playlist | Ein guter neuer Dantz: Renaissance dances

The Renaissance and early Baroque periods provide a rich source of secular music. Presented here are dance pieces from late 16th- / early 17th-century German sources.

This was a time when organs were often to be found in secular locations where  courtly and middle-class society’s festivities regularly used an organ to accompany dancers and instrumentalists.

This set of nine dances are either in G or F and make playful use of  of F\F# and C\C# contrasts, thus adding  spice to the already piquant quarter-comma temperament used in this recording.

As a set, these pieces make a pleasing concert item when played as a set. Individually they are alos useful little pieces for the liturgical organist, in the spirit of Martin Luther for whom music as a gift from God was second only to theology, and Luther happily made use of  secular tavern and folk melodies for church use.

::: Playlist :::

Further reading

• • • August Nörmiger (c.1560–1613) (Wikipedia)
    • Dots Music Shop, Camden, London N1
    • Hans Haselböck (Wikipedia: German)
    • Jacob Paix (1558-c.1623) (Wikipedia: German)
    • Quarter-comma meantone (Wikipedia)

Technical notes.
– Edition: Ein guter neuer Dantz Ed Hans Haselböck (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1989).
– Temperament: Quarter-comma meantime (pure thirds); pitch A=427 
– Organ: Viscount Sonus 60
– Microphone: Zoom Q2N-4K 
– Recordings: ©Andrew Pink (2023). All rights reserved. Creative Commons licence: [Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International]

::: Sources (from Hans Haselböck) :::

• No. 1 “Intrada”: (anonymous) tablature of 1593, from: Wilhelm Merjan, Der Tanz in den deutschen Tabulaturbüchern, Leipzig 1927, Hildesheim/Wiesbaden 1968, p. 213.
• 2 “Ein guter nater Dantz: Zwey Bücher. Einer Neu-en Kunstlichen Tabu//lator auff Orgel und Instrument.//… Alles inn ein richtige bequemliche und artliche ord//nung/… bacht colloüret // und vberselien./Durch Bemhart Schmid/Bur // ger und Organisten zu Strassburg. //… MD.LXX VIL Taken Gom Merian, p. 1.D
• No.3 “Lanz, was woln wir uff den abende thun”: see No. 1. Takm from Merian, p. 204.
• No. 4 “Dausace” and …
• No. 5 “Coranto” (anonymous): The Fitzwil liam Virginal Book, edited from the original manuscript by J. A. Fuller Maitland and W. Barclay Squire, New York 1963 (unal-tered reprint of the Breitkopf & Härtel edition of 1899), Vol. I p. 266 and 268.
• No. 6 “Churf, Sachs. Witwen Erster Murumerey Tanutz”
• No. 7 “Der Mohren Auftzugich”: Tabulaturbuch auff dem Instru mente…/… vorfettiger und unterthenigst priïsentiret, durch Augustum Nörmigera in Vormündschafft Churf. Sächs. Junger Henschafft Hof Organisten in Dressdenn. Anno 1598. Merian, p. 234 and 238.
• No. 8 “Ungarescha”: Ein Schön // Nutz unnd Ge // breichlich Orgel Tabulaturbuchi.//… Von// Jacobo Paix… Organist zu Laugingen… MDXXCIII. Merian, p.149.
• No. 9 “Bassa imperiale”: Klavierbuch der Regina Clara im Hoff, 1629, Vientia, Nationalbibliothek, MS 18491
  Vienna, Spring 1989gust

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Recordings©Andrew Pink
Material on this page is published under the Creative Commons licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) : Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International. All rights reserved.