. Throughout the Middle Ages, dance was an important part of both religious worship and secular recreation. Sacred and secular documents, iconographic depictions, and literary references bear witness that dance played a central role in the lives of all classes of people throughout the medieval period.
From as early as the 4th century, there is documentation that dances were a part of the sacred celebrations on Easter, Pentecost, Christmas, and certain saints’ days. It is not always clear at what point in the services dancing was involved; the most frequent references are to dancing in processions. But it could also have been involved more centrally in the services. A mid-13th-century statement by the troubadour Tezaur of Peire de Corbian confirms that by then dance was present during parts of the Mass: “Lords, now I know very divinely indeed how to…dance the ‘Sanctus’ and the ‘Agnus’ and the ‘Cunctipotens.”’
Between the 6th and 17th centuries, the church frequently forbade dance on certain occasions. In 1208, for example, the bishop of Paris declared it improper to dance the carole in processions, and in 1209 the Council of Avignon issued an edict against dancing caroles on the vigils of saints’ days, calling the dance “obscene motion.” In 1325, the general chapter in Paris forbade clerics, under pain of excommunication, from participating in dances, with the exceptions of Christmastime and the feasts of St. Nicholas and St. Catherine. The injunctions seem to be intended to regulate the use of dance during sacred ceremonies and to purge it of improper content, in both text and movement, but there is no suggestion that dance was unwelcome in the church. Its presence is recorded in official French church documents into the 17th century.
A repertory of music for sacred dancing can be found in the approximately eighty Latin monophonic rondeaux preserved in 13th-century French sources from the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris. The rondeau is described ca. 1300 as a “round dance” (rotundellus) by Johannes de
Clerics dancing. MS Pluteo 29, Is, fol. 463. Courtesy of the Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana, Florence.
Grocheio in his treatise on music, and he explains that its music is distinguished from other types of dance in that the melody used for the refrain is similar to that of the verse (see Example 1). In conformity with the 1325 edict cited above, the majority of the Latin rondeaux texts are for Advent and Christmas, with several each for St. Nicholas and St. Catherine, although there exist rondeaux for other feasts as well. Some of the rondeau texts specifically mention dance: Leto leta concio, hac die resonet tripudio (“Let the joyful company this day resound in a joyful dance”); and an illumination in the major manuscript source depicts clerics in a “round” formation, probably dancing.
Example 1. MS Pluteo 29, I, fol. 471–471v. Courtesy of the Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana, Florence.
Nicholaus pontifex Nostrum est refugium; Sit semper remedium; Clericorum est amator, Clericis ac aicis Laicorum consolator, Omniumque conformator, In omni angustia, Nicholae, Nicholae, Nicholae.
I
Nicholas the pontiff Is our refuge; To clerics and laity He is the patron of clerics, May he always be a remedy; The consolation of the laity, And the guiding light of all, In all our trials; Nicholas, Nicholas, Nicholas.
In sua infantia Celebrat ieiunium, Fons et caput dicitur Hic in cunis abstinebat, Confessorum omnium; Quod mamillas non suggebat, Nisi semel nec edebat Quarta, sexta feria. Nicholae, Nicholae, Nicholae.
II
While still an infant He kept strict fastings, He who is said to be the fount And head of all confessors; In his cradle he abstained from food, For he sucked not his nurse’s breasts, Nor did he eat except once only On Wednesdays and Fridays. Nicholas, Nicholas, Nicholas.
Suscitavit clericos Occisos invidia, Quos occidit carnifex cum sua nequitia; Très puellas maritavit, De peccatis observavit, Paupertatem relaxavit Auri data copia. Nicholae. Nicholae, Nicholae,
III
He raised up the clerics Killed in envy, Whom the butcher killed In his wickedness; And saved them from sin, He allowed three maidens marriage, When he mitigated their poverty By giving them bags of gold. Nicholas. Nicholas, Nicholas,
Translation from Gordan A.Anderson, Notre-Dame and Related Conductus, Opera omnia, vol. 8, p. xlii.
Secular dance music is frequently referred to in the troubadour literature as an important part of the minstrel’s art. A poem by the late 12th-century troubadour Jaufre Rudel mentions dances along with other poetic and musical forms performed at court: “…minstrels who are in the palace play descorts and suns and lais and danses and cansonz de gesta on the viula. No one will ever see such a celebration again.” It is significant that the account relates that the minstrels perform all of these musical forms on the vielle (or fiddle), a bowed string instrument similar in some ways to the later violin. From other references and pictorial evidence, we know that this was the favorite instrument for performing all types of music in the 12th and 13th centuries.
Although only a small repertory has survived, poetic and musical, for the dance forms, the literature attests the vast popularity of all the dances in the courtly circles from the 11th to the late 14th century. Typical is the reference by Jean Maillart in his Roman du comte d’Anjou (ca. 1300), which includes dances within a courtly setting of various musical performances: “Then the linen was taken up, and when they had washed their hands, the caroles began. Those ladies who had sweet voices sang loudly: everyone answered them joyfully, anyone who knew how to sing, sang thus…. Some sang pastourelles about Robichon and Amelot, others played on vielles chansons royales and estampies, dances and notas. On lute and psaltery, each according to his preference [played] lais of love, descorts and ballades in order to entertain those who were ill.”
Many more references to dance can be found, often in conjunction with instruments. But dances are also mentioned as songs to be sung without instruments, as in Raimon de Cornet’s poem (ca. 1320): “A jongleur would rapidly learn stanzas and many little verses, cansos, and basses danses.” This reference is the first known mention of the basse danse, which would become quite popular as an instrumental form in the 15th and 16th centuries. The implication here is that in the 14th century the basse danse was a vocal form, but none is known to have survived.
In spite of the number of dance names that are found in the sources, we have detailed information about only a few. Those that were also poetic forms are discussed in poetry treatises, such as the dansa, described in the Catalan treatise Doctrina de compondre dictatz (ca. 1300): “If you wish to compose a dansa, you should speak well and pleasingly of love in whatever state of mind that you may be in. And you should compose it with three stanzas, and no more, with a repost, with one or two tornadas, as you may think fit; it should always have a new tune…. A dansa is so called because it is normally sung while dancing, hence it should should have a pleasing tune; and it is sung with instruments and pleases everyone who sings and hears it.” In this case, we have a clear picture of the dansa; it is unfortunate that none of the melodies for this poetic form has come down to us. Not all descriptions are so detailed; the early 14th-century treatise Leys d’amors by Guillaume Molinier supplies the name of a dance form called the bal, which was usually “composed as an instrumental tune and then supplied with words,” but no further information is given. A vocal composition from the same time was known as “ballade,” having a form related to the rondeau, and this may be what is referred to in the treatise.
The other source of description of late-medieval dance forms is Grocheio’s music treatise, which identifies the secular dances “round” (rotundellus),estampie (stantipes), carole (ductia), and nota. The form of the secular round (rondeau) is the same as the sacred form discussed above; the music for both the estampie and carole is distinct from that of the rondeau in that they have separate melodic material for the verse and refrain. Further, both estampie and carole have separate vocal and instrumental forms, the main difference being that for the vocal dances a single musical setting is repeated with each new verse, whereas the instrumental dances are composed of many sets of musical verses all ending with the same refrain.
Grocheio describes the estampie as a complicated dance, remarking that it causes young men and women to concentrate because of its difficulty. The Doctrina adds the information that its poetic subject is to center on “love and homage” and supports Grocheio’s description of the estampie’s difficult nature by stating that it requires more “vigor” in singing than do other songs. Seven complete instrumental estampies survive, as well as twenty-six estampie texts, two with music. The most famous medieval estampie, Kalenda Maya, is reported to have been both a vocal and instrumental composition; the text is said to have been written by the troubadour Raimbaut de Vaqueiras (ca. 1155–1205), to a melody he heard performed on the fiddle by two jongleurs at the court of Montferrat.
Although the carole was one of the two most popular dance forms from the 11th to the 14th century, little is known of its music or steps. Caroling is found frequently in the literature as a part of the picture of courtly entertainment and pastoral relaxation, as in the 13th-century romance Guillaume de Dole by Jean Renart: “Hand in hand…before the tent, in a green pasture, the maidens and young men have begun the carole.” Reference to “hand in hand” suggests that the carole was danced in the round, a fact confirmed by Grocheio, who also implies that the difference between it and round dance (rondeau) was that the round dance was danced completely in round formation, while the carole could also use other formations, including that of a line, as in Philippe de Remi’s La Manekine (ca. 1270): “Such a carole had never been seen, nearly a quarter league long.” In performance, the dance leader would sing the carole verses and all of the dancers would reply with the refrain. Numerous French carole texts survive from these centuries, but we do not have even one musical example either of a text setting or an instrumental carole.
About the nota, little is known beyond the enigmatic statement by Grocheio that it had a musical form that was in some ways similar to the instrumental estampie and ductia (“either a form of carole or an incomplete estampie”). Jean Maillart’s reference to it, cited above, where the nota is listed with caroles, estampies, and dansas, indicates that the nota was definitely a separate form. Only two examples are known to have survived, both from the 13th century: La Note Martinet and a piece by Adam de la Bassée, canon at Saint-Pierre in Lille. His composition is identified as “a Notula on the composition that begins ‘to play and dance….’” The two compositions have only vague reference to the verse-refrain format of the estampie and carole and are formally quite different from one another, leaving little opportunity to draw conclusions as to what a nota was. I have speculated that perhaps nota was a term for those dances that had unique forms but bore some resemblance to the estampie and carole.
Most of the literary evidence and references are to courtly circles, but there is the constant suggestion that similar dances were also danced by the lower classes, especially the carole, although the absence of material does not allow us to know how they differed.
Because the dance forms discussed above were closely related to the troubadour and trouvère lyric tradition, they began to wane through the 14th century as the social and political organization of France changed. One of the changes in courtly life was the introduction of dancing masters and the sophisticated basse danse, in which the steps for each dance were individually choreographed. Some of the earlier dance names are occasionally found in the literature throughout the 15th century, but by then they had lost their social status. From the early 15th century, all the earlier dance forms were overshadowed as the basse danse became the most popular and fashionable court dance of the century.
