Music for Improvised 16th Century Dance
- Master Christian d'Hiver
- Student-Alumni Council Room on Sunday at 10:30AM
We fill our dance balls with fancy choreographies, but much of Renaissance Italian dancing was improvised dances -- the salterello, the galliard, the corrante, the mysterious nizzardo -- much like more recent waltzes and polkas. Dancers were expected to combine variations on the fly. How is a musician, or a small ensemble, to deal with this sort of dancing? How can we be reliable, to provide a basis for the dancers' creativity, and still elaborate and decorate the music, to provide inspiration, all the while mindful not to overshadow the dancers? This course is intended for musicians who are familiar with several types of dance music, and comfortable with modest ornamentation and decorated melodies.
Other classes by the teacher(s) listed above are highlighted yellow below.