[SCA-Dance] Pinagay bransle

[Charlene C]

On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 5:51 AM, David Learmonth
<david.a.learmonth at gmail.com> wrote:

> Sorry about that, I always thought that all 5 were part of the suite, and
> that there were others as well that just weren't listed, just that we
> didn't know what they were.  But it has been a while since I'd gone back to
> this suite from the very start and looked at the original french  (this was
> the first set I looked at, and thought I had finally sorted out most of the
> details).  :)

Arbeau mentions the concept of doing branles in suites, he just
doesn't identify any suites other than double-single-gay-Burgundian.
We do Cassandra-Pinagay-Charlotte-War-Aridan together because (say it
along with me :-) ) "that's the way it is on the recording."

>From the Sutton version:

p 129 -  ... All musicians are in the habit of opening the dancing by
a double branle which they call the common branle, and afterwards they
play the single branle and the gay branle and at the end of the
branles of Burgundy, which some people call branles of Champagne....

p 137 - The musicians call them mixed branles of Champagne, and, with
a view to orderly classification, these branles have been arranged in
numbered series. Our musicians in Langres play ten in succession which
they call mixed branles of Champagne; they play another number in
sequence known as Camp branles and yet other have named branles of
Hainaut and branles of Avignon. And, as fresh compositions appear and
novelties appear, so they devise new series and bestow upon them what
names they wish.

p 137 - I shall not give you any tabulations but will leave you to
memorize them yourself under the guidance of the master musicians or
from your companions. And when you are proficient enough to wish to
dance them at some festival you will ask the musicians for the suite
you require by name and they will play it for you. In the meanwhile, I
will warn you that if you aspire to dance these branles well you know
know the tunes by heart and sing them in your head with the violin.

[Capriol then requests the tabulation for two or three to make
understanding the concept easier and Arbeau obligizes.]

p 137 - Very well, here are the tabulations for the branles of
Cassandra and Pinagay, first and second in the suite of the mixed
branles of Champagne, ...

p 140 - ... In those days of yore we danced, among other mixed
branles, the branle of war, the branles of Aridan and of Charlotte and
an infinity of others.


--Perronnelle