Let's dance

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The Renaissance saw an explosion of methodic madness in the dances. The more licentious would later be banished by the authorities, that then where both religious & secular.

It suffices to feast your eyes in painting like Brughel's "the elder": The Peasant Dance (1568) to understood what was — and is still today — the real "motivation" behind dancing.

Unabashedly picaresque, the renaissance dances were a prelude to a rather "hands on" courtship between the sexes. It's always great fun to play these pieces, although very light on the "score" they offer a whole world of invention to the musician. Who said Jazz "invented" musical improvisation?

Here are pieces by an anonymous composer and by the spaniard Diego Ortiz (ca. 1510–1570). The piece is taken from the his opus:

Trattado de glossas sobre clausulas y otros generos de punctos en la musica de violones nuevamente puestos en luz

Published in Rome in the year 1553 of our lord.

It is structured around a Renaissance dance: Il Passamezzo moderno.

The other dance, albeit not being exactly from the Renaissance, it could pass as being indeed from that period. Since in musical terms is not that different from a renaissance dance. It's a small piece by the portuguese guitarist and composer Carlos Paredes (1925-2004)

Diego Ortiz (ca. 1510–1570): Recercada segunda sobre tenores — el passamezzo moderno

Carlos Paredes (1925-2004): Dança

Le Je ne Scay Quoy

• Mafalda Nejmeddine: harpsichord
• Javier Aguirre: viola da gamba
• Raquel Pinheiro: cello
• Hugo Sanches: baroque guitar
• António Carrilho: recorder