Abbot's Bromley Horn Dance
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance" is an ancient tradition of the village of Abbots Bromley,<br> Staffordshire, England, that takes place on Wakes Monday, the first Monday after the<br> first Sunday after the 4th of September. The dance dates back to Anglo-Saxon times and<br> commemorates the granting of hunting rights to the villagers in Needwood Forest, but it<br> also is said to compose elements of an ancient fertility dance (i.e. the taking of horns,<br> a fertility symbol, around to local farms). The horns used in the dance are reindeer<br> antlers.<br> It was sent to British folksong collector Cecil Sharp in 1910 by a Mr. Buckley, an Abbots<br> Bromley resident who noted the tune in 1857 or 1858. He learned it from William (or Henry)<br> Robinson, the town's wheelwright and a very good fiddle player.<br> There are 12 dancers. Six carry the horns and they are accompanied by a musician playing<br> an accordion (a violin in former times), Maid Marian (a man in a dress), the Hobby-horse,<br> the Fool (or Jester), a youngster with a bow and arrow, and another youngster with a<br> triangle. Traditionally, the dancers are all male, although in recent years girls have<br> been seen carrying the triangle and bow and arrow.<br> As described by Cecil Sharp, there are six figures in the dance. He describes the dance<br> as being done with the participants in a single line; however, it is currently performed<br> with the dancers in a double column.<br> The first recorded reference to the horn dance prior to Robert Plot's Natural History of<br> Staffordshire, written in 1686. However, there is a record of the hobby horse being used<br> in Abbots Bromley as early as 1532. A carbon analysis discovered that the antlers used<br> in the dance date to around 1065.<br> It was recorded by The Telemann Society.<br>
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