Dance Music of the French Baroque brings together information on rhythm from the interrelated fields of music, dance, poetry, rhetoric, and philosophy. Part I is devoted to the various factors involved in dance rhythms, including tempos, rhythmic feet, dance steps, declamation of lyrics, instrumental articulation, and performance of ornaments. Part II describes in alphabetic order the fifteen most frequently encountered dances of the period and identifies the most typical performance of each in relation to the factors discussed in Part I. With reference to numerous illustrations and musical examples, it clearly conveys the manner in which the allemandes, bourées, chaconnes, gigues, etc., may be executed. This practical book presents a myriad of information in a form that is easy to use yet as graceful as the dances it describes.

This book discusses what both early and modern sources say about French performance practice and offers solutions to performance problems in Francois Chauvon's Premierre Suitte (taken from Tibiades, 1717). Part one discusses relevant issues of historical performance practice and establishes a conte

A unique study of dance forms and rhythms in the Baroque composer’s repertoire. Stylized dance music and music based on dance rhythms pervade Bach’s compositions. Although the music of this very special genre has long been a part of every serious musician’s repertoire, little has been written about it. The original edition of this book addressed works that bore the names of dances—a considerable corpus. In this expanded version of their practical and insightful study, Meredith Little and Natalie Jenne apply the same principles to the study of a great number of Bach’s works that use identifiable dance rhythms but do not bear dance-specific titles. Part I describes French dance practices in the cities and courts most familiar to Bach. The terminology and analytical tools necessary for discussing dance music of Bach’s time are laid out. Part II presents the dance forms that Bach used, annotating all of his named dances. Little and Jenne draw on choreographies, harmony, theorists’ writings, and the music of many seventeenth- and eighteenth-century composers in order to arrive at a model for each dance type. Additionally, in Appendix A all of Bach’s named dances are listed in convenient tabular form; included are the BWV number for each piece, the date of composition, the larger work in which it appears, the instrumentation, and the meter. Appendix B supplies the same data for pieces recognizable as dance types but not named as such. More than ever, this book will stimulate both the musical scholar and the performer with a new perspective at the rhythmic workings of Bach’s remarkable repertoire of dance-based music.

Examines the evolving practices in music, librettos, choreographed dance, and staging throughout the history of French Baroque opera.

First published in 1974, this landmark work quickly established itself as the definitive study of French music from 1581 to 1733, a period that included masters such as Marin Marais, Lully, Couperin, and Rameau. This expanded edition includes a bibliography of more than 1,300 works.