![Basse danse couleur](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Basse_danse_couleur.jpg)
The ''basse danse'', or "low dance", was a popular
court dance
Historical dance (or early dance) is a term covering a wide variety of Western European-based dance types from the past as they are danced in the present. Today historical dances are danced as performance, for pleasure at themed balls or dance c ...
in the 15th and early 16th centuries, especially at the
Burgundian court. The word ''basse'' describes the nature of the dance, in which partners move quietly and gracefully in a slow gliding or walking motion without leaving the floor, while in livelier dances both feet left the floor in jumps or leaps. The basse danse was a precursor of the
pavane
The ''pavane'' ( ; it, pavana, ''padovana''; german: Paduana) is a slow processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century (Renaissance).
The pavane, the earliest-known music for which was published in Venice by Ottaviano Petrucci, ...
as a dignified processional dance. The term may apply to the dance or the music alone.
History
![R-20100927-0036](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/R-20100927-0036.jpg)
The earliest record of a basse danse is found in an
Occitan Occitan may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain.
* Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France.
* Occitan language
Occitan (; o ...
poem of the 1320s by
Raimon de Cornet
Raimon de Cornet (, also spelled ''Ramon de Cornet''; floruit, fl. 1324–1340) was a fourteenth-century Toulousain priest, friar, Philologist, grammarian, poet, and troubadour. He was a prolific author of verse; more than forty of his poems su ...
, who notes that the ''
joglar
A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who ...
s'' performed them.
The ''bassa danza'' is described in the dance treatise of
Guglielmo Ebreo da Pesaro
Guglielmo Ebreo da Pesaro (c. 1420 – c. 1484) was a Jewish Italian dancer and dancing master at some of the most influential courts in Renaissance Italy, including Naples, Urbino, Milan, and Ferrara. His byname '' Ebreo'' means simply ‘H ...
, in northern Italy towards the end of the 15th century, and by his friend
Antonio Cornazzano
Antonio Cornazzano (c. 1430 in Piacenza – 1484 in Ferrara) was an Italian poet, writer, biographer, and Choreography, dancing master.
Biography
In the city of Piacenza, which was then in the Duchy of Milan, Antonio Cornazzano was born probabl ...
, for whom it was the queen of all dance measures, low dance to be contrasted with the ''alta danza'', the "high" or leaping dance called the ''
saltarello
The ''saltarello'' is a musical dance originally from Italy. The first mention of it is in Add MS 29987, a late-fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century manuscript of Tuscan origin, now in the British Library. It was usually played in a fast tr ...
''. In Germany it became the ''Hofdantz''.
Thoinot Arbeau
Thoinot Arbeau is the anagrammatic pen name of French cleric Jehan Tabourot (March 17, 1520 – July 23, 1595). Tabourot is most famous for his ''Orchésographie'', a study of late sixteenth-century French Renaissance social dance. He was bo ...
used the basse danse to explain his method of dance notation in his ''Orchésographie'' (1589). The dance was danced until 1725 but was extinguished soon after by the "high" dance technique of ballet.
The general measure of the basse danse was elaborated into different named sequences of steps and movements. The basic measure is counted in sixes but, like the later
courante
The ''courante'', ''corrente'', ''coranto'' and ''corant'' are some of the names given to a family of triple metre dances from the late Renaissance and the Baroque era. In a Baroque dance suite an Italian or French courante is typically paired ...
, often combines and time, using
hemiola
In music, hemiola (also hemiolia) is the ratio 3:2. The equivalent Latin term is sesquialtera. In rhythm, ''hemiola'' refers to three beats of equal value in the time normally occupied by two beats. In pitch, ''hemiola'' refers to the interval of ...
to divide the six as 3–3 or as 2–2–2. This rhythm matches the basic steps of the dance. Most basse danse music is in
binary form
Binary form is a musical form in 2 related sections, both of which are usually repeated. Binary is also a structure used to choreograph dance. In music this is usually performed as A-A-B-B.
Binary form was popular during the Baroque period, of ...
with each section repeated.
The basse danse was often followed by a
tourdion
The ''tourdion'' (or ''tordion'') (from the French verb "tordre" / to twist) is a lively dance, similar in nature to the galliard, and popular from the mid-15th to the late-16th centuries, first in the Burgundian court and then all over the Frenc ...
, due to their contrasting tempi, and these were danced and composed in pairs ''
en suite
A bathroom or washroom is a room, typically in a home or other residential building, that contains either a bathtub or a shower (or both). The inclusion of a wash basin is common. In some parts of the world e.g. India, a toilet is typically ...
'' like the "
pavane
The ''pavane'' ( ; it, pavana, ''padovana''; german: Paduana) is a slow processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century (Renaissance).
The pavane, the earliest-known music for which was published in Venice by Ottaviano Petrucci, ...
and
galliard
The ''galliard'' (; french: gaillarde; it, gagliarda) was a form of Renaissance dance and music popular all over Europe in the 16th century. It is mentioned in dance manuals from England, Portugal, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy.
Dance f ...
" and the "
allemande
An ''allemande'' (''allemanda'', ''almain(e)'', or ''alman(d)'', French: "German (dance)") is a Renaissance and Baroque dance, and one of the most common instrumental dance styles in Baroque music, with examples by Couperin, Purcell, Bach
...
and
courante
The ''courante'', ''corrente'', ''coranto'' and ''corant'' are some of the names given to a family of triple metre dances from the late Renaissance and the Baroque era. In a Baroque dance suite an Italian or French courante is typically paired ...
".
Early music consisted of songs based on a
tenor
A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...
cantus firmus
In music, a ''cantus firmus'' ("fixed melody") is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition.
The plural of this Latin term is , although the corrupt form ''canti firmi'' (resulting from the grammatically incorrect tr ...
and the length of the choreography was often derived from the verse of the ''
chanson
A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic s ...
''. In performance three or four instrumentalists would improvise the
polyphony
Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...
based on this tenor. In others multiple parts were written, though choice of instrumentation was left to the performers.
Most famous, perhaps, are the basses danses assembled in 1530 by
Pierre Attaingnant
Pierre Attaingnant (or Attaignant) (c. 1494 – late 1551 or 1552) was a French Music publisher (sheet music), music publisher, active in Paris.
Life
Attaingnant is considered to be first large-scale publisher of single-impression movable type for ...
in the "Attaingnant Dance Prints", which were for four voices, typically improvised upon by adding melodic embellishment (Attaingnant rarely wrote ornamentation, though he did in "Pavin of Albart", an embellishment on "Pavane 'Si je m'en vois'").
Dance steps
![Basse danse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Basse_danse.jpg)
A treatise in the
Royal Library of Belgium
The Royal Library of Belgium (french: Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België, abbreviated ''KBR'' and sometimes nicknamed in French or in Dutch) is the national library of Belgium. The library has a history t ...
in Brussels gives us information about the elements of basse danse and the
choreography
Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design ...
of specific examples. The basse danse is based upon four steps: ''pas simple'', ''pas double'', ''démarche'' (also known as the ''reprise'') and ''branle''.
* ''Pas simples'' are done in pairs, dancers take two steps (typically first left and then right) in one measure counting 2–2–2.
* In ''pas double'', dancers take instead three steps, counting 3–3. These steps take advantage of the hemiola feel of the basse danse.
* In the ''démarche'', dancers take a step backwards and shift their weight forward and then back in three motions in the feel of .
* In the ''branle'', dancers step to the left, shifting their weight left, and then close again, in two motions in the feel of .
The ''révérence'', occurring typically before or after the choreography, is a bow or
curtsy
A curtsy (also spelled curtsey or incorrectly as courtsey) is a traditional gendered gesture of greeting, in which a girl or woman bends her knees while bowing her head. In Western culture it is the feminine equivalent of bowing by males. Miss Ma ...
that takes place over the course of one measure.
See also
*
Social dance
Social dances are dances that have a social functions and context. Social dances are intended for participation rather than performance. They are often danced merely to socialise and for entertainment, though they may have ceremonial, competit ...
Sources
*
Footnotes
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Video – basse danse a deuxVideo – basse danse, solo and pairs in procession
{{DEFAULTSORT:Basse Danse
Renaissance dance
Renaissance music
Dance forms in classical music
European court festivities