Luogo e data di registrazione		Colosseum, Nürnberg (Germania) - 8/13 novembre 1971
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Production		Dr. Andreas Holschneider
	Recording supervision		Hansjoachim Reiser
	Recording Engineer		Klaus Hiemann
	Prima Edizione LP		ARCHIV - 2533 111 - (1 LP - durata 47' 27") - (p) 1972 - Analogico
	Prima Edizione CD		ARCHIV - 439 964-2 - (4 CD's - durata 71' 35"; 70' 09"; 70' 42" & 72' 56" - [CD1 1-27]) - (c) 1992 - ADD
	Cover		Musikalische Unterhaltung im Garten. Buchminiatur aus dem Kodex DE SPHAERA. Unbekannter italienischer Künstler, 15. Jahrhundert.
	Note		-

 

Dance Music of the Renaissance This record contains dances from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The nature of such an anthology in such that the choice of pieces must come under criticism. The decisions Were, above all, based on the musical quality of the pieces. Furthermore, we have given preference to typical examples over unusual ones. Dance music from the then cultural centres of Europe, from Italy and France, forms the bulk of our collection. A second long-playing record, to complete and carry the present one chronologically further, is in preparation. Side 1: Dances 1 to 5 are found in a manuscript, written at the beginning of the 15th century in central Italy (see the table). The repertory, however, dates from the 14th century. It consists of secular polyphonic compositions (madrigali, ballate, caccie, virelais) and a few sacred ones. In addition, there is a group of 15 - monodically notated - dances, including those we have chosen. These 15 dances are unica. The minstrels very rarely wrote their pieces down, but rather improvised them in performance. Iconographic evidence (miniatures) shows us the musicians not only playing solos, on fiddles, bagpipes, shawms, flute (pipe) and tabor, bells and small kettledrums, but rather in ensembles. Probably, as still today in traditional folkmusic of southern Spain, Greece, and the Balkans, for instance, the melody played by the main player and improvisationally embellished, would be accompanied in parallel fifths and octaves, or supported by an unchanging drone. Such instrumental (organal) practices can be traced far back into the middle ages. We have tried to reconstruct them for the present dances: in the “Lamento di Tristano”, the flute plays a decorated version around the main part, in the “Trotto” and “Saltarello”, the main part and the bordun are at times played on one and the same instrument (fiddle and bagpipe respectively); the “Istampita Cominciamento di gioia” is performed with parallel fifths and octaves. As far back as is known, dance forms have been produced by means of repetition and variation. The “Lamento di Tristano”, the “Trotto”, the two “Istampite”, and the “Saltarello”, consist of successions of repeated passages, with each passage first ending “open” on the fifth or supertonic (ouvert) and “closed” on the repeat, on the tonic (clos). The programmatic title “Lamento di Tristano”, presumably to be understood as a lament on the death of Tristan, suggests a “danse de mort”, the ceremonial character of which ceases only with the following Rotta. This Rotta, the first extant afterdance of music history, makes use of the same melody as the “Lamento”, but the tempo is accelerated (in our recording about doubled). A dance in step-wise motion, with an afterdance containing many leaps, based on the same melody and harmonic model, became the basis of regular dance suites. The first five dances of side 1 spring from folkmusic and the repertory of the travelling minstrels. The following three “Basse danze” and the “Alta danza” belong to the aristocratic-courtly sphere. They date from the late 15th century. The musical basis (tenor) of these “basse danze” (= danze in terra, probably without hopping steps) forms a known song of the time, “Il rè di Spagna”. The steps of the solemnly treading couples relate to the notes of the tenor, which is played on a sackbutt. Round about it are grouped shawrn and pommer. This so-called “alta-capella” (alta musica = high music in the sense of loud music), composed of sackbutt and two, sometimes three or even four reed instruments (shawms and pommers), is found in many pictures of courtly feasts, especially from Italy and Burgundy. The roulades of the shawm and pommer (they have been passed down in written out versions in the present pieces) compel comparison with those of the clarinet and saxophone in jazz; by this we do not mean the sound, but rather the typical, virtuosic figurations, played on these instruments. Side 2: At the beginning of the sixteenth century, music printing by moveable type was invented. Music publishers established themselves in the towns: Petrucci in Venice, Attaingnant in Paris, Susato in Antwerp, Phalèse in Louvain. Dance music makes up a large part of their publications. They turned in the first place to customers in the towns themselves: to the bourgeoisie. Perferred instruments in the houses of these citizens were harpsichord and virginal, regal (small reed organ) and also plucked instruments: besides the vihuela and guitar, the cittern (likewise a guitar-type instrument, with double courses of wire strings) and above all the lute. But a large amount of dance music in four and five parts also appeared. In these publications there is no indication of which instruments should make up the dance ensemble; the instrumentation is left to the performers. Organological development in the sixteenth century was towards the building of instruments of the same kind in different sizes. Such a “quiet” instrumentation seems especially demanded for those pieces where all the parts are of equal importance and are composed and worked out polyphonically throughout. (Compare our instrumentation, for four viols, of the basse danse “Magdalena”, by Attaingnant.) The sound of a broken consort, on the other hand, produces the impression of magnificent procession music, which is dominated by farcarrying wind instruments, bells and drums. During the 16th century, the lute became definitely the most fashionable instrument, played by members of all social spheres. In his Italian journal Montaigne wrote of the lute playing of the peasants, Castiglione demanded of the noblemen (Il corteggiano, 1528) the mastery of this instrument. For the learned the lute was considered as “Orphenica lira”, as a modern version of the Greek kithara or lyra. It was most important as a dance instrument. Percussion instruments (tambourine, bells, small drums, wood blocks) could sometimes mark the rhythm and emphasize the folkloristic descent of the dances (compare in our recording the “Calata ala Spagnola” by Dalza and Neusiedler’s Italian dance “Wascha mesa”). Neusiedler’s “Judentanz” (1544) is one of the earliest examples of musical caricature. So as to bring out the dissonances, Neusiedler gives a scordatura tuning for the lute. In our recording (based on the transcription by Apel, and not on that by Koczirz) this scordatura is carried out for the first time, as far as we know, without comprornise. Thanks to the generosity of Dr. J. H. van der Meer, Nuremberg, we were allowed to use the following instruments for our recordings: 1. From the possession of the National Germanic Museum, Nuremberg: regal, by Michael Klotz, first half of the 17th century; tenor sackbutt, by Anton Drewelwecz, Nuremberg, 1595; small bass viola da gamba, by Ernst Busch, Nuremberg,1641. 2. From the Neupert collection of historic keyboard instruments, National Germanic museum, Nuremberg: virginal, by Artus Gheerdinck, Amsterdam, 1605. The remainder of the instruments brought together for this record are modern copies, except a tenor viol from the 17th century which is built by an unknown instrument maker probably from South Germany. Andreas Holschneider