At 6:34 PM -0400 9/9/07, Christopher Smith wrote:
I was always under the impression that dance rhythms tended to speed UP as they went on in history and leave the dance world in favour of the concert world. Your account of the Sarabande would certainly refute THAT.
I see what you mean, but I was not making the distinction between dance music as dance music and dance forms as art music. As far as I know, the minuet was still being danced as a social dance in Mozart's lifetime, until it was finally replaced by the Waltz as fashions changed. I would find it very strange if composers put dance labels on concert music at a time when those dances were still being actively danced, either as social dances, theatrical dances, or both, and NOT expect the tempo to be that of the danced version. After the dances go out of fashion, certainly, I would agree.
I had extended that theory to 20th century dances as well, like waltzes, marches, polkas and foxtrots, all of which showed up later in jazz concerts at MUCH faster tempos than anyone but a top athlete could dance them. Latin rhythms, too, are going that route as they start to show up more in the concert hall than the dance hall.
I'm not sure jazz waltzes are any faster than Strauss waltzes, which were in one and move much faster than a beginning Arthur Murray studio might teach them. Good dancers--especially professional dancers--ARE athletes, and the best of them are world-class athletes.
John -- John R. Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
