Music for the Dances in Arbeau's Orchesography

by Joseph Casazza

© copyright Joseph Casazza, 1995. You may transfer electronically the file containing the text of this article for your own study. Further use or reproduction requires permission from the author. E-mail: joseph_casazza_ab75@post.harvard.edu

For most of the dances described in Thoinot Arbeau1's Orchesographie, published in Langres in 1589, only a melody is given, but in the sixteenth century it was common for dance music to be provided by a band of loud or soft (haut or bas) instruments2 as the occasion demanded. Arbeau himself gives us information with which to begin our search for appropriate multi-part dance music when he suggests3 to his pupil, Capriol, that he look in the books of music printed by Pierre Attaignant and by Nicolas du Chemin in Paris for more music for basses dances and pavans. Attaignant's dance books are extant and have been published both in facsimile and in modern editions. Nicolas du Chemin published the dance music arranged by Jean d'Estrée, but only the superius and bassus parts of the first three books, and only the bassus part of the fourth book survive. Fortunately, there are a number of books of dance music which were published in the second half of the sixteenth century, all intended for the same middle class amateur4 audience. Many are not ensemble books, but books of music for solo lute, cittern, or guitar; however, ensemble setting of the music for Arbeau's dances can easily be made from these.

Many sixteenth century dances were not associated with specific melodies, but could be danced to any appropriate music. Pavans, gaillardes, branles simples, and branles doubles, branles gais, and the sixteenth century basse danse commun, for example, could be danced to a number of tunes, and so Arbeau could direct Capriol to the readily available collections of dance music for a variety of tunes to dance to. For mimetic dances or for dances with special length or cadential requirements it is necessary to look for settings of the particular tunes Arbeau gives, for in these cases dance and tune are closely associated and general interchangeability of music is not the case.

Brief Concordance to Dances contained in Orchesographie

As an aid to finding multi-part settings of Arbeau's dance tunes I have presented here a list of the dances described in Orchesographie, in the order in which Arbeau describes them, with each dance keyed by number to the accompanying bibliography of original sources and modern editions of 16th century dance music. This list of concordances is not exhaustive; for tunes for which multiple sources of settings exist, ensemble settings are listed in preference to lute, cittern, or guitar settings, and easily acquired sources are listed in preference to those which are difficult to obtain. Anyone interested in pursuing dance music concordances further should consult Howard Mayer Brown, Instrumental music published before 1600: a bibliography, and Daniel Heartz, Sources and forms of the instrumental dance in the sixteenth century. For three of the dances, I have provided brief explanations of the concordances I have identified. If your browser does not support tables, you can also view the list of concordances in text format only.