Rennaisance Music And Dance
A brief history of the dances called Pavane,Galliard,Jig, and Branl
The music of the Renaissance was driven heavily by the dances of the era. Many modern dances have their roots in these traditional courtly dances and songs.
Renaissance Dances
Dancing to music has always been popular, but during the musical era known as the Renaissance, recreational dancing became much more important to society. A great wealth of this renaissance dance music has been preserved to modern day, and in some places the courtly dances and regalia still survive, albeit in a more historical context. Some of the more popular styles of Renaissance dance include the pavane, the galliard.
The pavane was traditionally a couples dance, often a processional, and usually in a simple duple meter. The music and dance moves were very stately and slow paced, often accompanied by musicians on period instruments such as the lute, violin, and harpsichord. The pavane was most often paired with another dance known as the galliard. In contrast, the galliard was a faster, triple meter dance which often included leaps and skips in time to the music. Both the pavane and galliard were considered courtly dances, quite formal and often meticulously choreographed.
Other, less formal dances of the Renaissance era included the jig, originating in England, and the branl, originating in France. The jig is the origin of today's popular celtic style dance (Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, etc.). Originating in Ireland and the surrounding area, the Renaissance jig differs from the Baroque gigue which eventually became a formal part of a form of music called a suite consisting of four dances, the last of which was the gigue. In contrast, the English jig of the Renaissance era functioned as a separate, individual dance often performed by lines of dancers.
Also emerging during the Renaissance period was a French dance known as the branl (pronounced "brawl"). Similar in some ways to the jig, the branl was a line or circle dance in a triple meter. Like all other dances of the Renaissance time period the branl evolved and diverged across the entire European continent. Indeed, all of the regional dances and accompanying music absorbed the local culture and styles throughout the latter part of the sixteenth century, giving rise to variations of each of the four dance forms mentioned here. However, as mentioned previously, all Renaissance dances were accompanied by live musicians, most often by accomplished lute players as the lute was the most common instrument of the day.
The music and dance of the Renaissance era spawned a growth and divergence as music in general moved from being a mostly sacred, liturgical genre into a more modern, cosmopolitan style and influence. As European music moved forward into what would be known as the Baroque era, society as well as individual composers and musicians continued to break free from the traditional styles and limitations that had been followed by previous composers.
