Full Description
Dance Music of the French Baroque brings together information on rhythm from the interrelated fields of music, dance, poetry, rhetoric, and philosophy. Part I is devoted to the various factors involved in dance rhythms, including tempos, rhythmic feet, dance steps, declamation of lyrics, instrumental articulation, and performance of ornaments.
Part II describes in alphabetic order the fifteen most frequently encountered dances of the period and identifies the most typical performance of each in relation to the factors discussed in Part I. With reference to numerous illustrations and musical examples, it clearly conveys the manner in which the allemandes, bourées, chaconnes, gigues, etc., may be executed. This practical book presents a myriad of information in a form that is easy to use yet as graceful as the dances it describes.
Contents
Introduction; Prologue: The King's Grand BallPart I: Features of the Dance Rythms 1 Reason and the Passions; 2 Arbeau's Dance Rythms; 3 Dance Rhythms from Early Guitar Sources; 4 Rythmic Movements in Mersenne's and Later Dance Music; 5 The Musical Measure; 6 Correspondence of Melodic and Poetic Rhythms in Lullian Dance Songs; 7 Rhetorial Proportions; 8 Step-units of la belle danse; 9 Symmetrical, Poetic, and Rhetorical Proportions of la belle danse; 10 Tempos and General Affects; 11 Marking the Musical Meter; 12 Lullian Bowing of Dance Rhythms; 13 Forceful Articulation of Lullian Dance Lyrics; 14 Articulation of Dance Rhythms in Concert Pieces; 15 Ornamenting Dance Rhythms; 16 Grouping Unslurred Quick Notes; 17 Summing Up--The Many Apsects of MovementPart II: Rhythmic Characteristics of Fifteen Dance Types 18 Allemandes; 19 Bourrees; 20 Canaries; 21 Chaconnes; 22 Courantes; 23 Folies; 24 Forlanes; 25 Gavottes; 26 Gigues; 27 Loure; 28 Menuets; 29 Passacailles; 30 Passepieds; 31 Rigaudons; 32 SarabandesAppendix: Six Complete Dance Songs
