Six Italian Dances Conductor Score & Parts

These pieces are transcribed from a set of part-books which was known to have been in the possession of an English family before 1580. It is now in the British Museum (Royal Appendix MS 59-62). The MS contains forty-four dance-tunes, besides a number of Italian songs. The dance-music is akin in style to that described in Thoinot Arbeau's Orchesographie (1588), and to the work of Claude Gervaise and Estienne du Tertre, published by Attaignant in the mid-sixteenth century, and reprinted in modern times by M. Henri Expert in one of the volumes of his valuable collection Les maltres musiciens de la renaissance frangaise. Nos. 2, 4 and 6, which appear in the MS with the signature C, i.e., in duple time have been 'rearranged in triple time', according to the principle laid down by Arbeau in the Orchesographie (English translation, page 63). The original MSS are unbarred and without any indications of pace, phrasing or dynamics. These points of interpretation are best left to the taste of individual performers, conductors and teachers, and the few suggestions here made are only offered for the use of otherwise unassisted students. Accidentals not occurring in the MSS but apparently demanded by the principles of musica ficta are here printed in brackets. -Peter Warlock (1927) Dances: I. Zorzi, II. La Gamba, III. Paduana Del Re, IV. La Manfrolina, V. Le Forze D'Herocole, and VI. El Saltarello