Dear Peter, Jaroslaw is quite right to say that galliards were played at different speeds. I think the same could apply to many dance forms, the saraband being perhaps the most extreme case. The rule of thumb is that dances slow down with time, perhaps because musicians try to squeeze in more and more notes, or because dancers squeeze in more steps. The slow galliard Mace is describing in 1676 is quite different from the faster galliard of Attaingnant and others from well over 100 years earler. It wasn't the slowness of Nigel North's performance of Melancholy Galliard which bothered me, it was the irregular rhythm.
Jaroslaw probably has in mind Donington's comment on p. 396 of _The Interpretation of Early Music_: "Modern writers have frequently stated that the tempo of the Galliard is faster than the tempo of the Pavan; but ordinarily the tempo remains nearly or quite the same, each of the four time-units in one bar of the Pavan being similar to each of the three time-units in one bar of the Galliard: i.e. the pulse keeps nearly the same speed as before, in triple time. What changes is the dance, not the pulse. The dancer moves faster though the music does not." It was Donington's sister, Margaret Donington, who explained to me on my first summer school in 1973, that there were two sorts of galliard: 1) The fast galliard, like those of Attaingnant, where the dancer jumps five times in the air: 1 2 3 4 - 6 2) The slow galliard, like those of Dowland, where the dancer puts in an extra step after each jump: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & wait & 6 & The slow galliard is more energetic, because of all those extra little steps. I'm afraid Margaret did not give me any source for this information. If I were to count in a consort of five viols & lute to start Dowland's Earl of Essex Galliard, I would not count 1 2 3 for the opening three minims. That would be too fast. Instead I would count 1 & 2 & 3 &, which is a steadier speed. It is useful to feel the "ands" to keep the rhythm tight, with its many hemiolas and cross-rhythms. My experience of playing galliards by Dowland and Holborne, is that there are three speeds: 1) Recorder speed: very fast, because the players would have breathing problems with long, drawn-out phrases; 2) Viol speed: not so fast, because there are no breathing problems, and bows can sustain long notes; 3) Lute speed: slow, because lute solo versions often have complex divisions, which are not present in the 5-part publications of Dowland and Holborne. Recorder and viol players are often shocked at the slowness of speeds requested by lutenists for broken consort music (Morley 1599 et al), and a compromise has to be reached. The 5-tail flags of The Earl of Essex Galliard are meant to be playable, yet the music musn't be so slow that it loses its oomph. Best wishes, Stewart. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Martin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Jaroslaw Lipski" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "Lute" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 7:39 AM Subject: [LUTE] Re: Playing in time > Do you really mean this? Dowland galliards played at the same pulse as > his > pavans are going to seem VERY slow. > > P > > > > On 04/02/2008, Jaros'aw Lipski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> Now, back to Melancholy Galliard. There is a misconception concerning >> this >> dance saying that when it goes with its pair - Pavan- the later is slow >> and >> the former brisk and rapid. In fact the pulse of both is exactly the same >> with the only difference that Pavan goes in rhythm of four in a bar which >> equals three in a bar of Galliard. However the dancers change from >> stately >> movements of Pavin to very fast steps of a Galliard and this is the >> reason >> why people describe it as the fast dance. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
