Dances of the renaissance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Dances of the renaissance - Essay Example The dance music of the Renaissance was written for instruments such as the sackbut, lute, viol, pipe and the tabor. Some of the most popular ones are discussed below. An allemande literally means ‘German’ and it was one of the most popular instrumental dance forms in Baroque music, and a standard element of a suite. The allemande originated in the Renaissance period as a duple meter dance of moderate tempo, derived from dances supposed to be favored in Germany at the time and was performed in 4/4 time. Originally, the allemande formed the first movement of the suite, before the courante. The basse danse literally means ‘low dance’ and it was the most popular court dance in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Basse danse music is always in 6/4 and in performance, 3 or 4 instrumentalists would improvise the polyphony based on this tenor. Basse danse is slow and processional, and is played with a constant speed throughout. It begins with a reverence and so there is usually no need to play any introductory bars before beginning the music, although a drumbeat or two may help. The basse danse later led to the development of the pavane. A branle is a 16th century French dance style which moves mainly from side to side, and is performed by couples in either a line or a circle and was mainly performed by commoners. Branle music is often in 4/4, although can be found in 2/4 and even with variations in timing between the bars. Branles don’t start with a reverence, and so a few introductory bars of music are usually required to get the dancers moving. According to Arbeau, every ball began with the same four branles. The Double Branle has a simple form involving two phrases of two bars each. The Single Branle, however, consists of a phrase of two bars, followed by a phrase of one bar and appears in numerous places. Likewise the Gay Branle consists of two