Music & Dance at Colonial Taverns
Dancing was forbidden in early New England. A 1711 Massaschusetts law states that “no Singing, Fidling, Piping, or any Musick, Dancing, or Revelling shall be suffered” in a tavern. However, country dances, derived from folk traditions, popular in the Royal Court and widely disseminated through the English population, were brought to the new world by 17th century settlers. Regardless of the laws, dance historians believe this type of dancing, characterized as “domestic and informal,” had an acceptable place in society as part of festive occasions. These dances were easy to learn and were popular throughout the 18th century.
Formal dances of self-presentation became popular in the colonies by the early 18th century. Proper posture and gestures of constraint, reinforced by the clothing of the day, were the marks of aspiration toward gentility and refinement, and there could be no higher praise for a ball that had been conducted “with the utmost decency and decorum.”
These dances, which required skill and training, became part of colonial life through dancing lessons, dance manuals, etiquette books, and tavern assemblies. Taverns, larger than most domestic structures, were the ideal site for dances and assemblies.
Dancing masters, sometimes French immigrants, conducted classes and arranged balls in taverns. The dancing master played an important role in society not only as an arbiter of correct social behavior but as a cultural agent reinforcing strong ties with Europe. (credit: Kym Rice, Taverns: For the Entertainment of Friends & Strangers).
Music of the Wayside Inn
But from the parlor of the inn
A pleasant murmur smote the ear,
Like water rushing through a weir:
Oft interrupted by the din
Of laughter and of loud applause,
And, in each intervening pause,
The music of a violin…
If you’ve read Longfellow’s “Tales of a Wayside Inn”, then you know about Ole Bull. He did exist, he was a real musician, and he was a dear friend of Longfellow’s. Oddly enough, of the seven characters central to the poem, Ole Bull was one of two that never actually visited the Wayside Inn.
From John Van Schaick’s book “The Characters in Tales of a Wayside Inn”, we learn:
“For the group of friends at the Red Horse Tavern, Treadwell, Wales, Monti, Parsons, with Lyman Howe the landlord, there was no violinist like Ole Bull, but they often had a fiddler in to play in the evening.
On cool autumnal nights, the inn family used to gather about the old fireplace, where they would roast apples and pop corn, tell stories, or listen to the fiddling of a farm hand who they invited in to make things lively. Upon his return to Cambridge, [Signor] Monti graphically described all these incidents to Longfellow, and the poet settled upon the idea of the convivial storytellers, the great fireplace, the fiddler, etc., and set about writing the famous creation of the Wayside Inn…The real musician of the Wayside Inn was the humble farm hand who used to help them roast their apples and pop their corn.”
(”Merry Making at the Wayside Inn” by Pavel Petrovich Svinin, 1812)
Much earlier than Longfellow’s visit were the sounds of colonial fife and drum music. The Sudbury Ancient Fife and Drum Companie perform weekly at the Inn, late April-Sept, stirring up sounds of colonial era America, circa 1775.
The Sudbury Ancient Fife & Drum Companie
is the premier authentic fife and drum company in the greater Boston area. Dressed as local artists, embattled farmers, mechanics, and tradepeople who “dropped their plows” at the sound of the drum, they take special care in authentic appearance and sound (without going too overboard). Their repetiore consists of several hundred tunes in the colonial tradition, ranging from hornpipes, to jigs and reels, to ballads and marches.
The Sudbury Ancients have been part of the Wayside Inn since the group was formed in 1964 – when local musicians and the innkeeper decided such a group would be a welcome addition. When not playing at the Inn, The Sudbury 
Ancients are called to play at functions throughout the Boston area. They’ve played at nearly every historic site over the years including the Old North Church, the USS Constitution and the Tall Ships, the State House, the Liberty Tree on the Common, Fanueil Hall, the Paul Revere House, the Boston Tea Party Ship, Lexington Green, and Buckman’s Tavern. They’ve performed at many corporate functions, convention center events, at Symphony Hall, at weddings here at the Martha Mary Chapel and elsewhere, for community events (such as the Bedford, MA liberty pole capping and town anniversaries), and at Battle Road historic activities. Sudbury has also played at Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown, West Point, Quebec, and Fort Ticonderoga. To kick off each season, they march the 10 mile route from Sudbury Center to the Old North Bridge in Concord on April 19, retracing the steps of the Sudbury Minutemen who responded to the alarm in 1775.
CONTACT & MORE INFORMATION: www.sudburyancients.org
You can be sure to catch them every every Wednesday evening to play (9pm or so is when they start jamming in the Winter (Oct-May) after practicing at a local school). Photo credit: Mike Kiely.
Jamming April 19, 2007 just after returning from the march to the North Bridge in Concord:
It’s been said that there are only five things certain in life – death, taxes, and –
3. Wed night music at the inn,
4. The march from Sudbury to Concord’s North Bridge on April 19, 6am,
5. A colonial faire at the inn on the last Sat of September.
(See the Events section for more on these)
The Red Horse Fifes
Russ Kirby created a set of 26 fifes from the timbers of the Wayside Inn back in the early 1970’s. The following is an article from the Winter 2002 Ancient Times Magazine on the fifes. Links: Page 1, Page2
Picture titled: Wednesday Nights at the Wayside Inn, Artist unknown
The Colonial Minstrels
The English country dance band that performs regularly at the inn (Tuesday nights) and at the colonial faire in the fall is The Colonial Minstrels. Changing from fife to irish flute and whistle, several members of Sudbury have joined with a few other talented local musicians to perform a related, but slightly different genre of music in the country dance tradition. Eliminating the shrillness of the fife and steadiness of the drum, and drawing from music arrangements going back to the 17th century, the sound is much more harmonized and better suited for dance. See www.colonialminstrels.com for more information.
Below: 2008 Irish session Sat. night, last weekend in September (every year, held the night of our Colonial Faire). Credit: Baconworks.
Music in Henry Ford’s Era
Henry Ford, the automobile manufacturer, used to vacation at the Wayside Inn in Massachusetts, where he enjoyed the dance program run by a man named Benjamin Lovett. Ford asked Lovett to come to Detroit and teach dances, but Lovett said he couldn’t because he had a contract with the inn. Ford solved that problem by buying the inn and Lovett’s contract. He took Lovett back to Detroit, where together they established a program for teaching squares and rounds. Square dancing was updated and groups began forming around the country. (From America’s Stories at americaslibrary.gov.)
Ford and Lovett believed square dancing taught social training, courtesy, good citizenship, along with rhythm. They felt it should be a part of every school’s teaching of physical education. Ford and Lovett also brought square dancing to the handicapped, believing it brought great balancing exercises and instilled self-confidence. They continued this effort for nearly 20 years.
In Detriot, Ford purchased and restored the Botsford Inn (1924), an 1830s hostelry with a spring floor where balls were held in 
earlier years, and he began holding dances for his friends there (he later built Lovett Hall (1937), in Greenfield Village, MI, a hall still in use today). The orchestra practiced daily, frequently with Ford in attendance, sometimes playing along on a fiddle or jaw harp. Dancing master Lovett arranged the dances, some of which were Ford’s favorites from his youth, and compiled a manual of them. Mrs. and Mr. Ford went to great lengths to revive and organize 19th century folk dances, fiddle music, and fiddle contests. In their desire to share the joy of folk dance and music, the Fords provided opportunities for employees, school children, and many others to learn the dance steps in community buildings throughout the area.
Dance at the Wayside Inn (during the Ford Era)
Henry Ford brough the dance tradition to the schools he built around the Wayside Inn. From a very nice recollection from a local Sudbury women: “Every Friday afternoon, all of us kids, even from the SouthWest school, which was the fifth through the eighth grades just down the street towards Sudbury, would attend dancing class in the ball room at the Inn. Mr. Haynes was our teacher and he always wore a black tuxedo, complete with those shiny black patent leather shoes. He would stand with his head held high because we figured his collar was too stiff, and he clicked his heels together when he started to talk to us. But he gave me a love for dancing that I still have to this day. We learned all of the old type dances, like the Virginia Reel, etc. At that time the boys didn’t seem to mind having to dance with a girl. (Credit: PattyRoberts.com)
While these are great memories of a by-gone time, dance & music still live on at the Inn. Fife & Drum on Wednesdays, colonial dance by the Inn-Steppers & Minstrels on Tuesday, Colonial Balls 3-4 times a years hosted by the Militia (Open to all. See the events section for more.) Additionally, the Inn brings in featured artist somewhat regularly. Find out about events on wayside.org.
The ballroom at the Wayside Inn (burned completely 1955, rebuilt 2 years later). Now a large special events dining room. (They recently carpeted the room (2009), looks nice, but it would not have been my recommendation).
Henry Ford built a larger ballroom above the new dining room in an extension off the back of the inn (see photo in Wayside Inn section). He did not like the spring in the floor, so he had the floor boards taken up to install small metal springs underneath them. This addition burned in 1955 and it was replaced by guest rooms.
Here’s a clip of Henry and Clara dancing:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=TheHenryFord#p/u/39/d5OAba3VlHA
The inn has a portable dance floor they now bring into the main dining room on the 1st floor. We’ve also used the Ford Room and the Hobgoblin Room (now called the Old Hall) for dancing.
Fiddler’s Throne (below), from the Mack Tavern in Deerfield, NH (currently in the collection of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities). Fiddler’s played for many country dances at these taverns. This stand gave the fiddler a comfortable place to play. It also allowed him to see the action and project his sound. The raised area in the ballroom above is the fiddler’s/musician platform (known as a dais).
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