"The allemande is a broken, serious, and well-constructed harmony, which is the image of content or satisfied spirit, which enjoys good order and calm."
Mattheson 1739[1]
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Translated to mean ‘German,’ the allemande essentially originated as a German variant of the basse danse, with its earliest known documentation found in a 1521 dance manual published in London based on basse danses.[2] With rhythmic similarities to the bourree and the gavotte, the dance was popular in both the theatre and ballroom, although it was short lived as by 1636, Mersenne wrote that ‘the allemande was no longer danced to but only played.’[3] In 17th century France, the allemande was rarely danced to, but instead recognised as a standard component in the instrumental suite, and was popular within harpsichord suites.
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The instrumental allemande should contain a serious yet proud character and is described by Brossard as a ‘sort of grave, solemn music, whose measure is full and moving.’[4] It is not too dissimilar from the prelude with its free and improvisatory manner and elaborate ornaments. A tempo should therefore be chosen to accommodate these features, but also allow for the forward motion of shorter note values which drive the movement onwards.
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Allemandes are most often written in binary form and are in common or cut time, although some feature a time signature of 2. A quaver or semiquaver upbeat is characteristic and should lead to the placement of the first downbeat, which is frequently the same note. Notes inégales should be applied to semiquavers in stepwise movement.
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One choreography by Louis Pecour of an allemande from 1702 has survived today. The dance is for a couple and includes many springing steps and uses interlocking hand and arm gestures. It has very few similarities to the slower, processional instrumental allemande popular during this same period as it adopts a much faster tempo and more joyful character.
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[1] Mattheson, J. (1981) Der vollkommene Capellmeister. [Translated E. C. Harriss]
[2] Little, M. E; Cusick, S. G. (2001) Grove Music Online: Allemande
[3] Mather, B. B. (1987) Dance Rhythms of the French Baroque
[4] Brossard, S. (1740) Dictionnaire de Musique. [Translated by J. Grassineau]
"The allemande is a broken, serious, and well-constructed harmony, which is the image of content or satisfied spirit, which enjoys good order and calm."
Mattheson 1739[1]
​
Translated to mean ‘German,’ the allemande essentially originated as a German variant of the basse danse, with its earliest known documentation found in a 1521 dance manual published in London based on basse danses.[2] With rhythmic similarities to the bourree and the gavotte, the dance was popular in both the theatre and ballroom, although it was short lived as by 1636, Mersenne wrote that ‘the allemande was no longer danced to but only played.’[3] In 17th century France, the allemande was rarely danced to, but instead recognised as a standard component in the instrumental suite, and was popular within harpsichord suites.
​
The instrumental allemande should contain a serious yet proud character and is described by Brossard as a ‘sort of grave, solemn music, whose measure is full and moving.’[4] It is not too dissimilar from the prelude with its free and improvisatory manner and elaborate ornaments. A tempo should therefore be chosen to accommodate these features, but also allow for the forward motion of shorter note values which drive the movement onwards.
​
Allemandes are most often written in binary form and are in common or cut time, although some feature a time signature of 2. A quaver or semiquaver upbeat is characteristic and should lead to the placement of the first downbeat, which is frequently the same note. Notes inégales should be applied to semiquavers in stepwise movement.
​
One choreography by Louis Pecour of an allemande from 1702 has survived today. The dance is for a couple and includes many springing steps and uses interlocking hand and arm gestures. It has very few similarities to the slower, processional instrumental allemande popular during this same period as it adopts a much faster tempo and more joyful character.
​
​
[1] Mattheson, J. (1981) Der vollkommene Capellmeister. [Translated E. C. Harriss]
[2] Little, M. E; Cusick, S. G. (2001) Grove Music Online: Allemande
[3] Mather, B. B. (1987) Dance Rhythms of the French Baroque
[4] Brossard, S. (1740) Dictionnaire de Musique. [Translated by J. Grassineau]
Instrumental Dance Suite
Michel de la Barre, Antoine Forqueray, and two Hotteterre brothers by André Bouys (1710)
The instrumental suite consists of a series of individual movements based around different dance forms written in the same key. Despite their connection to dances, suites in the 17th and 18th centuries were commonly intended to be performed in concerts rather than to accompany balls or staged productions.
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Early formations of suites can be found in consort music, often for viols, from the 14th to the 16th centuries. Pairs of related dances written in the same key, such as the pavan and galliard, feature similar melodic material, where one dance is in a slow duple metre, and the other in a faster triple metre. By the 17th century, collections of short pieces opened with a freely composed movement, usually a fantasia or ricercar, followed by a series of contrasting dances.[1]
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The widely recognised solo instrumental suite, formally established during 17th and 18th century France, opens with a free, highly ornamented, overture or prelude, characterised by many grand dotted rhythms, followed by a selection of dances in the same key, most commonly the allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue, in this specific order. Many suites include other optional movements within this structure, such as the gavotte, menuet, bourrée, rigaudon, and passepied. Sometimes, two of the same movement is written in succession, known as a double, which contrasts one another, usually with a difference in mode (from major to minor). Da capo dances are also seen, where after a double the performer repeats the first of the pair. For example, a da capo menuet is structured menuet I, menuet II, menuet I. Whilst there is a general consensus that these dances function as part of a larger work, there is more focus on each dance as an individual composition.[2]
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Suites written for keyboard were favoured by composers, along with viola da gamba, and transverse flute. Most suites for these instruments would not have been danced to, as these works contain complex, contrapuntal writing which is not suitable for dancing. Furthermore, many suites are designed to be highly embellished, thus exploiting the parameters of suitable dance tempi to account for such idiomatic and intricate writing.
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[1] Tarling, J. (2000) Baroque String Playing for Ingenious Learners
[2] Tarling, J. (2000) Baroque String Playing for Ingenious Learners