As many feet in the ceiling as on the floor: March 2016

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Franz Brun's peasant festival copied from Sebald Beham and Hans Holbein the younger

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Links or clues to Pols and Polska History 1618 to 1800

The nicest link is probably the two page Ewa Dahlig-Turek's on history of
mazurka music.

1. Per Brahes Lute music lesson book 1618-1619.

2, The Düben collection 1620 to 1726 concertmasters for Swedish Royal Court.

3. Ramsten, Märta, her coauthor Ewa Dahlig-TUREK on mazurka and polska music.

4. Finnskog Nationalist Gottlund, folklorist 1821 Dalarna, and 1817 or later Varmland

5. Index of Ala-Könni, E. Die Polska-Tänze in Finnland, 1956 Phd dissertation in German, referenced by both Mat Rehnberg in Om folkdans, and Jan Ling.

6. The Danes are getting tunes from Rasmus Storm circa 1760.

7. Jan Ling writes about Swede Gustaf Blidström's 1715 - 1716 collection of 300 minuets and polskas.

In A History of European Folk Music, page 156.

8. Kjellberg, ( 1983 page 126) points out "A division becomes tangible between art and folk music songs of the polonnaise and polska types."

1.
http://www.academia.edu/874472/Per_Brahes_lute_book

I have downloaded the pdf document. 3 Teutcher Dantz and 1 Polensk Dantz.
Jan Olof Ruden explains that this a Western Europe student's music book circa 1618 and
that is happpenstance that it was created by a Swedish student.
He reports many errors in the manuscripts.

2.
The Düben collection at Uppsala University contains 2,300 musical manuscripts donated in 1732.
The 4 generations of the Düben family were concertmasters for the Swedish Royal court from 1640
to 1726. There is a number of dance music suites. There is one example of a springer dance, in a
set containing a Holland dance.
http://www2.musik.uu.se/duben/DubenCollectionInfo.php

Click on DCDC Advanced Search
Check instrumental and sort by title in the advanced search.
Click find
Click on the 576 work box
On the work you are interested in, click on select, to see the suite contents for example,
or to further click on a photo of the music.

Andreas Düben the Elder, became a principal figure in Swedish musical life. He traveled to Stockholm from his hometown Leipzig for the Royal wedding of 1620,
first assuming the position of organist and second concertmaster and later as principal concertmaster in 1640.
Members of the Düben family held this position as concertmaster for four generations until 1726. Anders von Düben donated the “Düben collection” –
a unique compilation of 2,300 musical manuscripts from over all of Europe – to the Uppsala University Library in 1732.
Here is a rough count of the individual dance melodies, independent of the 40 or 50 suites.
Allemand 44 entries
Branle 11 entries
Gaÿ (Branle) 9 entries
Montirande (Branle) 8 entries
Courante 75 entries
Galliard 10 entries
Gavotte 10 entries
Menuett 3 entries
Pavane or Pavana 25 entries
Polonaise 1 entry
Saraband(a)(e) 32 entries
Springtanz 1 entry, Klein Comedien Sachen) or Springer 1675-1679

Dance de Hollande [in Kleine Comedien Sachen] also known as Holländisch Tanz [in Kleine Comedien Sachen]

Here is an example of several dance suites in the database.
allemande-courante-sarabande-gigue 1610-1669
pavane-allemande-courant-courant-sarabande-sarabande
intrade-passepied-bourré-entrée-gavotte-menuett-rondeau-gigue
1684 opera
capriccio-gigue-gavotte
sonatina-allemande-courante-gavotte-sarabande-gigue-sonatina

3.

http://www.english.pan.pl/images/stories/pliki/publikacje/academia/2004/01/26-27_dahlig.pdf

EWA DAHLIG-TUREK
Institute of Art, Warsaw
Polish Academy of Sciences

The history of the mazurka and the polonaise

Ewa Dahlig-Turek, who worked with Marta Ramsten on Polska dans in Scandinavia and Poland,
has this introduction to the history of the mazurka and the polonaise music. She cites examples
going back to the 1500s.

4. Carl Axel Gottlund, Finnskog supporter from early 1800s.
Very interesting wikipedia entries on him.
From the LP record notes of Lekar och visor from Josseharad.

1821 beskriver den finske studenten Gottlund polskan i Jösse Härad på
följande sätt.

Och denna är en förbannad takt, det är en allegro con moto,
så både de dansande och de some spela få svetten i pannan.
Gossarna visa därvid en ofantelig vighet saltomoralsprång ingå i dansen
och flickorna en förvånande lätthet.

C. A. Gottlund. Dagbok öfver dess resor på finnskogarne i Dalarne, Helsingland, Vestmanland och Vermland år 1817. Utgiven av Nils Sahlström med förord av K. B. Wiklund. [With a portrait and a map.]. Published Stockholm, 1931, and Falun, 1984.
Google books search of this diary shows 4 instances of polska, 4 of spela, and 2 of dansades.
He writes of dances of waltzes, polskor, and anglais.

I can only speculate on the finnskog emmigration from Finnland circa 1600 to 1632 effect on
bygdedans in Norway , Western Sweden, and even other regions of Sweden.
Today many Swedish fiddlers are of Finnish descent.
I recall Jofried Sodal from Trondelog Norway telling me that the songs in Svenska bygdedansar
del II were in her dialect. Similarly the one can compare the singing in Finnish with recorded
songs from Western Dalarna and the NRK video series songs, especially those in the
Halbakken videos.

5.
Index of Ala-Könni, Erkki. Die Polska-Tänze in Finnland, 1956 Phd dissertation in German, referenced by both Mat Rehnberg in Om folkdans, and Jan Ling.
http://books.google.com/books/about/Die_Polska_T%C3%A4nze_in_Finnland.html?id=pFUYAQAAIAAJ

There is a short wikipedia entry on him.

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Polsk and Springarbo from Unprotected Females in Norway, 1857, Helen Lowe

Halling
Unprotected Females in Norway, 1857, 1859 Helen Lowe

Page 108. Almost verbatim of Edward Price's Norway and its Scenery 1853
Story of the Hulder, ( with the addition that the fiddler uses a Hardanger fiddle )

Page 83, Dancing on Sunday or Sunday Amusements in Jerkin

Sliding along, her hair often waving from beneath her head-dreass,
the girl follows her partner
round the room till she catches his extended hand; they then join in the lively “polztanz”
together; separating afterwards, except by the one hand,
she turns beneath his raised arm
with a charming movement, and then goes off with him again
doubly quick in the “springarbo.”
After each dance, the men, walking around with their partners,
laid a small coin before the musician; so there was no difficulty
as to who was to pay the piper. This is the Norwegian
peasants' way of spending Sunday afternoon, when they can manage it.

Page 211, Hallingdal, description of Halling dance, and belt fights to be repeated in
travelogues for many decades.

The lively airs (Slot) express in the most perfect manner the agility, the boldness,
and singularity of the dance and never fail to exercise a powerful charm on
all those who are acquainted with them.
You feel yourself, as it were, raised from the floor, and wish, like the practiced
Halling dancer, to touch the rafters of the ceiling with your toes. The dancer jumps
up light as a feather, turns round in the air, and descends again standing on one leg;
on the floor he curves also, resting on one heel while his jacket describes a circle
around him like a bell. Then he makes a jump to the opposite side of the room
and goes on as before.

Page 239, Hitterdal, Telemark, ( Hitterdalsvatn I assume )
… and get up to a grand dance to celebrate the event, the national “Eismel,”
which is the same nature as the “Halling,” being danced alone,
and when by a fine stalwart peasant in his best, is an animating sight.

Comments

Note the use of the polztanz instead of the Danish polsk or Norwegian pols.
I have not found any other references using "springarbo".
Interesting is the nomenclature by Lowe describing the "polztanz" and "springarbo".
Lively may refer to the feet in the air of the half quick dance turn.
Eismel perhaps translate as "ice bound" or "captured by ice". Again this is a term
that I have only found in this work. Lowe is not writing in a vacuum, she takes Price's
story of the Hulder almost verbatim. Frederika Bremmer's descriptions of the
"halling polska" were available from about 1839 to an English translation in 1852 or so.
Her use of Jerkin locale for the dance description is an echo of the
1820 visit by Arthur de Capell Brooke.

Friday, March 18, 2016

The Düben Collection Swedish Court Music 1640 to 1726

The Düben Collection

The Düben collection at Uppsala University contains 2,300 musical manuscripts donated in 1732.
The 4 generations of the Düben family were concertmasters for the Swedish Royal court from 1640
to 1726. There is a number of dance music suites. There is one example of a springer dance, in a set containing a Holland dance.
http://www2.musik.uu.se/duben/DubenCollectionInfo.php

Click on DCDC Advanced Search
Check instrumental and sort by title in the advanced search.
Click find
Click on the 576 work box
On the work you are interested in, click on select, to see the suite contents for example,
or to further click on a photo of the music.

Andreas Düben the Elder, became a principal figure in Swedish musical life. He traveled to Stockholm from his hometown Leipzig for the Royal wedding of 1620,
first assuming the position of organist and second concertmaster and later as principal concertmaster in 1640.
Members of the Düben family held this position as concertmaster for four generations until 1726. Anders von Düben donated the “Düben collection” –
a unique compilation of 2,300 musical manuscripts from over all of Europe – to the Uppsala University Library in 1732.
Here is a rough count of the individual dance melodies, independent of the 40 or 50 suites.
Allemand 44 entries
Branle 11 entries
Gaÿ (Branle) 9 entries
Montirande (Branle) 8 entries
Courante 75 entries
Galliard 10 entries
Gavotte 10 entries
Menuett 3 entries
Pavane or Pavana 25 entries
Polonaise 1 entry
Saraband(a)(e) 32 entries
Springtanz 1 entry, Klein Comedien Sachen) or Springer 1675-1679

Dance de Hollande [in Kleine Comedien Sachen] also known as Holländisch Tanz [in Kleine Comedien Sachen]

Here is an example of several dance suites in the database.
allemande-courante-sarabande-gigue 1610-1669
pavane-allemande-courant-courant-sarabande-sarabande
intrade-passepied-bourré-entrée-gavotte-menuett-rondeau-gigue
1684 opera
capriccio-gigue-gavotte
sonatina-allemande-courante-gavotte-sarabande-gigue-sonatina