Breaking down Barriers in the Study of Renaissance and Baroque Dance Author(s): Barbara Sparti Reviewed work(s): Source: Dance Chronicle, Vol. 19, No. 3 (1996), pp. 255-276 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1567853 . Accessed: 22/03/2012 13:20 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Taylor & Francis, Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Dance Chronicle. http://www.jstor.org BreakingDown Barriers in the Studyof Renaissance and BaroqueDance BarbaraSparti Startingin the nineteenthcentury,the terms"Renaissance"and "Baroque"becameusedto indicatetwodistinctanddistinguishable periods with characteristicartisticandculturalfeatures.*The terms,however, havedifferentconnotationsin differentfields-art, literature,andmusic-and, obviously,differentmeaningsin differentcountries.Because of these and other ambiguities,the designations"Renaissance"and *"The concept of a new age derives mainly from the nineteenth-century writers Jules Michelet, John Addington Symonds, and above all Jacob Burckhardt,The Civilizationof the Renaissance in Italy (1860)" (The New EncyclopediaBritannia, 1980). Subsequent input from historical, literary, icon-ographical, socioeconomic, and political sources has expanded and/or replaced many of these nineteenth-century views. "BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE. The dramaticstyle spanning a period of some two hundred years-c.1570-c.1770-but finding its full expression in seventeenth-century Italy under the three-star constellation of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Pietro da Cortona, and Francesco Borromini. The term, baroque, applied also to sculpture, painting, furniture, and music, is thought to be derived from the Portuguese barroco, an irregularly-shapedpearl. It appeared in English, via France, during the nineteenth century. Like "gothic," its original meaning was, on the whole, pejorative, suggesting something irregular,degenerate, absurd, bizarre-a product of bad taste. (continued) ? 1996 by Barbara Sparti 255 256 DANCE CHRONICLE "Baroque" are rarelyused today by art historians and musicologists. As far as dance is concerned, Curt Sachs in 1933 managed to avoid these labels entirely. Discussing early dance types and sources, this pioneer headed his chapters: "The Fifteenth Century," "The Age of the Galliard-1500-1650," and "The Age of the Minuet-1650-1750."' Somewhere along the way, however, English and American dance reconstructors and historians began to identify dance styles according to their own historical perspectives, so that Italian fifteenth-century dances were considered on the border between Medieval and Renaissance'; the 1581-1602 Caroso and Negri dances, which corresponded chronologically to Shakespeare's and Elizabeth's England, were dubbed "Renaissance," while the new seventeenth-century French style, very much in fashion in both England and Germany in the eighteenth century,was referred to as "Baroque." These classifications have continued to be reiterated. However, recent research into lesser-known (Italian) sources and some newly discovered ones has blurred previous border markings and, as a result, certain classifications call for reexamination. At the same time, a number of other assumptions, related and not, which have formed the basis for the study of dance history between 1450 and 1700 also need to be questioned. Are, for example, the choreographies described in the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italian treatises merely "social dances" from the noble courts of Lombardy?Is "baroque dance" only French? (What of seventeenth-century Italy?) Does "theatricaldance" begin in France with "the first ballet," Beaujoyeux'sBalet comique de la Royne? Given answers to these questions, what do the familiar terms mean? The most recent fifteenth-century Italian dance source to come to light is in the hand of a notary from Montefiascone, at the time a Baroque was admitted to respectability and recognized as an individual style succeeding the Renaissance (to whose classical discipline it may have been an emotional reaction), by the Swiss art historian Heinrich Wolflin in his Renraissanceund Barock (1888)" (E. O. Hauser, Italy,A Cul- tural Guide, New York: Atheneum, 1981, p. 11). The 1877 edition of Baedeker'sCentralItalyand Rome has this to say: "The authors of the degenerated Renaissance known as Baroque were really Vignola (1507-73) and ... C. Madera (1556-1639). An undoubted vigour, with disposition of detail, a feeling for vastness and pomp, together with an internal decoration which spared neither colour nor costly material to secure an effect of dazzling splendour: such are the distinguishing attributes of the Baroque style" (cited in A Supplemen7t to the OxfordEnglish Dictionaiy, 1972). BREAKINGDOWNBARRIERS 257 small,independentcity-statewith no rulingfamily,lyingone hundred kilometers(62 miles) to the northof Rome.3Scatteredamongthe notary'svariouspapersare the descriptionsof "flowered"or ornamented versions of three of the most populardances from the tradition of Domenico da Piacenzaand GuglielmoEbreo.4In these choreographies, basicsteps are replacedwith "contrapassi" ("counter-to-the-time" steps) and "decorated"with fast turns-"in and out,""backwardand forward"-and withjumps.For the male dancerto fit in all these embellishmentsandkeep the danceflowingalongsidehis partner(who,it seems,stayswiththe basicsteps)requiresenormoustechnicalskilland virtuosity.Any notion, then, that the fifteenth-centurytreatises describemerely"cutelittle socialdances"is clearlyspurious. Howtypicalthissortof ornamentationwasis stillunknown.But the factthatsometimein the 1480sa notaryfromMontefiasconewrote downthese versions,whichhe himselfhad quitepossiblyembellished, demolishesanotherbasicassumption dance. concerningfifteenth-century Insteadof the noblecourtsof Lombardy,deemedbyvariousdanceand musichistoriansthe home of this styleof dancing,5whatwe have here is specificevidencethat it was practicedin an urbanbourgeoismilieu in centralItaly.Thatthe bourgeoisiewas alreadydancingmanyof the bassedanzeand ballicreatedby Domenicoda Piacenzain 1455can be inferredfromtheiromissionfromAntonioCornazano'streatise.Commentingthat"aninfinite"numberof danceshadgrownold or hadbecome "too well knownand common,"this courtierchose to exclude them fromhis treatise.6Furtherconfirmationthatthe dancesof Domenico and Guglielmowere not the monopolyof the courtsmaywell be furnishedby the one folio manuscript,probablywrittenabout 1473, found in Venice some ten years ago by A. WilliamSmith.7As things stand,it is reasonableto speculatethatthesesparedescriptionsof seven dancesare the personalannotationsof a studentor youngcleric,rather thana fragmentor copyof a treatise.(Thedancesmayhavebeenjotted The cleardown,possiblyunderdictation,as a personalaide-memoire.) est exampleof urbanbourgeoisdancingfrom this period is that recordedby the GermanmusictutorJohannesCochlaeusduringhisvisit to Bolognain 1517.Respondingto a requestmadeto himbythe daughters of a leadingcitizen of Nuremberg,he sent off to Germanywhat appearto be eye-witnessaccountsof the choreographiesof eightwellknownItaliandances.8Whilethechoreographic descriptionsarewritten 258 DANCE CHRONICLE in German, the step-names are in Italian (albeit Germanized). What is particularly significant here is that the Domenico-Guglielmo repertoire-with the same steps and style as in the 1450s and 1460s- was still being performed in central Italy as late as 1517, and was apparently familiar in German bourgeois circles. At the same time, however, a new repertoire-based, judging the titles of the dances, on popular songs, but still related to the by Domenico-Guglielmo style-came into being. This is testified to in two sources which so far have received scant attention.9 In 1510, as a kind of appendage to an anonymous Florentine copy of Guglielmo's treatise, choreographies of four "new" balli make their appearance."?Two of them occur again in a somewhat later treatise, together with thirteen other dances, the various choreographies attributed to three previously unknown dancing masters." One of these, who calls himself "II Papa" (the Pope), also writes a theoretical introduction to the work, which is entitled "11Papa che insegnia ballare di Balletti a sua [sic] scholari" (The Pope Teaches [the] Dancing of Balletti to his Students). This unpublished treatise, bound together with the Giorgio manuscript and donated to the New York Public LibraryDance Collection by Walter Toscanini, has been judged to date from the mid-sixteenth century.12 However, given the fact that the steps and style used in the dance descriptions, while distinctive, nonetheless strongly recall those of the Domenico-Guglielmo tradition,* and because a new and different style of dance emerged in Tuscany about 1550, if not earlier, I would suggest a date for "II Papa" closer to 1520-30. Up to twenty years ago, the period between the 1480s and 1581-that is, the hypothetical date markingthe last of the then known fifteenth-century dance treatises and the publication of Fabritio Caroso's first book, II Ballarino-might well have been known to dance history as "The Gap." (For a listing of the sources, see Tables I and II and note 17.) As we have seen, the gap is now being filled in. When around 1550, if not earlier, a completely new style of dancing began to emerge, it may well have co-existed and overlapped for a brief period *All the balli/ballettiin the 1510 Florentine manuscript (FL) and those in "II Papa" are for three dancers. The choreographies, which recall in style and music "Voltati in ca Rosina" (Giovanni Ambrosio/Guglielmo Ebreo), are strophic, usuallywith a refrain,and suggest a quadernariamisura (4/4 meter). BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS 259 Table I Fifteenth-Century Dance Sources-and Beyond The sigla used are based on those devised by F. A. Gallo-"II 'ballare lombardo' (circa 1435-1475)," Studi musicali, VIII, 1979, pp. 61-84-and since widely used by dance historians. The approximate dating of FN, M, NY, S is also his. Dates of treatises and other sources-when known-are in bold. *These treatises bear dedications (to nobility). TREATISES WITH MUSIC (in chronological order) Author Pd: Domenico da Piacenza *V: Antonio Cornazano Date c.1455 1455/1465 *Pg: Guglielmo Ebreo 1463 Pa: Giovanni Ambrosio c.1471-74 (alias Guglielmo Ebreo) PBN: Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale RBV: Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana Title De arte saltandi Libro dell'arte del danzare De pratica seu arte tripudii De pratica seu arte tripudii Location PBN f.ital.972 RBV Capponiano 203 PBN f.ital.973 PBN f.ital.476 OTHER VERSIONS OF GUGLIELMO EBREO'S TREATISE (without music) (locations in alphabetical order) FL: Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana (Antinori 13), 1510 FN: Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale (Magliabecchiano XIX, 88), c.1477 M: Modena, Biblioteca Estense (ital. 82. a. J. 94), c.1477 NY: New York Public Library,Dance Collection (*MGZMBZ-Res. 72-254), c.1480 S: Siena, Biblioteca Comunale (L.V.29), c.1474 OTHER KNOWN CHOREOGRAPHIC SOURCES N: Niirnberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum (HS 8842/GS 1589), 1517 Ven: Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana (It. II. 34 (=4906) 11libro di Sidrach, c.105), c.1473 Vit: Viterbo, Archivio di Stato, Notarile di Montefiascone, Protocollo 11 ("fiorito" dances), c.1480s "TRANSITION SOURCES"-early 16th century (contain dances in similar style but unknown in the above sources) FL (see above): 1510: a bassadanza and four "new"balli. NY (see above): "IIPapa" MS: 15 "balletti"and a theoretical introduction, c.1520-30 DANCE CHRONICLE 260 Table II Dance Treatises and Other Sources for the "Italian Style" c.1550-1630+ (M), music (S), step descriptions;(C), choreographies; S. Zuccolo,La PazziadelBallo(A PolemicAgainstthe Dance) 1549 1555 R. Corso, Dialogo del Ballo (A Defense of Dance) c. 1540-60 (C) 1559 1560 1581 1587 1589 1600 MS "Tuscan balli" (C) Letterwitha descriptionof "lacaccia" (C) L. Compasso, Ballo della Gagliarda (SCM) (C) (C) F. Caroso,IIBallarino P. Lutij,Gagliardavariations P. Lutij,re-editionof Gagliardavariations (SCM) F. Caroso, Nobilta di dame (C) L. Lupi,Librodi mutanzeof gagliarda,passoe mezzo,canario,etc. 1602 (SCM) C. Negri, Le gratied'amore 1604 (SCM) C. Negri,re-editionof Gratied'amorewithnew 1605 1607 (SCM) (SCM) c.1615-20 (SC) F. Caroso,re-editionof Nobiltadi dame L. Lupi,new editionof Librodi mutanze(1600), withtwo choreographiesand theirmusic,and step descriptions L. Jacobilli,Mododi ballare(MS) 1600 1620 c.1620 c.1628-37 1630 F. degli Alessandri, Discorso sopra il ballo G. Mancini, Del Origineet Nobilta del Ballo (MS) (SCM) Il Corago:anonymoustreatiseon the theatre F. Caroso,re-editionof Nobilttdi dame,withthe title Raccolta di varijballi G.B. Doni, Trattatodella musica scenica 1633-35 1728 title: Nuove inventionidi balli (SC) G.B. Dufort,IIBalloNobile(Frenchstyle) with the transitional style of, for example, the "IIPapa" dances before these went out of fashion.13 Our earliest known source for the new style is probably an anonymous manuscript containing four Tuscan dances and their music.'4Considered by Gino Corti, on the basis of the script, as dating from "the second half of the sixteenth-century,"'5 Angene Feves BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS 261 insteadsuggeststhat,becauseof theircontent,the dances"mayactually be earlier,from c.1540 or 50."16The dances use the traditionalsteps describedlater in the treatisesof FabritioCarosoand CesareNegri,'7 andwhileone dance,"TheWheelof Fortune,"reflectsanearlierform,* "TheBattaglia"for-as-many-as-will is alreadyin the traditionof Negri's of the same name. is alsothecasefora dancecalled This ' choreography "Lacaccia"(The Hunt),which,describedin a letterdated1559,closely resembles"Lacacciad'amore"thatNegriincludesin his treatisefortyone years later, althoughthe actualsteps seem to be from a different tradition.'9The firstgenuinebook or manualin the series of treatises (publishedand not) thatdealwithvariousaspectsof the "new"dancestyle is Lutio Compasso'sBallo della Gagliarda,a recentlydiscovered treatiseon the Italiangalliardwrittenby a Romandancingmasterand publishedin Florence in 1560.20 However,judgingby the number166-and complexityof thevariationsincluded,andbythe specificstep vocabularyandstyleusedto describethem,it seemsfairto hypothesize that similarvariationswere alreadybeingpracticeda good manyyears earlier.At the sametime these samevariations,whichrangefromsimple to intricateandchallenging,also closelyresemblethose thatfollow at the turnof the century. Of the seventeensourcesfor this "newItalianstyle"that have so farcome to light,twelveareseventeenth-century (see TableII). The laterworks,andthe secondeditionsof twotreatises,indicatethatwhile the style did evolve, becomingricherin steps, more embellishedand technicallycomplex,acquiringa definiteemphasison symmetry,it remainedconsistentand,in someways,unchanged.21 Forexample,sometime between1615and 1620,a futureJesuitpriest,LudovicoJacobilli, jotted down a few pages (still unpublished)under the title "Modo di ballare"(How to Dance),22in whichhe describeddances he may well havelearnedwhilea studentat the RomanSeminary,'includinga *Angene Feves writes, in unpublished notes on the "Tuscanballi,"that "It seems to me that Ruota di Fortuna is a choreographic bridge from the basse danse in its first part, to the balanced movements repeated to each side in its third part, which would become the rule by the end of the century." tJacobilli was born in Rome in 1598 into an illustrious family of Foligno. In 1615 he played the part of Nero in a performance at the Seminario Romano, where he was enrolled between October 12, 1614, and March 26, 1615. 262 DANCE CHRONICLE Spagnoletta,a gagliarda,and a canario, dances already popular forty to sixty years earlier. Thanks to his clear accounts and step descriptions we are able to confirm, here at least, a very definite continuing tradition of step, choreography, and style from the last third of the sixteenth century through the first two decades of the seventeenth. That the "Italian style"was still very much alive and well in the 1620s and 1630s is supported by three treatises not previouslyexamined by dance historians. The first, a manuscript I am preparing for publication, is called "Dell'Origin et Nobilta del Ballo" (On the Origin and Nobility of Dance)23and was written, probably around 1620, by Giulio Mancini, a well-known art connoisseur and physician to the Pope. A purely theoretical work, it nonetheless mentions several popular latesixteenth-century dances among the "dances done today," includes a specific acknowledgment of Caroso's book, and indicates the names and gives descriptions of a few of the traditional fundamental steps, here with some distinctive variations. The other two works are published and known to musicologists specializing in the seventeenth century: Giambattista Doni's treatise on music for theatre, completed in 1633, mentions-once again-specific steps and dances, clearly in the Caroso-Negri tradition24;the anonymous "IICorago,"subtitled "Some Advice About How to Stage Dramatic Works,"written sometime between 1628 and 1637, probably in Florence,25 also has some references to steps, figures, and dances "done today," which correspond to late-sixteenth-century performance practices. The "Italian Style" continued to be performed in theatres, palaces, and Jesuit colleges for the nobility even after the new French style of dance, together with other French modes, began to be accepted in the various courts, republics, and states of Italy.26Indeed, in many parts of the peninsula, the Italian style was never completely abandoned, and the two styles, French and Italian, continued to be performed side by side right up to the end of the seventeenth century.27Even at late as 1703 the students of the Jesuit College of Nobles in Naples were still dancing Italian balli under the supervision of a Master of Spanish Dance, although these were interspersed with minuets and a bourree, taught by the Master of French Dance.28Why Giambattista Dufort, although undoubtedly eager for professional success, waited until 1728 to publish his treatise presenting the French noble style to the ladies and gentlemen of Naples29may well be explained by the relatively late BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS 263 arrivalof Frenchdancein thatcity,bothin the JesuitCollegeof Nobles andby the time it took to be accepted,in place of and in the theatre,30 Italian the style,by Neapolitansociety. Returningnow to the categoriesof "Renaissance"and "Baroque,"one maywellwonderintowhich"box"to putthis"Italianstyle," whichwasbornaround1550or earlierandflourishedthroughthe first decadesof the seventeenthcentury,andcontinuedto be performedin some partsof Italyuntilthe end of thatcentury.Does it help to call this Italianstyle"RenaissanceDance,""LateRenaissanceDance,""ManneristDance,"or "BaroqueDance"?The answerwouldseem to be no. These categories,designedfor otherfields,simplydo not fit.31 I wishnowto takea closerlook at the Italiandancescene in the seventeenthcentury.Whathad happenedin Italyduringthat century to warrant,in the earlyyears of the eighteenth century,the success of and demandfor Italiandancersin Germany,in England(by John The answer,unfortunateWeaver,for example),andin Franceitself?32 danceanthologiesor encycloly,is not to be foundin twentieth-century and which, pedias, by ignoringItaly devotingthemselvesentirelyto the of the new in style France,have given rise to, or maindevelopment the credo that tained, "Baroquedance"is French.What the Italian dancerhad thatwas unsurpassableand uniquewas extraordinary virand acrobatic skill and of see limbs," tuosity "suppleness ( "agility" with an for and plate, p. 264), together outstandinggift pantomime expression.33 Clearly,the dancingofgagliardavariations,togetherwith the commediadell'artetradition34 and the genreof pantomimicdance, all madetheircontributionsto the rangeandskillof the Italiandancers. Pantomime,verymuchin vogue in seventeenth-century performance, was certainlynot new. It had alreadybeen an integralcomponentof Italiandance spectaclein the fifteenth-centurymoresche,which featured monsters,fools, rustics,and allegoricalheroes.35The sixteenthcenturymascarades,intermezzi,andpastoralsall hadtheirpantomimic elements.36 And continuinginto the seventeenthcentury,initialinvesof tigations Carnivaland end-of-yearperformancesat the Jesuit colleges for the nobilityin Rome, Parma,and Naples suggest that the Dances of the Drunkards,Gardeners,Satyrs,and so on were pantomimic.37 Furthermore,judgingby the librettiand engravingsas well as the music-of whichmuchis unusualand original,includingirregular DANCE CHRONICLE 264 ASSAI BEN BALLA,A CVI FORTVNA SVONA. Cettisiai basso, ' s solleui in alto Chi concordea suoi passi hd la Fortunc,. Che jard in tempoe la cadenza,e ' satto. PROVERBJ GUS FIGURATI MARIA MITLIdi GIUSEPPE M1ARA MITELLI I BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS 265 phrases and frequent fermata-the balli in various seventeenth-century operas were heavily pantomimic.38 How can we, therefore, affirm that Italy had no "Baroque" dance of its own? Would it rather not be more correct to say that while dance in seventeenth-century France has been, and continues to be, investigated, seventeenth-century Italy has been neglected by dance historians? This can in part be explained by a general neglect of the arts in seventeenth-century Italy right up until the 1970s. A notable exception is Giuliano Briganti's book, Pietro da Cortona, published in 1962, following which art historiansbegan to studyseriously Seicento painters and sculptors besides Caravaggio and Bernini.39The Society for Seventeenth-Century Music, "dedicated to the study and performance of 17th-century music and related arts," was founded only in 1992, after the pioneering work in the late 1970s and early 1980s of musicologists such as Lorenzo Bianconi, Frederick Hammond, and Margaret Murata.4"As far as dance is concerned, the one exception to the dearth of scholarship is the court ballet from Savoy, that duchy which, founded in the sixteenth century,was an agglomerate of polyglot lands, including Turin, Nice, Chambery,and Geneva. These ballets, many of them composed by Philippe d'Aglie (both the choreography and the music) between 1619 and 1667, have been studied, though not recently, by dance historians, theatre historians, and musicologists.41 In studies of French and/or Italian dance between the fifteenth and the eighteenth centuries, it is worth keeping in mind the relationships-political, economic, and artistic-between the two countries. Italian forms of entertainment, for example, were introduced into France as early as the reign of Louis XII (1498-1515), and Italian influence became particularlystrong under Francis I and Catherine de' This plate, called "Theydance well enoughfor whom Fortune plays,"fromGiuseppeMariaMitelli'sProverbiFigurati (IllustratedProverbs,1678;reprinted, Milan:Cerastico, 1963), suggests how the agility and suppleness of the Italian style continued through the seventeenth century. The proverb, translated by Michael Sullivan, reads, "Well dances he for whom Good Fortune plays./ Whether he rises high or flings himself adown/ He has Good Fortune who does his steps array,/ Which in time will be, in cadence and the bound." 266 DANCE CHRONICLE Medici, who together importedgreat numbersof Italian artistsand musicians,includingBaldassareda Belgioioso(in France,Balthasarde Beaujoyeux).42 Beaujoyeuxis knownin the historyof danceas thecreatorof Le Baletcomiquede la Roynewhich,in turn,is still often called-despite some qualification-"the first ballet." One should point out, however, that Beaujoyeux,thoughthe queen'smusician,neitherinvented nor conductedthe music.Nor did he compose the text for either the Even the plot is probablynot his own.44He was, poetryor the songs.43 instead,accordingto CarolMacClintockin hertranslationof thework, "impresario,stage manager,and perhapschoreographer."Furthermore, she states,the Baletcomique"isnot a trueballet,nor is it comical."45It is not even, I mightadd, a "first.""Thetrulynew feature in [the "Baletcomique"(i.e., not "tragique")]is," MacClintockaffirms, "thatthe intermedio[here]functionsas partof the action,not merely as a diversionbetweenscenesor acts,andprovidescontinuity."According to anotherscholar,"Thestructuralsignificanceof Circehad little effect on the followinggenerationof those responsiblefor the balletde cour.Theirworks,basedlargelyon 'mascaradesa l'italienne,'included unrelated entreesof colorful and grotesque characters .... Not until ... 1610 with the Ballet de Alcine [de Monsieurde Vendosme]was there a return to the unified dramaticaction established29 years before Dance historianshave done, and continue to do, by Beaujoyeux."46 danceresearcha greatdisservicebyrepeatingthe designation"thefirst ballet."They erect a barrier,dissuadingstudentsand scholarsof the danceandof otherfieldsfrominvestigatingthe fifteenth-andsixteenthcenturyItalianmoresche,mascarades,intermedii,pastorals,and other elements out of whichthe Frenchfashionedthe ballet de cour.47Accordingto PutnamAldrich,"Oneof the Frenchinfluenceswasthe tendency to systematizethe rhythmsof each categoryof dance-that is, instead of mixingthe patternsas Negri and Carosodo, to keep to a Furthermore,by extractingand single patternthroughouta dance."48 this one from its abstracting spectacle sociopoliticaland aestheticconand from its the texts, antecedents, way is illegitimatelypaved for a of dance theory historyas a singleevolutionaryline culminatingin the classicalballet. Mentionof the balletde courbringsme, in conclusion,to a brief discussionof the categories"court,""social,"and "theatrical"dance. BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS 267 As we haveseen,the dancescomposedbyDomenicoda Piacenza,GuglielmoEbreo,andotherswerenot performedexclusivelybythe nobility (or court,where present),althoughthey mayhave been the audience or readershipthe dancingmastershadin mindwhentheycreatedtheir choreographiesor dedicatedtheir treatises.(It is, in fact, significant that only two of the extantfifteenth-centurytreatisesbeardedications to membersof the nobility:Cornazano,courtier-humanist-poet andnot a dancingmaster,dedicatedhis Librodell'artedel danzareto Ippolita Sforza in 1455, while Guglielmo Ebreo's De pratica seu arte tripudii, 1463, is dedicatedto the future duke of Milan, the young Galeazzo Sforza.*)Furthermore,the bassedanzeandballidescribedin the treatises and intended, at least in some instances,for the nobility,were ignoredin ambassadorial reportson dancingperformedatvariouscourts. For diaristsandchroniclers,"courtdancing"wasspectacle.Solo dancing by a younggirl performingalone or with her dancingmasterwith "outstandingagility, grace, and virtuosity,"was occasionally mentioned,49but almostalwaysit wasthe dancedandmimedmorescheand intermediiwith their allegoryand exoticism,their rich and impressive Anotherfaccostumes,scenery,andspecialeffectsthatgot described.50 torto consideris thatthe originof manyof the so-called"courtdances," like the gagliardaand other dance-typesincludedin the treatises,was popular(i.e., traditional,folk).51Thus,the term"court"dance is inappropriateand restrictivewhenused to designatethe dancescomposed by Domenico,Guglielmo,Caroso,andNegri. Oftenthese samedancesare referredto by modernscholarsas "social"dances, as opposed to "theatrical"dances.However,for the fifteenthand sixteenthcenturies,these classificationsare,for the most part,meaninglessand need to be replacedby an understandingof the contextandthe intentionof each dance-the whenandwhere,the why and who. Were the bassedanze,balli,andballetti,like, for example,the *SeeTableI. An exactcopyof the nowlost 1455Librodell'arte,thoughtto be set downten years later,was dedicatedby Cornazanoto Ippolita'shalf-brother, SforzaSecondo,andit is this copy alone-still, however,bearingthe inscriptionto Ippolita--thatsurvives.The Sienaredactionof Guglielmo'sDe pratica,thoughparchmentwithrichlydecoratedlettersanda coatof arms(asyet unidentified)has, on the other hand,no dedication.Two other copies (now lost) of the GugAmbrosiotreatisewerein the courtlibrariesof PesaroandUrbino,butwhether lielmo/Giovanni or not theybore dedicationsis not known. 268 DANCE CHRONICLE fifteenth-centurysaltarelloand the seventeenth-centuryVenetian "promenades,"52only recreational,with no limit on the number of participants, no rehearsal and formal training necessary, with for the most part no specific music or specific performance place? Or were they "composed" or "art"dances that the dancing master/choreographer created, in accordance with particular aesthetic principles, to be observed and admired as well as performed? We know for certain that in the cases of Domenico, Guglielmo, Caroso, and Negri each choreography was for a specific number of dancers, had a precise form and organization, and its own steps, technique, and music, all of which had to be learned and faithfully reproduced. These "composed" dances could be performed in private chambers for one's own pleasure or for informal, or exclusive, princely audiences as well as formally during great public festivities.53 Yet occasionally these same dances were performed by the ladies and gentlemen of the local aristocracyas part of a spectacle or court entertainment, in costume and on a special platform.54As one can see, the modern dichotomy-"social" or "theatrical"-applied to fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italian dance fails to net anything. This oversimplification tends, furthermore, to patronize "social dance" by bestowing a higher value on "theatrical dance," inaccurately associating it alone with virtuosity. This notion is belied, on the one hand, by the extraordinary turns and jumps in the Montefiascone notary's "flowered"versions of fifteenth-century "hits"and by sixteenth- and seventeenth-centurygagliarda variations, and, on the other, by the simple steps, choral movements, spatial designs, and pantomime that were to characterize early seventeenth-century spectacles and opera.55 Finally, when Domenico, Guglielmo, Caroso, and Negri comtheir dances, they undoubtedly considered each an original choposed reography or "art"dance. But depending on the performance context, the same choreography could be considered "court,""theatrical,""social," or "popular"dance. Indeed, the gagliardawas a popular dance, refined by choreographers, danced in public and private, on the stage and in the square, by "professionals,"princes, peasants, and the bourgeoisie. As we have seen, old borders delimiting fifteenth- and late-sixteenth-century Italian dance have grown indistinct and obsolete. Categories and polarities such as "Renaissance" and "Baroque" no longer help us to understand the dance of certain periods; other labels, like BREAKINGDOWNBARRIERS 269 that of "the first ballet" for Beaujoyeux's "Ballet comique," actually curtail research, while still others, such as "court dance" and "social" and "theatrical dance," do not truly represent the sociopolitical and aesthetic realities. Perhaps what is needed now, to stimulate rethinking and foster fresh and original research in the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, particularlyin Italy, are new categories or headings. Some of these might be Dances in and Dances not in the Traditional Treatises; "Art" Dances (those composed by dancing masters with their own music) and Popular (traditional) Dances; Dance in Spectacle; Pantomime and Dance; and last, but certainly not least, the heading French and Italian Dance: Differences, Similarities, Interactions, and Mutual Influences. Notes 1. Curt Sachs, WorldHistoryof the Dance (Berlin, 1933; English translation, New York: W.W. Norton, 1937; reprinted 1963). 2. This despite the fact that the Italian "Renaissance"was in full bloom, and humanists and artistssuch as Leon Battista Alberti, Lorenzo de' Medici, Aeneas Piccolomini (Pius II), Piero della Francesco, Antonella da Messina, Carlo Crivelli, Benozzo Gozzoli, Filippo Lippi, Pisanello, Cosimo Tura, and Paolo Uccello, among others, were contemporaries of the dancing masters and choreographers Domenico da Piacenza and Guglielmo Ebreo (see note 4). 3. State Archives, Viterbo, Notarile di Montefiascone, Protocollo 11. For a complete description of the source and transcriptions (and English translations)of the dances, see BarbaraSparti,"R6ti Bouilli: Take Two; 'El Gioioso Fiorito,' " Studi Musicali, Vol. XXIV, No. 2, 1995. 4. Domenico da Piacena, De artesaltandj& choreas ducendj/De la arte di ballare et Danzare (Paris: Bibliotheque Nationale, MS ital. 972; edition D. R. Wilson, Cambridge:Early Dance Circle, 1988). Guglielmo Ebreo, De pratica seu arte tripudii... (1463) (Paris: Bibliotheque Nationale, MS ital. 973; ed. and English translation Barbara Sparti, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993, 1995). See Table I for other redactions of Guglielmo's treatise. 270 DANCE CHRONICLE 5. See, for example, Ingrid Brainard's TheArt of CourtlyDancing in the EarlyRenaissance(West Newton,Mass.,1981),and her "The Art of CourtlyDance in Transition:Niirnberg,Germ.Nat. Mus. MS. 8842, a HithertoUnknownGermanSource,"in EdelgardE. Dubruck and Karl Heinz Goller (eds.), Crossroadsof MedievalCivilization:The CityofRegensburgand its IntellectualMilieu, Medieval andRenaissanceMonographSeriesV, 1984,pp.61-79;F. Alberto Gallo's"II'ballarelombardo'(circa1435-1475)"in StudiMusicali, VIII, 1979,pp. 65-9; and AlessandroPontremoliand PatriziaLa Rocca,II ballarelombardo(Milan:Vita e Pensiero,1987). 6. "Altriinfiniti balli, et bassadanqe,perche sono o troppovecchi, o troppodivulgaticon silentiogli passo...." Antonio Cornazano, Libro dell'artedel danzare(Rome: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Capponiano203,fols. 29v-30r;editionC. Mazzi,La Bibliofilia,17, 1915;translatedbyMadeleineInglehearnandPeggyForsyth,London:Dance BooksLtd., 1981,fol. 20v). 7. Venice, BibliotecaMarciana,It. II. 34 (=4906) Librodi Sidrach, c. 105.See A. WilliamSmith,"Unafonte sconosciutadella danza italiana del Quattrocento" in GuglielmoEbreoda Pesaro e la danza nelle corti italiane del XV secolo, Proceedings of the 1987 Pesaro Conference,ed. MaurizioPadovan(Pisa: Pacini, 1990), pp. 7184; and AlessandroPontremoliand PatriziaLa Rocca,La danza a Venezia nel Rinascimento (Vicenza: Neri Pozza, 1992-93), pp. 13-26, 103-8. 8. See IngridBrainard'sreporton this sourcein "TheArt of Courtly Dance in Transition."See also IngridWetzel'sfacsimilesandtranscriptionsof the dances in her "'Hie innen sindt geschribendie wellschentenntz':le otto danzeitalianedel manoscrittodi Norimberga,"in the GuglielmoEbreoProceedings,pp. 321-43. 9. Neithersourcehasmusic.The namesof manyof the dancescorrethe musicand spondto titlesof well-known,contemporaryfrottole, often See Beatrice choreography matching. Pescerelli, "Una sconosciutaredazionedel trattatodi danzadi GuglielmoEbreo," RivistaItaliana di Musicologia, Vol. XI, 1974, pp. 50-1. 10. The copy,nowin the BibliotecaMediceaLaurenzianain Florence (Antinori13), is writtenin Tuscanin a "clerk's"cursivehand,and bearsno dedicationor signature.See descriptionandtranscription of the four dancesin Pescerelli,pp. 48-55. BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS 271 11. All the dancesareherereferredto asballetti,at the time a synonym for balli. 12. *MGZMB-Res.72-254.Forthe dating,see Toscanini'scorrespondence in the Dance Collectionof the New YorkPublicLibraryfor the PerformingArts at LincolnCenter. 13. AngeneFeves,in her"FabritioCarosoandthe ChangingShapeof the Dance, 1550-1600,"DanceChronicle,Vol. 14,Nos. 2 & 3, 1991, pp. 159-74, has pointedout that there is at least one anonymous danceinllBallerino(1581)-the "Bassaet Alta"-that showsa link with the past. 14. Florence,BibliotecaNazionaleCentrale,MS Magl.XIX.31.Transcriptionsof the dancesandthe incipitsof theirmusic(originalsin lute tablature)are publishedin Gino Corti's"Cinqueballitoscani del Cinquecento," RivistaItaliana di Musicologia, Vol. XII, No. 1, 1977,pp. 73-82. 15. Ibid.,p. 74. 16. Angene Feves, letterto the author. 17. FabritioCaroso,II Ballarino(Venice: Ziletti, 1581;facs. reprint, New York:BroudeBrothers,1967),andNobiltadi dame(Venice: Muschio,1600, 1605;facs. reprint1600ed., Bologna:Forni, 1970; trans.JuliaSuttonwithmusicaltranscriptions by F. MarianWalkOxford: Oxford er, UniversityPress,1986).CesareNegri,Legratie d'amore(Milan:Ponte& Picaglia,1602;reissueasNuoveinventioni di balli, Milan:G. Bordone, 1604;facs. reprintof 1602 ed., New York:BroudeBrothers,1969,and Bologna:Forni,1969). 18. "LaBattaglia"in Negri,Le gratied'amore,pp. 256-63. 19. A transcriptionof the letter is includedin Corti's"CinqueBalli Toscani,"pp. 73, 75-6. The basicstep-unitis the "morescha,"the dance ending with "voltedella camaiorese."Negri's "La Caccia d'amore"is on pages 281-4 of Le gratied'amore. 20. The extant copy is in the WiirttembergischeLandesbibliothek Stuttgart(Sport8?230),whereit wasdiscoveredbyUwe Schlottermuller.See his facsimileeditionwith an introductionby Barbara Sparti(Freiburg:fa-gisisMusik-undTanzedition,1995). 21. See Feves, "TheChangingShape." 22. Foligno,BibliotecaJacobilli,A.III.19,fols. 102-4. The manuscript wasbroughtto the attentionof AngeneFevesandmyselfaboutten years ago in Foligno by Bruno Marinelliand Fabio Bettoni,who 272 DANCE CHRONICLE had made a first(unpublished)transcriptionof it. Feves has since madeherownedition,togetherwithanEnglishtranslation,neither as yet published. 23. Rome, BibliotecaApostolicaVaticana. 24. Trattatodella musica scenica, included in Doni's LyraBarberini,II (firstprintedin Florencein 1763;facs.reprint,Bologna:Forni,1974). See pages60,93, and95 (Ch.33, "DelBallo,e Passeggiode' Cori"). 25. Il corago o vero alcune osservazioniper metterbene in scena le com- posizioni drammatiche,ed. Paolo Fabbri and Angelo Pompilio (Florence: Olschki, 1983), especiallychapters17-19 on "Cori," "Ballie passeggi,"and "Barriereet abbattimenti."Roger Savage and Matteo Sansone'sarticle,"IICoragoand the stagingof early opera:fourchaptersfroman anonymoustreatisecirca1630,"Early Music,Vol. XVII, No. 4, 1989,pp. 494-511,givesEnglishreaders a good overviewof the book,thoughnotnecessarilyfroma dancer's pointof view.Thecorago,theyexplain,wassomethingof a director, and stage-manager." "impresario,movementcoach,dramaturg 26. See, for example,Filippo degli Alessandri,Dialogosoprail ballo (Terni:T. Guerieri,1620),p. 51; VincenzoGiustiniano,"IImodo e maniera di cantare. . .", in his Discorso sopra la musica de'suoi tempi,1628 (p. 112, no. 7, in Angelo Solerti'sLe originidel melo- dramma, Turin: Fratelli Bocca); the Balletto delle Ninfe and other "balletti"by LorenzoAllegri(1605-18);GaetanoCapasso,Collegio dei Nobili di Parma(Parma,1901), pp. 70, 91-1; Alessandra Sardoni,"Lasirenae l'angelo:la danzabaroccaa Roma tra meravigliaed edificazionemorale,"La Danza Italiana,Vol. 4, 1986, pp. 24-6. See also BarbaraSparti's"Baroqueor not Baroque-Is that the Question?,"includingthe "Chronologyof 17th-century Sources," forthcoming in the Proceedings for the conference L 'Artedella danza ai tempidi ClaudioMonteverdi,Turin, 1993 (Isti- tuto per i Beni Musicaliin Piemonte). 27. BarbaraSparti,"GiambattistaDufort andLa DanseNoble-Ital- ian Style,"Society of Dance History Scholars Conference Proceed- ings, 1988,p. 223 and note 54; and note 26 above. 28. See the librettofor the operaClitennestra, nowin the libraryof the Conservatoriodi Musica"S.Pietroa Majella"in Naples. 29. GiambattistaDufort,Trattato delBalloNobile(Naples:FeliceMosca; facs. reprint,New York:Gregg,1972). BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS 273 30. Dufort performedwith other Frenchdancersat the San Bartolomeo theatrein Naples and the Royal Palace in 1709, 1710,and Dufort." 1713.See Sparti,"Giambattista 31. See ChapterV, "Renaissance,Anti-Renaissance,Classicism,Mannerism,andBaroque,"in AndrewC. MinorandBonnerMitchell's A Renaissance Entertainmentfor the Marriageof Cosimo de'Medici and Eleonora of Toledo (1539) (Columbia, Mo., 1968). 32. KathleenKuzmickHansell,"IIballo teatraleall'epocadell'opera alla veneziana (1640-1720)" in Storia dell'OperaItaliana, ed. Lor- enzo Bianconi and Giorgio Pestelli (Turin:Edizioni di Torino, 1988),Vol. 5, pp. 183, 189,and 190,note 29. An Englisheditionis forthcoming. 33. Hansell.The quotationsare fromJohnWeaver,An Essaytowards an Historyof Dancing, p. 168. 34. See Marian Hannah Winter, The Pre-RomanticBallet (London: Pitman,1974),p. 13. 35. See Sparti, GuglielmoEbreo, pp. 53-5. 36. See, amongothers,the final "drunken"intermediofor satyrsand bacchantesin the 1539 marriageentertainmentfor Cosimo de' Medici and Eleonoraof Toledo, in Minor and Mitchell,A Renaissance Entertainment;and Henry Prunieres, L'Opera Italien en France avant Benserade et Lulli (Paris: Henri Laurens, 1914), p. 34. 37. Sardoni,"Lasirena,"in particularpages25-6. See also the dance descriptionsin the librettoof Clitennestra, performedin Naples at the JesuitCollegeof Nobles in 1703and cited above. 38. See, for example,the engravingsof the devilsin hell "whodance and temptandseduceSaintAlessio"in StefanoLandi'sSant'Alessio (Rome, 1634;facs.reprint,Bologna:Forni,1970),betweenpp. 44 and 45; the dancemusicreprintedin MargaretMurata,Operas for the Papal Court1631-1668 (Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press, 1981),pp. 181-2 andAppendix;and IreneAim'sPh.D. dissertation, "TheatricalDance in Seventeenth-CenturyVenetian Opera"(Universityof California,Los Angeles, 1993), which in book form is forthcomingfromUniversityof ChicagoPress. 39. GiulianoBriganti,Pietroda Cortona(Florence,1962;reprint,Sansoni, Florence,1984).Muchof the firstpart(pp. 14-33 and notes) is dedicatedto a discussionof the meaningof baroque. 274 DANCE CHRONICLE 40. Lorenzo Bianconi, II seicento (Turin: Edizioni di Torino, 1982; English trans., Music in the SeventeenthCentury,Cambridge University Press, 1987,1989); Frederick Hammond, articles on Frescobaldi and "Music in Casa Barberini 1634-1643," inAnalecta Musicologica, Vol. XIX, 1979, and StudiMusicali, Vol. XIV, No. 1, 1985, as well as his recent Music & Spectaclein BaroqueRome (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994); and Murata. 41. See Gino Tani, "Le comte d'Aglie et le ballet de cour en Italie," in Fetes de la Renaissance, ed. Jean Jacquot (Paris, 1956), Vol. I, pp. 221-35; Margaret McGowan, "Les Fetes de Cour en Savoie, l'oeuvre de Philippe d'Aglie," in Revue d'Histoiredu The'tre, No. 111, 1979, pp. 183-241; Mercedes Viale Ferrero, Feste delle Madame Reali di Savoia (Turin, 1965); Marie-Therese Bouquet-Boyer, "Autour du ballet de Cour dans les Etats de Savoie: Le Theatre de la Gloire, Turin 1637,"in Les Gouts Reunis, 1982, and "MusicalEnigmas in Ballet at the Court of Savoy," in Dance Research, Vol. IV, No. 1, 1986, pp. 29-44. 42. See Carol MacClintock'sIntroduction to the English translation of Le Balet Comique de la Royne 1581, Carol and Lander MacClintock, American Institute of Musicology: Musicological Studies and Documents 25,1971, pp. 12-4. See also Dietrich Kamper, "Studien zur instrumentalen Ensemblemusik des 16 Jahrhunderts in Italien,"Analecta Musicologica, Vol. 10, 1970, pp. 158-9. 43. MacClintock,Balet Comique,p. 11. Those who did, she adds, "were not France's best talent." 44. Ibid., p. 12. 45. Ibid., p. 16. My emphasis. 46. James R. Anthony, "Ballet de cour," in The New GroveDictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980). 47. As early as 1914, Henry Prunieres in L'Opera said that the Balet comique was an outgrowth of earlier forms, like the Italian intermedio, and the pastoral (pp. 20-34, especially 34, and 79). See also Angelo Solerti, Gli alboridel melodramma (1903; facs. reprint, Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1969), Vol. I, pp. 26-8. The musicologist Silke Leopold, on the other hand, continues to maintain that "Ottavio Rinuccini, the Florentine court poet in the retinue of BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS 275 the FrenchQueenMariade' Medici,hadimportedthe French'ballet de cour' to Italy"(Prefaceto "Ballettodelle Ninfe" in Frutti Musicali,Vol. I, Kassel:Barenreiter,1989).PutnamAldrich,in his Rhythmin 17th CenturyItalian Monody (London: J.M. Dent, 1996, p. 85), affirms,"Theinterchangesand blendingof the social arts of FranceandItalyduringthe seventeenthcenturyare reflectedin the evolutionof a typeof balletde courthat containsso manyelements of both Frenchand Italianoriginthat it can only properly be describedas Franco-Italian." 48. Aldrich. 49. For references, see Sparti,GuglielmoEbreo,pp. 52-3, and note 17. 50. For fifteenth-and earlysixteenth-century chronicles,see Cronaca ferrarese (Ugo Caleffini), Diario ferrarese(anon., and Bernardino Zambotti), Diari senesi (Allegretto Allegretti), Cronaca senese (TommasoFecini),andDiarii(Venice,MarinoSanuto).ForRome, see StefanoInfessura(Diarioromano),JohannesBurchard(papal masterof ceremonies),andEl Prete(Isabellad'Este'sambassador) in FerdinandGregorovius,LucreziaBorgia;for Milan,Tristano Chalco (historianat the Sforzacourt) and GiacomoTrotti (Este ambassador) in Guido Lopez, Festa di nozzeper Ludovico il Moro (Milan:De Carlo,1976). 51. For example,the saltarelloandpiva in the fifteenth-centurytreatises, and the voltaandcorrentein the followingcentury.This area of studyhas, so far,receivedlittle or no attention. 52. Irene Aim spoke about the "promenades"in her presentation, "Crossingthe Proscenium:Thefestadi balloin Seventeenth-Century Venetian Opera,"at the 1995 conferenceof the Society of DanceHistoryScholars,"BorderCrossings," Toronto,Canada.See her dissertationand forthcomingbook cited above. 53. See, for example, Sparti, GuglielmoEbreo, pp. 51-3. 54. See Negri's"BrandoAlta Regina"(pp. 285-96 of Gratied'amore), danced at the end of the intermediiforArmenia Pastorale, and his "torchdances"(pp.270-6), all performedat the theatreof Milan's Ducal Palace. Negri's balletto "PastorLeggiadro"(pp. 225-8) was also performed there during the play-and intermedi-of Fetonte. 276 DANCE CHRONICLE 55. See Doni (Trattatodella musica scenica) and II Corago on "Cori" and "balli."See also Sardoni,"Lasirena,"pp. 17-8 and 22-4, and GiacomoSpiardo'schoreographyfor the "Festaa Ballo,"Delizie di Posilipo,performedin Naples in 1620and reprintedin Roland Jackson's modern edition (Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque,Ann Arbor:A-R Series,1978).