The Emergence of the Chordal Concept in the Polyphonic Period Prior to the Death of Josquin

Abstract

directions: they paired off with the fugue as introductory movements, or they entered into the Baroque suite or sonata as free movements. Sixteenth-century instrumental dance music was related to the i4thcentury virtuoso estampida, whose half-dozen or so symmetrical, unrelated periods, governed originally by the variable strophic schemes of poetic texts, presaged the tripleor compound-metered basse danse and the German Tanz or French allemande in quadruple meter, as we find them in the I5th and i6th centuries. The association of this type of smooth, even-metered, chain or round dance with another of more lively, jumping character result in the combination soon known under many pairs of names, the most familiar being that of pavane and galliard. These pairs became the nucleus for the future dance-suite and were of vital importance to the subsequent organization of sonata movements, especially when the dances concerned went the way of art music and were no longer danced.