Primary Dance Sources: An Annotated Bibliography

6 Primary Dance Sources: An Annotated
Bibliography
All the manuals discussed in this section except the last are in french, and
describe the style of basse dance which was popular in France and
Burgundy in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. These dances
are similar to the Italian bassadanza which is described in numerous
manuscripts from 1450 until about 1510 (see section I.A). Unlike the
Italian sources, the Burgundian manuals contain few complicated dances,
and use a much smaller vocabulary of steps.
This manuscript includes a short discussion on steps for the Burgundian
style of basse dance, which are processional in nature, beginning with a
reverence (i.e. bow) and branle, followed by some combination of single
steps, double steps, reprises and branles. The most well-known of these
dances in the SCA are Dance de Cleves and Fransois Nouvele, both
reconstructed from this manuscript. This work includes a list of 59
bassedances, along with music. The music given is only the tenor line, as
the musicians were expected to improvise one or two more parts around
the base given to the tenor. The introduction by Closson is dated, and has
been supplanted by newer scholarship.
Michel Toulouze, pub Michel Toulouze, pub. L'art et instruction de bien dancer (Paris: c.
1488-1496). Published in facsimile with music transcribed and
edited by Richard Rastall and translated by A. E. Lequet (New York,
Dance Horizons: 1971). Published in facsimile by Minkoff (Geneve:
1985).
This work is considered to be the first printed work on dancing, with all
earlier works being manuscripts, and so would have been available to a
larger audience than any previous work. Like the Brussles Manuscript
above, this work includes a short discussion on steps and a list of 45
basse dances, with the music for their tenor lines. Some dances appear in
Brussles or Moderne, as well as here. For the interested scholar who does
not read french, this volume is valuable for the translation of the
introductory discussion of steps, although the translation is not perfect. It
should be noted that the discussion of dancing and in particular the
descriptions of steps which appear here and in Brussles and Moderne are
far from clear and concise, but must be considered carefully when
attempting to interpret the steps. Given an interpretation of the steps, the
actual dance choreographies are relatively unambiguous.
Le ballet de la royne
de Cessile
Le ballet de la royne de Cessile. Flyleaf choreographies to a copy of
Geste des nobles Francoys in Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale (fonds fr.
5699 (formerly fonds fr. 10279)). Dances transcribed in Curt Sachs,
World History of the Dance (New York: 1937), pp. 313-314.
This document lists the dances which were performed at a court function
in 1445, and includes the choreogrophies for each dance. Seven dances
are listed, but no music is given. The style of the dances is signifigantly
different from the style of Brussles, Toulouze and Moderne, using steps
which are not mentioned in any of them, as well as combinations of steps
(such as three singles together) which are never used in the other
manuals. This work is dated later than any of those three, and may be
describing a dance which is more similar to the dance which Arbeau
describes.