A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Hey

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A Dictionary of Music and Musicians
edited by George Grove

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1505557A Dictionary of Music and Musicians — HeyGeorge GroveWilliam Barclay Squire

HEY, or HAY. The name of a figure of a dance frequently mentioned by Elizabethan writers. Its derivation is unknown; the word may come from the French haie, a hedge, the dancers standing in two rows being compared to hedges. Its first occurrence is Thoinot Arbeau's description of the passages at arms in the Bouffons, or Matassins [see vol. ii. p. 236b], one of which is the Passage de la haye. This was only danced by four men, in imitation of a combat. Mr. Chappell ('Popular Music,' p. 629) remarks that 'dancing a reel is but one of the ways of dancing the hay.… In the "Dancing Master" the hey is one of the figures of most frequent occurrence. In one country-dance "the women stand still, the men going the hey between them." This is evidently winding in and out. In another, two men and one woman dance the hey, like a reel. In a third, three men dance this hey, and three women at the same time, like a double reel.' There is no special tune for the hey, but in Playford's 'Musicks Hand-maid' (1678) the following air, entitled 'The Canaries or the Hay,' occurs:—

${ \time 6/4 \relative g' { g4.\trill a8 b4 b4.\prall a8 b4 c4.\trill d8 b4 a2\prall g4 g8 fis g a b4 b8 a b c b4 c8 b c d b4 a2\prall g4 \bar "||" d'2.\prall b4.\prall c8 d4 e d b a2\prall g4 g' d d b8 a b c d b c d e d c b a2\prall\turn g4\fermata \bar "||" } }$

[ W. B. S. ]