Maggot Pie

Maggot Pie was the first book of new English Country Dances for maybe 80 years — certainly the first book containing new set dances since John Playford's day — and that was very controversial!  The dances were written by Marjorie Heffer and William Porter from Cambridge.  Marjorie Heffer belonged to the family who ran Heffer's Bookshop there and the book was published by W Heffer and Sons Limited in 1932 — only 8 years after Cecil Sharp's death.  They had previously worked together on the Apted collection, which contained their interpretations of 18th century dances, but this time they branched out into new territory.  They believed that although 18th century collections of English Country Dances would continue to be discovered, these are all “longways for as many as will”.  The earlier “set dances” — often with three figures starting “Up a double”, “Siding” and “Arming” — appeared only in John Playford's books, and since there was no prospect of discovering any more of these they wanted to write some new ones.  This was a revolutionary idea, particularly in Cambridge which stuck firmly to Cecil Sharp's dances and to a large extent still does.  In those days “Folk” was the politically correct term, and when Sharp turned his attention from the traditional dances he had collected in the villages to the Playford dances he had found in the books, he still used this description.  In their defence, Heffer and Porter pointed out in the preface that the Playford dances were not traditional but composed, and they were following this example.  They talk about composing new dances fitted to existing tunes and then says “Of such tunes a great many exist in the old collections, and the majority of our dances are set to them, although in a few instances we have not scrupled to use new tunes”.  The piano edition of the tunes identifies some of the sources: