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 French Kingdom. The dance was accompanied frequently by the
basse danse, due to their contrasting tempi, and were danced alongside the
pavane and galliard, and the
allemande 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 ...
, also in pairs.
In a triple meter, the tourdion's "was nearly the same as the Galliard, but the former was more rapid and smooth than the latter".
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 ...
published several tourdions in his first publication of collected dances in 1530, which contains, as the sixth and seventh items, a basse dance entitled "La Magdalena" with a following tourdion (it was only in 1949 that
César Geoffray
César Geoffray (20 February 1901 – 24 December 1972) was a French composer.
1901 births
1972 deaths
20th-century French composers
French male composers
Musicians from Lyon
20th-century French male musicians
{{France-composer-s ...
arranged this "following" tourdion as a four-voice chanson, by adding the lyrics "Quand je bois du vin clairet...").
Thoinot Arbeau later documented information about the tourdion in his work ' (''Orchesography'', pp. 49–57), published in 1589.
Dance elements
Nearly all variations on the dance are based upon the simple ''cinq pas'' (five step) tourdion. The ''cinq pas'' begins in either a ''posture droit'' or ''posture gauche'' (the former with the right foot slightly in front, the latter with the left), with weight evenly distributed between the feet. Assuming a ''posture gauche'', a ''pied en l'air droit'' and a ''petit saut'' follow in one beat, that is, a small kick of the right foot into the air at the same time as a slight hop as to land with the left foot. (It should be remembered that all ''pieds en l'air'' are accompanied by the ''petit saut'' of the opposite foot.)
The step is repeated as a ''pied en l'air gauche'', with the left foot kicked into the air and a slight hop to land upon the right. The two steps are then repeated, with care that the kicks are small (as the dance is brisk). Following the four kicks, one performs a ''saut moyen''—a small jump into the air that pulls the feet into the ''posture gauche'' or ''droit''—whichever is the opposite of the first. This combination of the ''saut moyen'' and the ''posture'' is typically called a ''cadence''.
The process repeats, mirrored to reflect the new starting posture, until the song ends.
[Arbeau, Thoinot: ''Orchesography'', translated by Mary Stuart Evans, with a new introduction and notes by Julia Sutton and a new Labanoation section by Mireille Backer and Julia Sutton (New York: Dover Books, 1967): 78–79, 93–97.]
Notes
Renaissance dance
Renaissance music
Triple time dances
French dances
Dance forms in classical music