On Sat, Jul 11, 2009, [email protected] said: > Do we know approximately what the tempo of the Galliard was when > danced?
It must suit the needs of the dancer(s); if playing for live dancers and a dance master is present, defer to his judgement. Our primary reference is Arbeau, who describes several cinq-pas and cites a few tunes out of the hundreds that survive to us. There are modern dance groups who perform the galliard, the dance itself is a limiting factor, any dance with leaping motions involves timing issues dictated by the force of gravity. Other dances exist which have, mmm, places wherr reason demads irregularity in the tempo (eg, for Mdm Sosilias allemande, the embrace that closes it clearly is a place for 'pausa'. The galiard was an opportunity for soo dancers to show off their agility, ladies as well as men could compete on fairly equal ground, showing off how high they could kick a tassel, how complex a step they could invent (not just cinq pas, but also 11, 17, even 23 if the music was sufficiently ambiguous. Not every dance in 6 was a galliard tho, there was also volta and canario. A sensitive dance band will adjust its tempo to the dancer(s), perhaps at the behest of their dance master; this is especially true for performance situations, todays morris dance is an excellent example of this; that tradition goes back to the renaissance. > And what, customarily, is the relationship between that and > the tempo when played as a solo instrumental piece? Completely up to the art and judgement of the performer, keep the spirit of the dance in mind, but go no faster than the decoration and your skill in executing it will admit. -- Dana Emery To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
