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Author Topic: Susato  (Read 686 times)
thompson1780
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« on: 00:41:22, 23-02-2007 »

I heard some of Danserye by Tylmann Susato the other day.  (Spent ages where I had heard it before, and fnally realised it was on Kenneth Clarke's Civilization series).  I really liked it.  Does anyone have any recommendations for other works by him?  Any info on him?

Thanks

Tommo
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reiner_torheit
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« Reply #1 on: 01:24:23, 23-02-2007 »

I'm not sure that Susato published much else.  Many of the tunes in his "Danserye" are popular tunes of the day by other composers, of which Susato made dance-band arrangements.  For example, one of the Allemandes is in fact a song by Hayne van Ghizeghem, but doesn't have its original title, or a composer attribution in Susato's collection.  The dance collection was put out in a modern edition by Schott which was riddled with bizarre transcription errors and blunders - for example, all the Galliards have been mis-barred, so that they all appear to start with upbeats and then finish one crotchet short of a full bar,  and the downbeats lie on the wrong beat of the bar?  I can't understand how that was allowed to go to press - but it was Sad   Yes, yes, I know Susato didn't have barlines - but if you're going to do a modern edition which includes them,  at least put them in the right places!

If you are looking for more material of a similar kind, then Michael Praetorius's extensive collections of Courtly Dances are worth looking at?  They've obviously been taken from Masque Entertainments of some kind, to guess from titles like "Dance of the Three Apprentice Weavers who must beg alms from the King" etc.

Another interesting book of the period is Thoinot Arbeau's "Dancing Master" (1580s, I think?), which is a kind of academic discourse (but in a somewhat witty style) about the social benefits of dancing  ("You may see, for example, if your beloved is in good health and capable of childbirth, by the vitality with which she dances").
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Kittybriton
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« Reply #2 on: 01:40:32, 23-02-2007 »

YES! Many years ago I heard one of the late David Munrow's recordings of a Susato dance, la Morisque(?), performed by the original London Consort. It took me another twenty years to identify the piece but it was worth the wait.

As RT says, most of his Danserye is fairly robust, simple stuff that any smallish ensemble could cope with, and perfect for a lively hop if performed with gusto.

I am delighted to be able to report that there is also a complete online Orchesographie (en Francais). According to the version I heard, Professor Jehan de Tabourot of the Université de Paris felt that his academic prestige might be undermined if it became generally known that he had written a treaty on dance, and so published the work under the anagrammatic nom-de-plume of Thoinot Arbeau.

You might also know some of Arbeau's music from Peter Warlock's Capriol Suite.
« Last Edit: 01:47:46, 23-02-2007 by Kittybriton » Logged

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thompson1780
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« Reply #3 on: 22:18:25, 23-02-2007 »

Ah, I know Capriol.  Which movements are Arbeau's?

Morrisque was the piece I found really familiar. Actually it was in a Brass Ensemble Concert I heard it, so slightly different from the orchestration Susato would have known.  Funny how trumpets, horns and trombones with side drum are not so different from sackbuts tabors and er, trumpets - even after all these years...

Cheers
Tommo
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Kittybriton
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« Reply #4 on: 23:29:40, 23-02-2007 »

If my (volatile) memory serves me correctly, all the movements are based on Arbeau's music, but there are a lot more complete tunes in Orchesographie than Warlock selected for his arrangements.
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reiner_torheit
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« Reply #5 on: 11:17:15, 24-02-2007 »

Actually Susato's Danserye doesn't specify the instrumentation of any of the pieces.  With the exception of music that's idiomatically written for a solo lute or keyboard instrument, "specified instrumental line-ups" only really appeared in Monteverdi's time. Dance music up to even 1700 and beyond didn't specify the instruments to be used  (and in fact Cavalli's operas rarely specify what the line-up is - we can guess at it from the salary-books of the theatres of the period).  All of the instrumental line-ups on those David Munrow, Philip Pickett, Jean-Claude Malgoire recordings etc are entirely conjectural ;-)   Many of them are good conjectures, I agree!   It seems almost certain that the idea of a piece having a standard line-up was quite alien to this period...  musicians would take along viols, citterns and lutes to a gig for a nobleman's salon,  or shawms, sackbutts and cornetts if required to play for a theatre show (the public theatres of the era being open-air venues) - and then play the same music on them.
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reiner_torheit
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« Reply #6 on: 11:29:15, 24-02-2007 »

PS to the above - the "inner parts" of Susato's arrangements are quite cleverly done so that remain within a span of a ninth - making them navigable on any of the instruments of the period (crumhorns etc can only manage a ninth, since their construction prevents them overblowing).  Often the melody lines and bass lines will also fit this requirement too, and even when the bass line doesn't it can easily be fudged for the couple of isolated "pedal" notes involved.   50-60 years later, the melody lines of Praetorius's "Terpsichore" dance-collection lie a lot higher and generally span at least a twelfth,  and are probably intended for either violins or cornetts, or possibly recorders.  Even so, the inner parts are usually "doctored" so that more humble instruments can manage their one-ninth range.
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richard barrett
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« Reply #7 on: 22:51:11, 24-02-2007 »

Which reminds me. When I was at university I played numerous spear-carrying roles in a student production of Romeo and Juliet, one of which comprised playing in a little onstage consort which played, among other things a Susato piece. I was playing a pair of small drums fastened to a belt around my waist, although in one performance, perhaps due to some overenthusiastic playing, the belt loosened unexpectedly and the drums ended up around my ankles. In other words

I played my nakers off.




I'll get my coat.
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Kittybriton
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« Reply #8 on: 22:59:24, 24-02-2007 »

Cheesy                                                                                                                        CheesyNo coat. I've hidden it.
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reiner_torheit
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« Reply #9 on: 23:23:23, 24-02-2007 »

Quote
I played my nakers off

Were you drummed out of the production for that?   Smiley
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #10 on: 21:39:27, 25-02-2007 »

Oh Gawd Richard, why had I not heard about that?

Now all those tango dancers are wondering what that chap sitting at his computer was hooting about.
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #11 on: 21:39:50, 25-02-2007 »

(as opposed to hooning, about which of course they have no idea.)
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Baziron
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« Reply #12 on: 16:41:25, 25-03-2007 »

I'm not sure that Susato published much else...
Susato did quite a lot more than this (some of which I have!). See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tielman_Susato

Baz
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