This directory contains ABC  transcriptions  of  the  dance  tune  collection
"Selection  of  Dances, Reels and Waltzes", published by Button & Whitaker in
London in the early 1800s.  This transcription was done in May, 2014 by  John
Chambers.  PDF images of the original booklets may be found at

	http://imslp.org/wiki/Button_and_Whitaker%27s_Selection_of_Dances,_Reels_and_Waltzes_(Various)

This is a seris of short booklets with 4 pages each, and  typically  8  dance
tunes plus a brief dance description.  The file names are of the form:
   BBPPN_TITLE.abc
where  BB  is  the  booklet  number,  PP  is the page number, N is the tune's
position on the page (1-3), and V is the number of voices.

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As a special gimmick, some of the tune arrangements here have more  than  two
actual voices.  In the book, they are still written as two ABC "voices", with
overlaying in one voice.  Some ABC software (abcm2ps) handles this with voice
overlays using the & operator, but other software (abc2ps and jcabc2ps) don't
implement this.  For such tunes, two versions are transcribed.  The one using
voice overlays uses '-' instead of '_' in the file name.  The one using 3 (or
more) voices uses '=' instead.  See HAVERSTOCK HILL for an example.

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All the tunes in this booklet have a simple bass line, which is  transcribed.
I've  kept  the  original staff layout in the bass part, which you may use if
you like. The top (melody) voice generally has staff breaks to produce fewer,
longer  staff  lines suitable for a fairly small scale on letter or A8 pages.
The staff layout has little  musical  meaning,  of  course,  and  you  should
rearrange  it to fit your needs.  Note that most ABC formatting software will
use voice 1 to determine staff layout.

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This collection uses the common repeat markings of the 18th and 19th centuries
     ... :||: ... :||:

Modern music software generally gets confused by this, so I've translated it to
	|: ... :||: ... :|
or sometimes the more concise form using "::" for ":||:".  The initial "|:" is
only omitted when there is a short pickup (anacrucis).

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The titles are in all caps.  I've followed the common practice of putting any
initial  articles in lower case, with the rest of the title in all caps.  For
the file names, initial articles and punctuation are omitted, and "_" is used
to  separate  the  words.  The file names also have an initial 2-digit number
that is the number in the upper corner of the page.  There are no actual page
numbers in the booklet.

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The dance descriptions use a number of abbreviations.  Several words have one
or  more  final  letters  raised,  with a dot below, represented with the dot
inside the abbreviation.  E.g., "part.r" is printed as "part." with "r" above
the  dot,  and  means "partner".  Some common cases such as "M.rs" are simply
written without the ".".

Other abbreviations consist of an initial string ending with ":".   Examples:
"mid:" (middle), "Cu:" (Couple). These are common terms in dance descriptions
of this era.

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