The passo doppio and the contrapasso in the Italian balli of the Fifteenth Century: Problems of Mensuration and a Conjectural Reconstruction

Abstract

That the art known as HI bel danzare (excellence in dance) was not easy to acquire was eminently clear to the dancing masters of the fifteenth century. In compiling the treatises in which they recorded the music and choreographic descriptions of the best known bassedanze and balli of their age, they were aware of the need to devote considerable space to elaborating those rules to which the 'bono dangatore' (good dancer) should give the greatest attention in order to merit that title. Such rules, first detailed by Domenico da Piacenza2 in the earliest Italian treatise on dance known to us, were equally stressed in the subsequent treatises produced by two of his followers, Antonio Cornazano3 and Guglielmo Ebreo da Pesaro.4 These rules were not so much concerned with describing 'mouimenti naturali' and 'accidental^ which, today, we term 'steps' and 'ornaments', as with the variety of natural talents and acquired skills that will transform a basic sequence of steps into dance. Some, such as memory, the ability to apportion space during the performance of a dance, or the need to execute the several movements in perfect correspondence with the music, may seem to us straightforward and obvious. Others remain difficult to understand if not totally mysterious, because they relate to cultural norms and a code of manners no longer familiar to us. It is clear that as much attention had to be paid to maintaining the correct 'rnexura musichale' (i.e. dancing a tempo), as to dancing in accordance with the musical mode in which each passage is composed (b-molle [B flat] or b-quadro [T> natural]); an aspect of performance that probably had more to do with interpretation than with pure technique. Furthermore, how far the dancer was at liberty to improvise to replace certain step sequences with others of equal duration or misura, or to introduce the ornamental movimenti accidentali is information presented in an extremely fragmentary manner. And always the question remains: to what extent were such modifications deemed to be in good or in poor taste? That standards of good taste were not universal but varied from