Blythe And Cheerie

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

Blythe and Cheerie
Maggie and Duncan Keppie Haliburton School Of Arts SCD Book 1: Tenth Anniversary Book
6x16 bar Strathspey
2-couple dance in 3-couple longways set

1-4 ADVANCE, RETIRE AND CAST: 1st couple advance and retire one step each way (2 bars), and cast to 2nd place (2nd couple stepping up);

5-8 SET AND ½ CIRCLE: 2nd and 1st couples set and circle to the left halfway;

9-12 ¾ TURN PARTNER AND SET: 1st and 2nd couples turn partner ¾ around with both hands ending in a line along the center of the dance facing partner (men facing down, women facing up) and set to partner;

13-16 UNRAVELLING ½ REEL OF 4: 2nd and 1st couples dance pat of a reel of 4 to end on the side in progressed places (those starting back-to-back in the middle pass partner by the right shoulder, curve right and dance along the side of the set AS those starting at the end of the line of 4 dance ½ reel of 4 curving out to own side at the end).

Repeat from 2nd place.

(Dance crib compiled by the devisers, Maggie and Duncan Keppie)

Dance Information

Also see the dance Blithe And Cheerie by Robert M Campbell.

The title of this dance, Blythe and Cheerie, comes from the Tullochgorum - Song written by the Scottish poet, songwriter, minister and historian the Rev. John Skinner in 1776.

O Tullochgorum's my delight,
It gars us a' in ane unite,
And ony sumph that keeps a spite,
  In conscience I abhor him;
For blithe and cheery we'll be a',
  Blythe and cheery, blythe and cheery,
  Blythe and cheery we'll be a',
  And make a happy quorum;
For blythe and cheery we'll be a',
As lang as we hae breath to draw,
And dance, till we be like to fa',
  The Reel o Tullochgorum.

The words to the song were written to the Strathspey tune, Tullochgorum, which is said to have been derived from an older Scottish song tune, printed in Craig's Collection in 1730.

Regarding the spelling of Blithe and Blythe, it is noteworthy that I and Y were interchangeable into Middle English, but after that orthographic rules were put into place, and Y was only used in certain cases.

Tullochgorum Song - Information Video

Tullochgorum, From Inglis Collection Of Printed Music, Composite Music Volume, Page 49, c. 1842

Dance information licensed under this Creative Commons Licence 3.0.
Text from this original Tullochgorum article on Wikisource.
Image copyright https://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/100194957 under this Creative Commons Licence 4.0.

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