Medieval Instrumental Dance Music (Joan Rimmer)

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Medieval Instrumental Dance MusicAuthor(s): Joan RimmerReviewed work(s):Source: Music & Letters, Vol. 72, No. 1 (Feb., 1991), pp. 61-68Published by: Oxford University Press

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MEDIEVAL INSTRUMENTAL DANCE MUSICBY JOAN RIMMER

COMPAREDwith historicalmusicologists,dance historianshave been thinon thegroundandoftenparticular in standpoint. For example, Curt Sachs, who is not knownpersonallytohave set foot to floor n any serious sense, produced a WorldHzstoryof the Dance (Eng.trans., New York, 1937), using a methodologyreminiscent f themagisterialclassificatorysystems fhis earlierprofession s a curatorofmusical instrument ollections n Berlin andCairo. The Geschichte der Tanzkunstbythe Polish dance-masterAlbertCzerwinski Leip-zig, 1862) was concernedonly withAntiquity nd Europe, but itwas writtenwithtechnicalmasteryof much contemporarydance. Though both were concerned with thepractice ofdance, they provided veryfew notations of dance music. The reverse is the case withTimothyJ.McGee's collection ofwesternEuropean dance music,' whichcontains 36 pagesof textand five llustrations, ollowedby 121 pages of music notationsand thirteen ages ofnotes on these. In a shortpreface McGee writesmodestly: This editioncontains all the com-positionsknown or suspectedtobe instrumental ances frombeforeca. 1430 . . . I viewthisbook ... not as thedefinitivewriting n medieval instrumental ance music,but as a some-what speculative studyalong theway to a complete understanding'.From theconsumer'spointofview,thereare twodistinctproductshere -the hard stuff nthe shape of the notations and illustrations, and the author's speculative views in thepreceding text and the notes. The text s presented n foursections: Dance in the MiddleAges', 'The Repertoryof Textless Dances', 'Dancing' and 'PerformancePractice', the lastreferring o musical, not dance performance.Having in one volume a considerable part oftheknownbody ofnotateddance music frombefore1430 willno doubt save manystudentsof musicologymuch preliminary crabbling through a number of differentnd not alwayseasily accessible publications; these, whether of facsimilesor of earlier transcriptions, relisted individually foreach item. This comparatively nexpensiveproduction, printed onsturdy aper and spiral-bound,amplyallows forthescribbling n ofpersonal disagreementswiththetranscriptions ivenhere. As dance music,however, t s anothermatter, ince these48 notations re unhelpful o the choreographically ninformed.Pitch,rhythmicnterpreta-tionand recurrenceorder the last not alwaysaccurate) are here, as well as a 'counting unit'foreach item, though itsoverall metricalsignificance s not defined. But of choreometricstructure r stylethere s no hint.A lack of foot-on-floor ealitypervades the text, too. The author pertinently oints outthat iconographical material is a neglected source of information not only about earliermusic practice but also about dance. One mustnevertheless dd thatitsusefulnessdependsto a great extenton the recognitionbank of the present-dayviewer.McGee's recognitionbank appears to be minimally tocked. He cautiouslyadmits that Plate 3, an Italian frescoofc.1420, may notdepictdancing, merely procession. In fact, tseemsto be an allegoryofa woman's life fromgirlhoodto old age. To the sound of a pair of long trumpets, pair ofshawms and nakers, she firstproceeds on her father'sright arm, a slendergirlwithhairbraided downherback; then on the eft rm of an exquisitelydressedyouth,presumablyherbetrothed;then as an elegantly-hattedmarriedwoman on herhusband's arm, followedbyherself, onneted nmiddle age and on the armof a youngman, perhapsherson; and finallya sad, heavy and downcast figure n black on the arm of a middle-aged man, perhaps herson in maturity.Plate 4, illustrating scene in theGarden of Delight fromLe Roman de la

Medieval InstrumentalDances, ed. Timothy J. McGee. (Indiana UniversityPress, Bloomington & Indiana-polis, 1989, $27.50. ISBN 0-253-33353-9.)61

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rose, showsno social dancing at all. To the right, youngman, with a monkeytethered this feet,plays a mandora, whilea tornatrix,withhair tightly unched up as heract required(and stilldoes) balances on herhands. (In a single paragraph, the authoridentifies hisper-former irst s a younggirl and thenas a youth.) Furtherright s anotherkind ofperformer,one who assumed curiousor dangerous poses, sometimeson the shouldersof a man. Here, alittlegirl,with hair bunched up like the tumbler, balances on the shouldersof a woman andimitatesthe pose of a woman performerwho stands facingher. On the left,twoyoung girlswhisper nd embrace. A male figure,feetwide apart, graspstwo more young womenby thewrists, pparentlyurgingthem towards a winged and coroneted figure,while two maturemusicianssit in thebackground,playing rebec and harp. The frontispiece epicts a dancein the Garden of Mirth,from fourteenth-centuryopy of Le Roman de la rose,and Plates1 and 2 show details from moralisticfrescoes by Andrea Bonaiuto (1365) and AmbrogioLorenzetti 1337-9). McGee interprets he groupof four n Plate 4 (winged figure ncluded)and also the figures n the frontispiece nd Plates 1 and 2 as 'dancers holding hands in smallgroups, making gracefulmovementswith theirfeetclose to the floor'. He adds that thelineof textbeneath the frontispiecepeaks of dancing the carol. But thedances in the other pic-ture are not identified.' n fourteenth-centurylorence and Siena, no identificationwouldhave been needed; these were currentdance types, and they are still dentifiable.

Leaving aside forthe moment whether r not therewas any such thing s 'thecarol', thesethree depictions cover a considerable stretch f time. The text of Le Roman de la rose wascreated in the thirteenth entury,part before c. 1240 and part about 40 years later. Thecopy fromwhich this llustrationwas takenwas made a hundred years ater still. It can beinterpreted s a conflationof some of the severalactivitiesmentioned n the texton the samepage. But itmightdepictsomethingperhapsmore characteristic f the late fourteenth en-tury han of theearly thirteenth entury,namely, a carole en ligne not actuallysung bytheparticipantsbut performed,textlessly, n two shawmsand a bagpipe acting as surrogatesfor the alternatingvoices of the entire company and the carole leader. Apart fromtheleader's feetbeing shown n reverse,with the rightfoot eading instead of the eft this s cor-rectly hown in the case of the otherfour participants), thisseems a reasonably accuratedepiction of a point in the singlebranle step pattern. The rightfoot,which takes onlythesubsidiaryweight hifts or thefirst nd second beats of each unit,is exactly n place to takethe lightbackward shift n the thirdbeat. The erectcarriage and decorous balancing linkbetween participants right hand facing down overyour neighbour's left hand facing up,and the reverseforyourlefthand) are also clearlyshown.2Naturally, there is greater detail in the big Italian frescoes,which have symbolicsignificancebut are realistically painted. The scene in Lorenzetti's The Effectsof GoodGovernmentn the City Plate 1) is a large open space in Siena, with citizensofmanykindsgoing about their own affairs n the street,or overlooking t from within doors. In thecentre,nine well-dressed nd well-coiffed oungwomen, linkedbythe littlefingers feachhand, dance a branle en ligne to the singingof a somewhatolder woman who also definesthe dance metres with a large tambourine. McGee describes the formation as 'under thebridge'. It is, however,what is commonlyknown as Threading theNeedle, one of the threefigures f this arandole typeof dance. The line is on a labyrinthine rack and the eader andsecond dancer have just brokenfrom t to formthesingle-armedarch under which the restwill go.3 This is essentially communal dance, performableby manymorepeople than areshown n Lorenzetti'spictureand needingthe kindofspace available out of doors. These in-nocent dances of young girlswere obviously acceptable to civic authority,whereas moreebullient dance manifestations,uch as thoseat Carnival, were less so. It is significant hatin the companion fresco, entitled The Effect of Good Government n the Country,norecreationalactivitys shown,only orderly abour. In theagriculturalcycle,themajor ritualoccasions fordance-spring, midsummer and midwinter-were not necessarily ssociatedwithpublic order.

2 This has a specific connotation in the physical balance and stabilityof a communal ring or line.I In Fra Angelico's The LastJudgement, thedance of angels and the blessed is shown at exactly the same point.62

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The detail from the huge, Dominican-orientatedfrescodepictingthe Church Militant,in the chapel of S. Maria Novella, Florence (Plate 2), is taken from the sectiondepictinganumber of earthlypleasures. There is social and choreographicexactitudehere,too, forthetwo groups of dancers are engaged in verydifferent indsofdance. To the left,a group offour two youngmen and two girls are engaged in a carole en ronde, theopen-mouthedyoung man at therightbeing theleader. They have the same erectcarriage as thegroup inthe little llustrationfromLe Roman de la rose, but, like thegirls n Siena, they re linkedbycrooked littlefingers.This is also the linkbetween a man and twogirlsat theright, nd,again like thegirls n Siena, they re dancing tothesingingofa separatewomanwitha largetambourine. This, however, s no communal carole ofancientlineage but a highlypersonaldance. The dancers' demeanour has a hint of aiere as spelt out in Italian dance-masters'books of two generations later, where there are also many choreographed examples ofuneven-sex dances withtheirundertonesof ritualizedrivalry.4Timothy McGee's interpretationof his five illustrations s simplisticto a degree un-thinkable n any otheracademic field, and it is not difficult o see why.Dance historys noarmchairsubject, and it has notyet begottenas large a corpusofliterature s has medievalmusic. But even in the musical field, McGee seemsheavily dependent on previouswritings.His text s curiouslyorganized. Discussion of the notated items n the section entitled TheRepertory fTextless Dances' is sandwiched between theverybrief nd generalized sections'Dance in the Middle Ages' and 'Dancing'. While thelatter,presentedas a speculativesum-ming up, is little more than threepages long, the notes to the textup to thatpointfillsixand a half pages in small type. Tail wagging dog? Or just the impossibility f distillinganythingchoreographicallyconcrete froma mass of largelymusicological material? Theauthor has already produced an original studyof some musical aspects of one collection,'and, withcertain reservations, he transcriptions iven here are a useful addition to anyworking ibrary.But appending to thema minusculespeculativestudyon thevastsubject ofdance in westernEurope over more than threecenturies eems an unrealisticexercise, par-ticularlywhen the author has not only omitted some primaryfactors fromhis considera-tions but appears to be unaware of their relevance. Transcribingmedieval notations ofdance music-or indeed notations of any unfamiliar dance music-meaningfully intotwentieth-centuryymbolsneeds more than ust cracking the notational codes; one mustalsoattemptto crack the choreometriccodes enshrinedin music and/or texts,whetherdancefunctionalor not, and somethingofthe behavioural codes of whichdance habits were, andstillare, a significant omponent.There is also the matter of reasonablyexact definition fwhat is being discussed and ofreasonablyprecise terminology. t could no doubt be claimed that the concepts and termsemployed have been hallowed by generations of use among literary scholars andmusicologists. But following the disappearance of some of the activitieswhich theyoncedenoted clearly,and dilutions or distortions fmeaning or looser applications, a good manyof them now mean different hings to different eople.6 None of McGee's distinguishedwriters eferred o in theextensivenotesfaced squarely the crunchproblem in retrospectiveinvestigationof Western medieval dance and dance music, namely, the relationship be-tweendance metre,prosody and systems f assembling, and in some cases also decorating,appropriateunitsofmusic. What is at issuehere is not sophisticated rt musicmatchingthetheoreticaldescriptions of the formal design of the earlier dance compositions,althoughrarelyexhibitingthe kind of melodic and rhythmic atterns thatwould suggestthe dancesdescribed in the earlier literary nd theoreticalaccounts', as Timothy McGee describes hislater items. It is, rather, a system of lego-building with several kinds of materialsimultaneously.Like most durable systems, t was operable short and plain or long and

See AntoniusArena, 'Leges Dansandi/Rules ofDancing', original textwithtrans. byJohnGtithrie& MarinoZorzi, Dance Research, iv/2 (Autumn 1986), 14, on fifteenth-centurytiquette when dancin1gwith two girls.5 Timothy J. McGee, 'Eastern Influences in Medieval European Dance Music', Cross-CulturalPerspectives inMusic, ed. Robert Falck & Timothy Rice, Toronto, 1982, pp. 79, 100.6 See SirJack Westrup, 'Parodies and Parameters', Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, c (1973-4),19-31, forgeneral discussion of this in musical terminology.

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fancy.When firstwritten own in the twelfth entury, t must already have been well estab-lished, and in some conservativeregionsof Europe, including the periphery f the BritishIsles, it survivedwell into the seventeenth entury.Throughout the shortdiscussions,there seems to be no clear perceptionof the elementsinvolved n dance or how they are analysed, and no assessmentof the character and view-pointof the authorsquoted or referred o or of the originalfunction f theirwritings.Dancetypes re distinguished s round, carol and estampie,even thoughthese are not comparablecategories. Round' is a floorpattern. The Englishterm carol' no longer has the same mean-ing as carole, forwhich twas once the English equivalent, and in any medieval context t isprudent to stick to the old French term. Brieflyput, carole was the combination of par-ticular kinds of spatial pattern and particularkinds ofgroup-to-individualrelationships nmusicand text,with particularkindsof social function.'Estampie, on theother hand, was aspecificdance type.Moreover,itwas not communal like carole, but for a singlecouple orcouples in sequence, and earlier, sometimesan exhibitionist olo man's dance. It is the firstrecordedwesternEuropean dance type withwhat is knownas a 'front', hat is, danced firstforwards owardsa personage or pointthen n reverseback to the starting-place, floorpat-tern exactly paralleled in the open and closed formsof each section of estampie-reiatedmusic. In some caroles, certainstepsequences in mixed dance metres ould fitwithvariousrecurrencepatternsof text-plus-music.8n estampie, a dance type which was always inmixed metres, dentical choreometricpatternsare very rare;9 this was the difficult ocialdance, needing personal concentration.The eleven pages on 'The Repertoryof Textless Dances' contain the only analyticaldiscussion n thepreliminary ext. But withoutanyreal perceptionof what mightbe calledthe structuralmechanics of dance music and of the parameters of tempo outside which itmakes no physical sense at all, the authortends to see similaritieswherenone existand failsto see some that do exist. It is unhelpful to point out that 'The French estampies haverelatively hortpuncta of eight to twenty nits of measure and are in triplemeter, while inthe Italian source theyvary n lengthfromtwenty o over a hundredunits of measure andare all in duple subdivision' fyoudo not establishwhether hose subdivisions re primary rsecondary n relationto the dance metres,or indeed how the chosenunitofmeasure relatesto them. Simplycountingtotalsofunitsof measure is in itselfno morerevealingof dance ormusicmetrethansyllableor footcounting srevealingofversemetre;thesignificant ointishow they hang together. n termsof design (and the author uses this in a purelymusicalsense) it is not trueto say that the Italian estampiesare more complex than the French: theauthor has merelyfailed to identify arious kindsof complexity.The formalprinciplesofFrench estampie are presented as each punctum consistingof 'completelynew melodicmaterialfollowedbya commonopen and closedendingsthatact as itsrefrain', Ax/y Bx/yetc. The thirteen ances in the Chansonnierdu Roi, fromwhichmost of the French items nMcGee's book are taken, get, on the whole, simpler. The last of all, fromthe fourteenth-century artofthemanuscriptand called simplyDanse, can be plottedthatway,though nchoreometricalterms t is necessaryto refine t to ABx/y CDx/y etc. But the single frag-mentwhich is all that remainsof the first stampie Royal can be plotted thus:

Al + B3 C8 D4 E4 F...G2 + B3 H4 D4 J5 F...And using w' to represent constantpre-cadentialformula,the first nd fourthpuncta ofthe second Estampie Royal are:

7 See Joan Rimmer, 'Carole, Rondeau and Branle in Ireland 1300-1800, Part 1: The Walling ofNew Ross andDance Texts in the Red Book of Ossory', Dance Research, vii/I (Spring 1989), 25-26.8 See idem, 'Dance Elements in Trouvere Repertory',Dance Research, iii/2 (Summer 1985), 30-31, foroneexample.9 McGee's suggestion that 'the French estampies were probably of the generic, unchoreographed type' is not

well founded, since he has not recognized the nature of their choreometricchanges.0 The use of this termin connection with estampze and some other medieval dance forms s inappropriate.64

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1. A4 B4 w4 x6 /y74. G6 H5The kind of ground-plan in the second Estampie Royal, consistingof changing initialmodules, a constantpre-cadential formula and open and closed formsof a cadential unit,was followed n some of the Italian estampies,though the melodic languages of the Italianpieces are verydifferent rom the older French ones. It is literallya ground-plan, for itdefinestime-and thereforepace -for thFedvancing sectionand forthereturning ection.Moreover, in the constantpre-cadential formula, it has a signal that the dancers are at acertain point from the end of the section, and if theyhave miscalculated the size of theirsteps in relation to the available dance track, theycan still adjust them to ensure turningand finishing t appropriate spots. "In notating any kind ofmusic, whetherfrom ive performanceor partlyor whollyfrommemory,or even when copyingfromexistingnotation,one lurkingpitfall s theindicationof the recurrenceofmodules which it is both laborious and unnecessaryto writeout in fullevery ime. Both the Italian notations and TimothyMcGee's edition contain a sprinkling fmishits, as do the editionsof some of his predecessors.For example, the ground-plan ofIsabella is:1. A4 B5 C1 +D2 w3+2 C1 +E3 F1 +G2 H2 F1 +J5 x3/y52. K1+2+2 L3+12 .. .. .. ..3. M9 N7 ..4. 07 + 2 P7 Q14 .. .. .. ..(italics indicate changes of dance metre not specified in detail here)

The lengths of the puncta in this estampie imply a long dance track, with greaterpossibilitiesfor patial miscalculation than a shorter ne; but themusic has built-in ignals.The changing initial modules are through-composed,while the long cadential unit hasbalanced repetitions.One would need cloth ears and twoleftfeet to miss this. In McGee'seditionofthis tem,thepre-cadentialmodule and the first hreemodules of the longcaden-tial unititself re omittedfrom hesecond and fourthpuncta; thesecond goes straight romL to F +J and the fourth traightfromQ to F +J, thus making nonsense of thissuperblycraftedchoreo-musicalstructure.The note to thisestampiereads: 'The openingbars of thisdance consistonlyofa single note, played at decreasingdurations.The performermay wishto elaborate on thisbyincorporating t intoa prelude, extendingthephrase, and graduallyincreasingthe speed of the single note until it reaches tempo.' Within the constraintsofgeneral or local consensus, people may indeed do as they please with almost any kind ofmusic. But this uggestion eemstofollowfromnon-appreciationof thechoreometric truc-ture of thisparticular dance music and oftheparameters oftempowhich are implied. That'single note, played at decreasing durations' is the firmlyrhythmic tart of the firmlyrhythmic irstmodule, which is cast in the principal dance metre of thisestampie and ofmany others.The threepaired dances (Lamento di Tristanoand La Manfredina, bothwith a followingrotta, and a Danqa Amorosa with a followingtroto) are constructedon different atternsfromthe estampies.They are rhythmicallymuch simplerand do not necessarily mplyper-formancebysinglecouples on a forward nd back dance track.The first ance in each pairis in one dance metrethroughout, nd the afterdance is in a different ne. This degree ofsimplicitys theantithesis f estampie,wheresome ofthemetricalchanges can involvecom-plex footwork.All threedances are inmanuscripts f talian provenance, but thereare hintsof acculturation. Tristan'sLament and itsrottaare followed n themanuscript by La Man-fredina and its rotta, and it could perhaps be surmisedthat the Italian piece was a localessaysomewhatafter the manner of the previous one, whose originsseem to be fardistantfromfourteenth-centurytaly. La Manfredina is in the same dance metre as Tristan'sLament, and it has similar rhythmic atternsand even bits of Tristan'smelodic line. Its

" See Arena, op. cit., p. 21, foretiquette in the case of miscalculation in dancing basses danses.65

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internalstructure,however, s not convoluted and it lacks the flowingmelodic arches of thepreviouspiece:Lamento di Tristano Rotta La Manfredina & Rotta1. Ai) Aii) B Ci) x/y A x/y 1. A w/z2. Cii) .. .. .. .. C .. 2. B x/z3. Ciii) .. .. .. .. D .. 3. C y/z

(in McGee's edition, ABC in the second punctum of Tristan's Lament is omitted)There are hintsofregional acculturations n other temsalso. Of the four fragments sedas tenorsfor thirteenth-centuryotets Chose Tassin 1, 2 and 3 and Chose Loyset), McGeeremarksthat They wereprobablynot dances in the formwe findthem here . . . the piecesdo not seem to possess the regularityof rhythmusually associated with the other dancemelodies or dance tenors ncluded in this publication'. But all these are single puncta ofestampie,one punctumat a slowed-downtempo providing ufficientmaterial around whichlearnedlyto contrivea motet. All consistof a constantunit followedby open and closedcadential units, and all have choreometric hanges. Tassin was apparently a notable dancerof long estampies, and the three separate puncta which bear his name are each on a dif-ferent attern,two fairly traightforwardnd one morecomplicated. Loyset's s a miniature

on the same kind of choreometricplan as one of Tassin's. But ofthe fourthirteenth-centuryEnglishpieces in thisvolume, only twohave much connectionwith estampie in the Frenchsense, and even they re assembled on a micro-systemike that in the othertwo.'2 Like thedances in the Channsonnier du Roi, the three in Harley 978 are progressively impler.Unlike them, theyhave no choreometricalchanges (this mightmake themductia inJohan-nes de Grocheo'ssense). In thelower ofthe twoparts, the first fthe threefollows he overallpatternfor a single punctumofestampie,witha constantunithavingopen and closed end-ings. That unit, however, s made from repeated smaller unitswhich themselves onsistoftinymotifs,first pen and then closed:'As/t :11 2Bu/w :11 I Cx/yclCX/ZOP V

4 :11 S - :11 6. CX/yC IIThe numbers 1-6 merelydefinesuccessive modules, each lasting less than ten seconds atdancing tempo; together,theymake a single dance routine. The second and thirddancesalso have an additional part throughout,but the functionhere may have been more thanmerelydecorative.The second is made fromrepetitions fonlytwotinymodules, the samelengthas in the previous tem. But the second timeround, theyare pitched a fifth igherthan before,withthe added partnow below. Since the added partsare learnedlycontrived,thismay have been no more than a device formaking listeningmusic from small dancemusic (whose effect n itsoriginalcontextand dancing lengthwould have been physicalandcumulative), a parallel, perhaps, to the present-dayhabit of shifting uccessive versesof apopular songor dance tune up bya tone or semitone. But in practice, the shiftgivesa dif-ferent onal end to itssection, open where t had previouslybeen closed. This is thereverseof the patternof a punctum of estampie. It suggeststhat the complete dance routinewasperhaps not ust the four sectionsas numbered,but a minimum ofsix,with a da capo, andthe actual end at the closed formofthe second module. At a reasonable performingength,this would mean many alterationsof AABx/y and AABx/z, finishingwith the closed By,and the spatial implication of communal dance on a round floorpattern:

FINE'Ai) :11 2Bxi)/yCIl 11 'Aii) :11 4Bxii)/z0P 11 D.C.The thirddance is made fromonly one module, first pen and then closed, played fivetimes. This is pitched a fifth igher n the last three,again withthe added partnow below.At this degree of simplicity,processional seems the most likelyfloorpattern. One could

2 There are traces of this in some archaic modules incorporated into English dance tunes firstnotated in theseventeenth entury nd in a fewWelsh pieces notated in theeighteenthcentury. t was still a viable methodofcon-struction n the Gaelic regions of Scotland and Ireland until the end of the seventeenthcentury.

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surmise hat this equence of temsmightrepresent he actual dancingorder. First, hemoredifficult oreigndance, albeit in a simplifiedform;thena communal rounddance, perhapswith intermittent igures;and finally processional or promenade off.The singledance from Douce 139 seems a more hybridaffair, ts structure bscured bythe scribe's arbitrarynumbering and possibly a small omission in the notation of thepenultimatemodule. Though numbered 1 to 10, it is actually in threesections.The firstssimply three statements fone module open and closed, the closed formbeingmade byanaddition to the open form, not by a substitution; the only differencebetween the threestatements s in the first ote, successivelyA, C and F. The second section has twomodules,each open and closed. All these are slightly onger than in the dances in the othermanuscript. The thirdsectionconsistsof a single module played threetimes,withslightlydifferent igurationeach time, and a new module with a closed cadential unit; then thepreviousmodule, slightly xpanded, played twice,followedbyanothernewmodule but withthe same cadential unit. The whole routine s rounded offwitha repeated coda, to whichparts are added above and below in the repeat:

1. 'As/s+t I I I/ I I-/2. 4Bu/w I 5Cx/y 113. 6D D 7D SEzcI 11 9D+ D + I F*zCI 1G :11(*two notes seem to be omitted here)This looks ikean insularacculturationofestampze. There are threedistinctpuncta, but thefirst wo,assemblagesoftiny pen and closed motifs ike the dance tunes n Harley 978, arenot on an estampie kind of pattern. The thirdcomes closer; but the constant unit hasunevenrepetitions, hepre-cadential unit sdifferentneach half, while thecadential unit sidentically losed each time.There are, however,touches ofmixeddance metre at thesamepointsas in some French estampies, and in the coda there seems to be something ike a fid-dler'spostlude,of theverykindTimothyMcGee speculates about in hisremarkson perfor-mance practices.The earliestmusic to which an estampie-typename has been attached is Kalenda Maya,and this s thefirst tem n McGee's notations. The medieval tale was that Raimbaut de Va-queiras made a text to it afterhearing itplayed bytwo ongleurs, but theonly knownnota-tion of the music dates fromnearly a hundred years afterRaimbaut's death in the firstdecade of the thirteenth entury.Puttingtextand music togetherdoes not constitutewhatthe author calls 'vocal estampie' any more than putting the text Land of Hope and Glory'to part of one of Elgar's exercises n Pomp and Circumstanceconstitutes 'vocal march'.The music is in three sections. However interpretedrhythmically,t implies changingchoreographic patterns; and if the notation is interpreted iterallyand in choreometricterms,ratherthan according to formulaswhich may be validlyapplicable to quite othermusical constructs, hosepatterns are complex in a ratherdifferentwayfrommost estam-pzes. Raimbaut's textconsistsoffivestanzas, each ofwhich ismade on the complete three-sectiondance routine, whichmay itselfhave been only one punctumof a longerestampida.The context s clear fromthe veryfirst ine. This was one of the springdances, a male ex-

hibitionist olo (as, presumably,werethoseof Tassin and Loyset) here safelywithinthe for-mal confinesof courtoisie.At the end of thefinal stanza, the poet reminds his patron, theMarquis ofMontferrat, hat he has now constructed nd finished he estampida'. It was atthe court at Montferrat hatRaimbaut heard theprototype and no doubt saw it danced).Had themarquis or one of his courtiersmade a wager that the poet would not be able tomake an extended poem on such a complex pattern?The textconsistently evealsrhythmicubtleties no doubt manifest n theoriginal perfor-mance), which the musical notation, incapable of signallingmetacrusis in tinymodules,could not. These textdetails also make choreometric ense, altogether n keeping with thecharacter of a solo dance with intricatefootwork:ABwi)c' /wii)c'-CXoP /wi0)C1.DEycl /zcl.(diacrusis in B and C)

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7/28/2019 Medieval Instrumental Dance Music (Joan Rimmer)

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SouventSouspire,which followsKalenda Maya in this edition, is generallythoughtto beon a similar pattern. It has, however, a much simpler text,only the simplest change indance metre, and a differentonal plan:Ac' :11Bc1 11 C B C D0P 11

Timothy McGee suggests hat n both cases the ast two ines, whichhe calls a refrain, houldbe repeated. This would deformthe structure nd the dramatic shape of both items.He questionswhether he twoCzech items Czaldy Waldy)were in fact dance music, butstatesthat theyhave twopartes and are written n black notes, thus conforming o the basicformatof the basse danse'. The only thing these two Czech dances have in common isthat theirfirstmodule is open and all the others are closed. One is smooth and elegantlybalanced. Its modular plan and rhythmic attern seem unusual compared withwesternEuropean notated dances, but they may not have been unusual in central Europe:

ABx0P' AAyCl 11 Cy* Dy Cy 11(*defective notation)

The other is a more boisterous affair,through-composed n four modules with identicaldance metre in each except forthe third. Its motor impulse and rhythmic atternsrecallsome of the quick duple-time dances which have lasted into this centuryin parts ofBohemia, particularlywedding dances. There is little chance of knowing why these twoitemswere committed o writing n the ate fourteenth nd earlyfifteenthenturies.But bear-ing in mind the ritual and conservativecharacter of music for rites of passage, weddingsamong them, one could imagine the elegant one as the ritual dance of a newly marriedcouple, followedby the livelyone for all the company.In terms fpresentation, s itnot time that authorsrefrainedfromusingthe historicpre-sent in print?While it may have some use in classroom discussion on specific points orviewpoints, n print t conflatescenturiesand dissipatesall sense of chronology.JeromeofMoravia, Johannesde Grocheo and othersdo not tellus'; theywroteofparticulartimes ndin particular circumstances. If technical evidence about dance fromthe twelfth enturyonwards is taken into account, it seems clear that,while some highly earned and literatepeople were personallyand intimately cquainted withcontemporary ocial dances, otherswere less so; but it was the latterwho were more likelyto put theiropinions into writtenform.SirJackWestrupremarked that elegant description s not thesame as definition, utit s notalwayseasytoseparate thetwo'. 3 One mayadd that, n anyhistoricalfield,some at-temptto definethe natureofpast describers s desirable, and that relevanttoolsof analysisare essential.Where physical techniques of anykind are involved,some degree of realisticacquaintance withthemis equally essential. TimothyMcGee's book is indeed speculative;he has speculated in areas whereat least some factsare knownand failed to speculate con-structivelyn otherswheretheyare not. It is not a focusedstudy.Most fundamentally,hehas failed to recognizethatsocial dance and itsmusic (howeverthelattermaybe executed)are Siamese twins.In the field of researchinto the history f dance, besides being literateand 'noterate' it is necessaryalso to be 'canterate' and 'moterate'.

I Westrup, op. cit., p. 30.

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