Pieter Bruegel and the Art of Laughter - AAAARG.ORG

204 notes to pages 96–97
as “German flute,” but Wied 1990, p. 26, translates as Dudelsack or bagpipe.
Another artist associated with the bagpipe is Hemessen, whom Carolus
Scribanius identifies as the bagpiper in the latter’s Prodigal Son among
the Courtesans (Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts; ill. in Held 1996,
p. 187, fig. 56 ). Julius Held suggests that Scribanius’s identification
reflects an authentic tradition ( pp. 188–190, 203). It might be noted that
the bagpipe enjoyed considerable popularity in the seventeenth century
among the French aristocracy, where it was known as a musette; see Washington,
D.C., National Gallery of Art, Anthony van Dyck, cat. by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr., Susan J. Barnes, Julius S. Held, et al., 1990–91, pp. 304–
306, cat. no. 81.
83. Ramakers 1996, p. 101. The social interaction between city and country
is also apparent in a Village Kermis perhaps by Maerten van Cleve (Zurich,
Bührle Collection), in which one of the gentlemen is shown in conversation
with several peasants; see Marlier 1969, p. 360, fig. 222.
84. Tilman Susato, Derde musyck boexcken (Antwerp, 1551); see Wangermée
1968, p. 166, who suggests that it was likely not an authentic transcription
but was stylized to suit urban tastes. The dance has been recorded
at least once on a compact disc, Keeping the Watch, performed by the
Philadelphia Renaissance Wind Band on a Newport Classic label, NPD
85527.
85. Wangermée 1968, p. 323, defines a branle as “a dance of peasant origin
very popular in the sixteenth century.” Other peasant dances cultivated
by the urbanites are listed in Vandenbroeck 1987, p. 92. For rustic music
published in French song collections with new words, see François
Lesure, “Élements populaires dans la chanson française au début du XVIe
siècle,” in Musique et poésie au XVIe siècle, Colloques internationaux du Centre
national de la Recherche scientifique, Sciences humaines, vol. V
(Paris: CNRS, 1954), pp. 169–184, esp. 172. The Hobokendans may well
have been a branle or klompendans.
86. Claude Gauchet, Plaisir des champs. Divisé en quatre parties selon les Quatres saisons
de l’annee, . . . ou est traicté de la chasse, & de tout autre exercice recreatif, honneste &
vertueux. . . . (Paris: Nicolas Chesneau, 1583), pp. 57–72. For a description
of Gauchet’s book, see Brooks 2000, pp. 368–372. Burke 1978, p. 25, notes
some manuscript collections of popular songs by members of the upper
class in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. For the appeal of peasant
songs and dances for the urban classes, see also Kavaler 1999, pp. 195–196.