet together; they were married in September 1792. Sophia Corri was a singer, pianist, and harpist who became famous in own right. They had a daughter, Olivia, but the marriage was not happy, involving a series of affairs by both parties.

Some of the concerts in 1791 and 1792 featured both Dussek and Joseph Haydn;

Also, in 1792 Dussek embarked on a music publishing venture with Sophia's father Domenico. It is this collaboration which holds most interest for students of the dances of this period as a considerable amount of the firm's output was dance music and guidance on dance figures under such titles as "For the year 1797 twenty-four new country dances with their proper figures for the harp, piano forte and violin as performed at the Prince of Wales’s and other grand balls and assemblies humbly dedicated to the nobility and gentry subscribers to Willis’s rooms, Festino etc"

From adverts in the Bath papers, we learn that Dussek and his wife came to Bath to perform in 1793 and were resident for a time at number 52 New King Street.

The Corri Dussek company while successful at first fared poorly in later years, and the circumstances of its failure spurred Dussek to leave London in 1799 to go to Germany and leaving Corri in debtors' prison.

The Nude Dance of 1803

Figures as suggested in Astor’s Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1803 with proper Tunes and Directions to each Dance, etc. by George Astor

1st Cu: set to the 2d Lady & not turn the same with 2d Gent lead down the middle up again & cast off

The rather surprising title is probably a joking reference to contemporary fashions. Modern developments in spinning techniques had made fine woven cotton and muslin fabrics widely and cheaply available. With these fine fabrics, ball gowns could be virtually transparent and many fashionable ladies abandoned modesty for fashion. At the end of 1799, The Time ridiculed such fashion trends.

'If the present fashion for nudity continues its career, the Milliners must give way to the carvers, and the most elegant fig-leaves will be all the mode.'

George Astor was a woodwind instrument maker born in Germany who immigrated to London around 1778 and set up in business as an instrument maker, piano dealer, and music seller. He Traded as George Astor & Co initially at Holywell Street in 1779 as a woodwind instrument maker moving to 26 Wych Street and from 1796 at 79 Cornhill.  Astor referred to himself in the 1790’s as “manufacturer of grand and small piano fortes” but he was not a maker but sold instruments made by John Geib and others under his own name. He also sold musical instruments to the military.  In 1801 the partners with George Astor were George Horwood and Benjamin Banks. George died in 1813,  

An Astor and Horwood Clarinet 

Oliver Goldsmith - The Vicar of Wakefield from the 1760s

"Moses was therefore dispatched to borrow a couple of chairs; and as we were in want of ladies to make up a set at country dances, the two gentlemen went with him in quest of a couple of partners. Chairs and partners were soon provided. The gentlemen returned with my neighbour Flamborough's rosy daughters, flaunting with red top-knots, but an unlucky circumstance was not adverted to; though the Miss Flamboroughs were reckoned the very best dancers in the parish, and understood the jig and the round-about to perfection; yet they were totally unacquainted with country dances.' This at first discomposed us: however, after a little shoving and dragging, they at last went merrily on. Our music consisted of two fiddles, with a pipe and tabor. The moon shone bright, Mr Thornhill and my eldest daughter led up the ball, to the great delight of the spectators; for the neighbours hearing what was going forward, came flocking about us. My girl moved with so much grace and vivacity, that my wife could not avoid discovering the pride of her heart, by assuring me, that though the little chit did it so cleverly, all the steps were stolen from herself. The ladies of the town strove hard to be equally easy, but without success. They swam, sprawled, languished, and frisked; but all would not do: the gazers indeed owned that it was fine; but neighbour Flamborough observed, that Miss Livy's feet seemed as pat to the music as its echo. After the dance had continued about an hour, the two ladies, who were apprehensive of catching cold, moved to break up the ball. One of them, I thought, expressed her sentiments upon this occasion in a very coarse manner, when she observed, that by the living jingo, she was all of a muck of sweat. "

1766 edition

Jane Austen Letter from Steventon

Jane Austen Letter from Steventon to Cassandra Austen Godmersham 25th November 1798

"The ball on Thursday [probably at the Basingstoke Assembly rooms] was a very small one indeed, hardly so large as an Oxford smack. There were but seven couples, and only twenty seven people in the room."

Jane attended regular balls at Basingstoke's Assembly Rooms, above the old Town Hall in the Market Place. The Assembly Rooms were demolished in 1832,

Eighteen Century smack under sale

Social Dance in Bath in the time of Jane Austen - Part 2

We have little information about the specific dance music played at these balls. It is worth pointing out here that Georgians did not generally think of dances but of dance tunes to which the first couple fitted figures of their own choosing and which were then copied by the other couples in the set.  The London dancing master Payne explains in his New Companion to the Ballroom of 1814:

“The couple that are going to call the dance must always inform the Master of Ceremonies both of the tune and the figure that he may direct the sets when more than one and give directions to the band which should always play the tune once over before the commencement of the figure.

Any couple calling a figure of uncommon length, or very difficult, the Master of Ceremonies can object to it, and the couple must call a figure more suitable.

Should any couple after calling a dance, find themselves incapable of performing the figure, providing they have not passed more than three or four couple, they are entitled to another call; but should the same difficult occur a second time, the Master of Ceremonies can place the couple at the bottom of that set and transfer the call to the next couple.”

Thomas Wilson gives us more insight into the mechanics in his 1808 book An Analysis of Country Dancing:

“When Country Dancing has commenced, and the top couple have gone down three couple, the next couple must go off. When every couple have gone down the dance, and the couple who called it have regained the top and gone down three couple, the dance is finished; for the next dance they stand at the bottom.

Number 2 calls the second dance, and so regularly on through the company.”

x

Dance figures are the patterns that the groups of four, six or in cotillions 8 dancers form when dancing. They range from, for example, the very simple, such as couples cross, to the more complex, like hay on the contrary sides or one of the many allemande turns. The figures have to be fitted to the music and together make up a particular dance.

In addition to the figures, each dance type, cotillion, minuet, country dance and country dance variant, such as the Strathspeys, had its own vocabulary of steps, although there is a basic vocabulary which is common to them all. Contrary to the impression you may have gotten from watching films, nobody walked through dances, and well-executed steps were a key to social credibility throughout the Georgian period.

Almost all published dance music of this period is billed along the lines of - As Danced at Bath, the Court and other Fashionable Assemblies - but we may be nearer to hearing the music actually played here from the output of local publishers such as J&W Lintern’s Music Warehouse in the Abbey Church Yard who were active throughout Jane’s time in Bath. The Lintern’s also provided a connection to the London music scene as the sole agents of the well-established music publishers and instrument makers Cahusac & Sons.

Much of the published dance music also carries suggestions about figures that might be fitted to the music, and we can use this and information about terminology, steps and deportment from dance manuals published by dancing masters like Thomas Wilson to reconstruct dances as they might have been danced in Bath at this period.

The dance manuals also enable us to reconstruct other vital elements of the dances, such as the correct etiquette, deportment, arm position and the correct forms of interactions, such as the giving of hands.

The musical band of the Upper rooms of this time consisted of twelve performers, including a harp, tabor, and pipe. The latter instruments reflect the increasing popularity of Scottish Reels and Strathspeys as well as Irish Jigs. 

Another important influence on the music and dances of the times was the local dancing masters such as the Flemings, who organised famous balls, occasionally patronised by Royalty, to show off their pupils’ skills.

They imported new music, new dance forms and new ideas into the Bath ballrooms. Many of the Bath dancing masters had strong links to the professional theatre. Indeed, Robert Elliston, who at least one of Austen’s biographers claim was Jane’s favourite actor, married into a branch of the Fleming family business.  This led to the importation in balls of ideas and steps from the enormously popular stage dances of the day.

Teachers like the Flemings often had strong links with the continent, and many new dance forms and fashions were introduced via this route.

The period Jane was in Bath was a bit of a low point in dance fashion with the cotillion and minuet becoming less popular and the arrival of the quadrille and continental waltz awaiting the allied victory in Europe.

In the 1790s, the rules of the rooms always included such clauses as “And as it is extremely desirable that all improper company may be kept from these rooms”

Later editions of the Rules place much more emphasis on excluding undesirables for instance “That no person shall be allowed to insert their names as subscribers, or be admitted as visitors to these balls, who carry on any occupation in the retail line of business, the master of the ceremonies’ ball-nights excepted”. Clearly, the rising middle class could no longer be excluded by price alone.

To ensure that the Master of the Ceremonies could exclude “undesirables” and also arbitrate disputes about rank and precedence he needed to know who was subscribing or planning to subscribe. As the Ton became a less well-defined entity and the numbers and variety of people being attracted to the city began to increase this became increasingly difficult. So we see the following in the rules of the Upper Rooms from the Bath Guide of 1802.

“ As the late great extension of the city puts it out of the power of the master of ceremonies to be regularly informed of the several persons who arrive here, he hopes they will be so indulgent to him as not to charge him with want of attention, if he should happen to omit visiting them; and that he publically requests that they will, on their arrival, cause their names, with their places of abode, to be inserted in a book kept at the pump rooms for that purpose, which will afford him such information as will enable him to comply with his own wishes, and the expectations of the public.

 And as it is extremely desirable that all improper company may be kept from these rooms, he requests also, that strangers, as well as ladies and gentlemen, will give him an opportunity of being introduced to them, before they hold themselves entitled to that attention and respect, which he is ambitious and ever will be studious to show to every individual resorting to this place.”

To bring us into the present a few words about dance in film adaptations of Austen novels. In the films with a few noble exceptions the dance music used is more 100 years out of date most of it being taken from the publication of the seventeen century family of dancing masters the Playfords. The classic example being Mr Beverages Maggot a dance taken from a Playford publication of 1695 and famously used in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. This is not a dance likely to have found favour with fashion-conscious young people of the 1790s or the Regency.

I would like to end with a quote from the dancing master Thomas Wilson which I think makes an interesting connection.

“Young females in particular, if deprived of Dancing, are totally at a loss to find any healthful amusement. Boys certainly have their games of cricket, trap-ball, &c.; but what can we find so proper for girls? Novel reading, I am sorry to say, is too often an apology for exercise.”

Vicar of Wakefield 1760s

"Mr Burchell had scarce taken leave, and Sophia consented to dance with the chaplain, when my little ones came running out to tell us that the 'Squire was come, with a crowd of company. Upon our return, we found our landlord, with a couple of under gentlemen and two young ladies richly drest, whom he introduced as women of very great distinction and fashion from town. We happened not to have chairs enough for the whole company; but Mr Thornhill immediately proposed that every gentleman should sit in a lady's lap. This I positively objected to, notwithstanding a look of disapprobation from my wife. Moses was therefore dispatched to borrow a couple of chairs; and as we were in want of ladies to make up a set at country dances, the two gentlemen went with him in quest of a couple of partners. Chairs and partners were soon provided. 

A family of about 1766

The gentlemen returned with my neighbour Flamborough's rosy daughters, flaunting with red top-knots, but an unlucky circumstance was not adverted to; though the Miss Flamboroughs were reckoned the very best dancers in the parish, and understood the jig and the round-about to perfection; yet they were totally unacquainted with country dances.' This at first discomposed us: however, after a little shoving and dragging, they at last went merrily on. Our music consisted of two fiddles, with a pipe and tabor. The moon shone bright, Mr Thornhill and my eldest daughter led up the ball, to the great delight of the spectators; for the neighbours hearing what was going forward, came flocking about us. My girl moved with so much grace and vivacity, that my wife could not avoid discovering the pride of her heart, by assuring me, that though the little chit did it so cleverly, all the steps were stolen from herself. The ladies of the town strove hard to be equally easy, but without success. They swam, sprawled, languished, and frisked; but all would not do: the gazers indeed owned that it was fine; but neighbour Flamborough observed, that Miss Livy's feet seemed as pat to the music as its echo. After the dance had continued about an hour, the two ladies, who were apprehensive of catching cold, moved to break up the ball. One of them, I thought, expressed her sentiments upon this occasion in a very coarse manner, when she observed, that by the living jingo, she was all of a muck of sweat. Upon our return to the house, we found a very elegant cold supper, which Mr Thornhill had ordered to be brought with him."

'The Vicar of Wakefield — A Tale, Supposed to be written by Himself' is a novel by Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774). It was written from 1761 to 1762 and published in 1766.

New Rigg'd Ship

Figures as suggested in Dale's selection of the most favorite Country Dances Reels, ... with their Proper Figures, for the Harp, Harpsichord & Violin, etc. published in 1800.

Turn your partner with the right hand then with the Left Lead down the middle up again Set 3 and 3 top and bottom sideways hands six round,

Joseph  Dale, had a very small business run from a private house in Chancery Lane until in 1780 when he bought the entire stock in trade and circulating library of a well-established publisher called S Badd. If we are to believe an advertisement issued by Dale, Babb's Musical Library numbered over 100,000 books. Dale moved his business to Babb's old premises at 132, Oxford Street, facing Hanover Square where it became one of the most important businesses of its time.

Country Dancing in the 1820's

Thomas Wilson, a leading dancing master of the late Georgian period describes country dancing in his book The Complete System of Country Dancing published in 1820 in the following terms:

A COUNTRY DANCE, As it is named, is almost universally known as the National Dance of the English and as correctly known, is constructed on mathematical and other scientific principles, clearly displayed in its operative effect, when properly and, well performed.

It is formed of two principal features, viz. Figures and Steps, which for, the execution, government, and. display of their several movements and evolutions, are united with their indispensable auxiliary, music: hut, independent of the scientific structure of the Dance, there are secondary features, named Ornaments and Embellishments, and which are necessary to the performance of the Figures and Steps to the music, as they apply and are connected with each other in a graceful and easy manner.

The Figures, which form various evolutionary movements in circular, serpentine, angular, and straight lines. are formed into a variety of different lengths and require a variety of different steps or movements of the feet in their performance to music appropriately adapted thereto.

Social Dance in Bath in the time of Jane Austen - Part 1

Rauzzini was an Italian castrato, composer, pianist, singing teacher and concert impresario. A European superstar; he made his professional opera debut in 1765 in Rome. He sang in Venice, Münich and in Vienna where Mozart composed for him. He also had a very successful run in London in 1774 until his retirement from the stage in 1778. After his opera career, he worked as a singing and piano teacher and also composed a number of operas. He settled in Bath in 1780 and became Director of the New Assembly Room Concerts in 1781 and remained so until his death in 1810.

Venanzio Rauzzini

The New or Upper Assembly Rooms were one of two sets of assembly rooms in Bath during Jane Austen’s time the other being the Lower Rooms on the parades. There were also ballrooms at the Guildhall and the Sydney Gardens.

The Lower Rooms

The more glamorous balls such as those for the Masters of the Ceremonies, toward the close of the eighteenth century, regularly attracted well over a thousand people. 


At this time, the leading citizens of Bath had established their own dance assemblies complete with MC at the Guildhall as a challenge to the visitor's balls from most of which they and their children were excluded. 

As late as 1819 Pierce Egan could write describing the promenading outside the Royal Crescent:

“The smart trading inhabitants of the City, and numerously neatly apparelled pretty females notwithstanding that they have not had the luck to be born gentlewomen, here enjoy their leisure hour, participating in the pleasures which this delightful promenade affords them and from which walk, NO fashionable RULES can exclude their presence.”

As the long history of country dancing and cotillions drew to its close at Spring Gardens the mantle passed to the new Sydney Gardens, where a banqueting cum ballroom was built in 1797.

Throughout Jane’s time there was at the Upper Rooms a Dress Balls every week during the season on Monday and one on Friday at the Lower Rooms, and for a subscription of one guinea, a subscriber got two tickets transferable to ladies only, subscribers of half a guinea got one ticket not transferable. On Thursdays there was a Fancy Ball, at the lower rooms this was on Tuesdays, subscription half a guinea; tickets non-transferable. In addition to these where the benefit Balls for the Master of the Ceremonies and balls organised by dancing masters. On other days, there were card evenings, promenades and concerts.

Dress Balls where formal occasions which commenced with Minuets before moving on to Country Dances. Dancing ability and the ability to get the technical details and formalities right were key to admission to the beau monde in the eighteenth century, particularly at big formal assemblies. The minuet was the ultimate test of those skills. The minuet was a couples’ dance where the couple performed before the assembled audience and other dancers who were continually assessing their skills; everything from how they entered the room, their deportment and how they executed the steps through to how the gentleman handled his hat. The dress code was strict with women wearing lapetts and hoops, special servants were provided to help them change for the country dances, although this requirement became harder to enforce as fashions shifted into the new century. 

 With the exception of a few circle dances, such as the Boulanger, country dances were and are performed by couples lining up in longways sets men on one side women on the other. The top of the set was at the end of the room marked by the actual or notional presence of royalty. If there were a large number of dancers more than one set could be formed and one of the roles of the Master of the Ceremonies was to manage communication between multiple sets. Within each set couples dance in groups of either two or three couples each couple remembering their number in the group they are dancing with. In the course of the dance, the number one couples progress down the set and the number two and three couples progress to the top of the set. When they reached the end of the set a couple would stand out for one or two turns and then come in with a new number. One of the things new dancers often struggle with is remembering which number they are. This can be particularly tricky in three couple dances where the second and third couples exchanged number throughout the dance.

Time was allowed between minuets and country dances to ensure that Ladies of precedence, who were allocated special front row seats, were able to take their proper places in the set as ladies joined in order of social rank a process arbitrated by the MC. Indeed in most public Assemblies ladies who lacked rank would have a number allotted to them and is some cases pinned to them. Couples coming to the set after it had formed where obliged to join at the bottom of the set as were men dancing together. 

These rules in part reflect Georgian concern with social rank but were mainly introduce to avoid the disorder that otherwise broke out as people lower down the set fought for spaces or tried to intrude their friends.

Minuets became less and less popular during Jane Austen’s time in Bath. A clue to why might be found in this quote from a letter in the Bath library describing a ball in the Upper Rooms in 1792:

“It was amazingly crowded, although the minuets had not begun, so much so that we found some difficulty to get seats. I was very much entertained with the bad minuet dancers especially with a Mr Badcock who was obliged to stand up with seven or eight Ladies successively, to the great diversion of the spectators. I believe there were twenty minuets which was rather tiresome, but at last the Country Dances began”

Fancy Balls were a new innovation designed to combat the decline in attendances at the Cotillion Balls of the previous decade and an increasing resistance to the rigid dress codes. Fancy Balls were, in Georgian terms, much more relaxed occasions Ladies could appear in hats or make any other elegant fashion statement they pleased, short of actual fancy dress costumes. Fancy balls started with a country dance, after which there was one Cotillion only, and then tea – after tea, a country dance, one Cotillion only and the evening ended with more country dances, and the Long Minuet famously illustrated by Henry Bunbury.

 Cotillions were danced in a square formation, by four couples, and consisted of a number of relatively simple standard verses in between which was danced a chorus that denoted a particular cotillion. The dance had its own vocabulary of step and in particular punctuation steps such as the rigadon. The dance involved a lot of exchanges of partners and opportunities to show off to and acknowledge members of the opposite sex. However, cotillions take a long time to dance and involve a lot of repetition.

In the 1790s, Dress and fancy balls in the Upper Rooms began as soon as possible after seven o’clock and concluded precisely at 11 even in the middle of a dance. These times were slightly different at the different rooms and the start times were altered slightly over time probably to accommodate shifting fashions for private parties.

In 1797 the 22-year-old Jane Austen visited Bath and it is possible that the description of a first ball at the Upper Rooms in Northanger Abbey is drawn from this visit. Certainly, her description of the Upper Rooms is in keeping with both contemporary illustrations and written descriptions in letters and diaries.

“Mrs Allen was so long in dressing that they did not enter the ballroom till late. The season was full, the room crowded and the two ladies squeezed in as well as they could. As for Mr Allen, he repaired directly to the card-room and left them to enjoy a mob by themselves.”

Struggling through the crowd they hoped to find seats and

“watch the dances with perfect convenience,”

 but even when they gained the top of the room,

 “they saw nothing of the dancers but the high feathers of some of the ladies.”

By continual exertion of strength and ingenuity, they found themselves at last in the passage behind the highest bench, and Miss Morland gained a comprehensive view of all the company beneath her.

“. .. It was a splendid sight and she began for the first time that evening, to feel herself at a ball: she longed to dance, but she had not an acquaintance in the room.”

It is interesting to compare this fictional description of the 17-year-old Catherine Morland’s experiences based on those of the 22-year-old Jane Austen with the description of a first ball at the Upper Rooms by the 15-year-old Elizabeth Canning writing to her mother the redoubtable Mehitabel Canning.

“at length a little past seven arrived and we set sail, were soon safe landed, at the Upper Rooms. By that time I felt all impatience to be in the Ball room, & was picturing to myself all the charms I could conceive, such a place to have, when we entered it. I was fully gratified, for to be sure I never saw so brilliant an assembly. It was amazingly crowded, although the minuets had not begun, so much so that we found some difficulty to get seats.”

After watching the Minuets 

“there was a great humming & hawing whether or no I should dance. If I could get a partner, I felt at first as if I should be afraid but the sound of the music did so insinuate itself into my ears, that all idea of fear took itself off & I declared to Mrs Leigh  that I should like to dance, if I could get some mighty smart partner”

After a break for tea

“Mrs Leigh was not unmindful of her little niece, for she sent her good man to look for some dapper little personage for me & indeed he succeeded very well, for he soon brought us a Young Gentleman of about fifteen the smartest little mister you ever saw. When I perceived the gentleman I began to fear lest I should be obliged to accept him, but might have saved myself that trouble, for the pride of the old aunts was up at the idea of my making my first company with a lump of a boy”

After this unfortunate start

“Mr Leigh was dispatched after two or three dapper people that Mrs L had in her mind’s eye for me, among the rest Sir William Andre.”

Sir William was 32 and had become a Baronet when his brother was executed as a spy by the Americans.

“we were standing on the upper bench, so that we could all around the room to where we saw Mr Leigh rushing about till he got to Sir W and there was a little parleying and then they walked together as if coming towards us. Then my heart began to palpitate half afraid and yet wishing to dance but after being kept in suspense for some time Mr Leigh returned to us unsuccessful as for Sir William he had refused several ladies already & could not possibly dance then without offending them, another was engaged, & a third was tired, so among them your poor little pixie was obliged to content herself without cutting capers. Which indeed I did not much lament as, as the heat was so great that I almost doubt I should not have been able to have got down the dance, but the next time I go to a Ball now that I know the manoeuvres of it I shall get them to look out for a partner earlier in the evening, and then I shall have a better chance. Altogether I was very well satisfied with the evening’s amusements and came home in very good spirits, to supper, between eleven and twelve. I slept very well & dreamt all night of the fine rooms.”

In 1801, Jane Austen was uprooted from Hampshire and moved to Bath with her parents and sister – residing there until after her father's death in 1805. 

In 1801, Jane was uprooted from Hampshire and moved to Bath with her parents and sister – residing there until after her father's death in 1805.

She still attends the Assemblies in Bath but did not always have a happy experience. In May 1801 she records the last ball of the Season:

“Before tea rather a dull affair . . . only one dance danced by four couple. Think of four couple surrounded by about a hundred people dancing in the Upper rooms at Bath!”

Part 2