Description
Get your glad rags on and step on the dance floor at the Tin Hall! Written about the oldest and largest dance hall in Cypress, Texas, this piece is light-hearted and fun, even featuring a chance for the woodwinds to dance!
Program Notes
Tin Hall is the name of a historic dance hall in Cypress, Texas, just outside of Houston. The oldest and largest dance hall in Harris County, it was constructed in 1878. Throughout its history, the hall has featured a number of musicians, including Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Asleep at the Wheel, Hank Williams III, Pat Green, the Bellamy Brothers, Ronnie Milsap, Roy Clark, and countless others. Tin Hall’s heyday as a live venue lasted from the early 1970s through the early 2000s.
Having been a focal point for Saturday fun, Tin Hall holds many memories shared by the “Tinhallers and Tinhallettes,” everything from teenagers having their own section to little kids running and sliding across the slick wooden floors between sets. One Tin Hall lifer even remembers falling asleep on wooden chairs while her parents whirled the night away. Tin Hall was indeed a dance hall for the entire family. Sadly, it has now closed its doors, but there is discussion about its reopening at a new location.
Having grown up in Texas myself, I am no stranger to country music and boot-scootin’. In Lubbock, TX (the western part of the state), I learned to two-step, partner dance, and line dance, and this piece, “Tin Hall”, pays tribute to all of it. The upbeat first and last sections are more reminiscent of partner and line dancing, and the middle section is meant to portray the schottische. The Woodwinds even get to dance the schottische, demonstrating the “grapevine” and “hop” steps from their chairs. I hope you enjoy all the fun and camaraderie that this piece embodies!
