Dear Stewart and all On Sat, 13 Aug 2005, Stewart McCoy wrote:
> for music to speed up over the years, as to slow down. However, the > fact is that the tempo of musical genres in the 16th, 17th, and 18th > centuries tended to slow down. I gave the saraband and galliard as > examples. The same thing happened with the pavan and almain. I can't > think off hand of music from that period where the opposite is the > case, and the tempo of a particular genre of music has gradually > accelerated. > > One may offer any number of explanations for the phenomenon I > describe. My own view is that the slowing down process is a result > of musicians and dancers elaborating more and more. I'm afraid I > don't think it has anything to do with their clothing. Years ago the dance teacher Madeleine Inglehearn had an explanation that is perhaps a little "poetic", but it really is poetic: When the kings, queens and high nobility learned dances, they were young and brisk. Fast dances were their favorities. When that gang became older, it was necessary and politically wise to slow down the tempos... Who knows... ;-) Arto To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
