Products – Books, recordings, sheet music & videos (Matt's Baroque Dance Links)

Products for Sale

Shops – Books – Book Reviews – Recordings – Sheet Music – Videos

Shops

Dance Books: UK-based publisher/retailer, selling early dance books and CDs, as well as many other dance-related items.
Princeton Book Company (Dance Horizons): US-based publisher/retailer. See in particular their dance history books and social, historic, folk and ethnic videos.

Books

Wendy Hilton's Dance and Music of Court and Theater [Find on Amazon.com]

The standard introduction to what I know as the "English" reconstruction of baroque dance (probably more accurately called the "Stanford" or "Juilliard" reconstruction of the noble style of baroque dance).

Francine Lancelot's La Belle Dance [Find on Amazon.com]

A catalogue of extant sources, including some analysis. You can read a review in the Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music.

Pendragon Press

In addition to Hilton, Pendragon Press also publish some other interesting books in their two series Wendy Hilton Dance & Music, and French Opera in the 17th and 18th Centuries. Some selected titles:

Musical Theatre at the Court of Louis XIV – Le Mariage de la Grosse Cathos [Find on Amazon.com]

By Rebecca Harris-Warrick and Carol G. Marsh. Information about a short ballet from 1688, recorded in an alternative dance notation.

Lambranzi, New and Curious School of Theatrical Dancing [Find on Amazon.com]

Facsimile of this classic source for theatrical dance (Nuremberg, 1716), with English translations.

Stainer & Bell: Music for London Entertainment 1660–1800

Series of titles including a facsimile edition of L'Abbé's A New Collection of Dances (c1725) edited by Carol Marsh. [Find on Amazon.com]

Dance Rhythms of the French Baroque [Find on Amazon.com]

By Betty Bang Mather with Dean M. Karns.

Dance and the Music of J. S. Bach [Find on Amazon.com]

By Meredith Little and Natalie Jenne. Expanded edition published in March 2001. You can read a brief review here. [It should be noted that this book generally accepts the dances as reconstructed by Wendy Hilton. Often this doesn't make much difference to how the music is played, but when it does, no details of the alternative viewpoints are given.]

Dolmetsch Historical Dance Society

Publish magazines, books and recordings for early dance.

Éditions Minkoff

Publishers of books on music and musicology. Their books on dance, include a facsimile of the 1748 edition of Rameau's Le Maître à danser, and Marie-Françoise Christout's Le Ballet de Cour au XVIIe siècle. They also publish a copy of the 5th edition of L'Affilard's Principes très faciles.

Mark Franko

Professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who has written several books and articles on historical dance.

Georg Olms Verlag

Facsimiles and original publications, including Feuillet, and Mastro da Ballo, a 1614 manuscript by Santucci.

Fairfax, The Styles of Eighteenth-Century Ballet

Book proposing that the differences between ballroom and theatrical dance in the 18th century were much greater than generally supposed. [I have read this, and you can get the general idea of its confrontational style from the introduction which is available online. While several of his points are valid (for example, many aspects of Wendy Hilton's reconstruction of the French noble style are disputed by some scholars and performers), there is so much that is wrong with this book that it makes a very frustrating read. His point that there were styles of theatrical dance other than the serious style of the Paris Opéra is hardly revolutionary, and criticising reconstructions of precisely this one style for being no more than that, strikes me as being akin to criticising a description of an elephant for not accurately depicting an ostrich. I also feel that he misrepresents the reconstructions that existed before his supposed revolution, and he often describes current common practice as though it were something entirely new and unknown. So, not a book to read for a balanced view; though if you are already familiar with the area then it makes a great source of interesting quotations from primary sources. Also, since research into (and detailed reconstructions of) the virtuoso grotesque dancing of the period is in short supply, this consideration of the sources must be welcomed, at the very least, as a prompt for further debate.]

Judith Rock, Terpsichore at Louis-le-Grand

A study of baroque dance at the Jesuit college.

The Grotesque Dancer on the Eighteenth-Century Stage: Gennaro Magri and His World [Find on Amazon.com]

A series of essays taking Gennaro Magri and his Trattato Teorico-Prattico di Ballo as a starting point. [Recommended.]

Gaetano Grossatesta, Balletti

Book including a facsimile of LMC Ms-85 (3 dances in Beauchamp-Feuillet notation), an introduction by Gloria Giordano (in Italian and English), and a CD of the music. (Site in Italiano, but as an English speaker I found it pretty easy to work out how to order a copy.)

Dance at a Glance

Aimed at musicians, a very nicely produced 40-page booklet, a quick-reference guide and a CD of examples. [Written by a pair of musicians, but they've obviously put a lot of work into finding out about the dance types. It seems like one of their main sources of information was Angene Feves, so this makes a welcome counterpoint to e.g. Dance and the Music of J. S. Bach (above). Also note that the CD does not include any music for extant choreographies – not much of it is music-for-dance including, as it does, music by people like Bach and Corelli. Still worth getting though.]

There are also some primary sources for sale, if you have the cash.

J & J Lubrano, Music Antiquarians: Last time I checked they had copies of Cahusac's La Danse Ancienne et Moderne, Dufort's Trattato del Ballo Nobile, Feuillet's Choregraphie, Noverre's Lettres sur la Danse (three of them), and Rameau's Le Maître à Danser. Oh, and also a copy of Caroso's Nobiltà di Dame, if you're into that sort of thing.
Rameau's Le Maître à Danser: Yours for less than $5000. (Note that in the book details, "Rameau" has twice been translated literally as "Branch".)

Book reviews

Lancelot, La Belle Dance: Review by Irene Alm, from the Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music.
Little and Jenne, Dance and the Music of J. S. Bach: Review by Yo Tomita.

Recordings

Musiques à Danser à la Cour et à l'Opéra [Find on Amazon.com]: An unfortunately now deleted double-CD, recorded after the musicians had worked with Francine Lancelot. Contains about forty pieces for which there are extant choreographies. Listing because it's worth looking out for on sites that sell second-hand CDs, if you can find it at a reasonable price.
Dances from France and England: CD of music for extant choreographies from Consort de Danse Baroque. [Tempi are generally moderate, but still lively for things like gigues and hornpipes. La Bourée d'Achille is apparently deliberately a bit under-tempo as it was intended for beginner-level students. All pieces include a short introduction that, if not historically accurate, makes it practical to dance to (historically accurate would mean never dancing to recorded music!). The recordings are both musical and danceable, and this is one of the few "home produced" recordings of baroque dance music that I would listen to for pleasure as well as for dance practice.]
BaroqueDance.com: Offers CDs of dance music at practice and performance tempi performed on the harpsichord by Hugh Murphy. [Tempi are generally moderate, and most pieces have a short musical introduction. I really like the "practice and performance tempi" idea – it's much more convenient than slowing down recordings down on a computer or similar. The performances are variable, and can sometimes be rather pedestrian, which disappoints as I know Hugh can play better than that.]
Dorothée Wortelboer: Offers the CD A Choice Collection of Dances of music to extant baroque choreographies, as well as La Baroque, Dances for the Dutch Court containing music for country dances c.1765.
Dolmetsch Historical Dance Society: Publish magazines, books and recordings for early dance. Recordings have been done by various musicians working with different dancers, as DHDS likes to rotate teachers.
Contretemp(s) Berlin: Offers a CD of music for the publications of Magny (LMC 1765-Mag) and Dubreil (LMC 1718-Dub, and (not listed in LMC) FL/1730.1). (Deutsch)
Ensemble Dreiklang Berlin [Find on Amazon.com]: Recorder trio. Their website includes information about the CD Galante Kurzweyl recorded by Ensemble Buon Tempo, a group including members of the trio. This CD includes music for several notated baroque dances. (Deutsch/English) [Five pieces for French-style baroque dances here, plus plenty of country dance tunes. As far as "The Five" go, the tempi are moderate, and they are played with a short introduction, and seemingly with the correct repeats. I have to say that I don't find the performances particularly inspiring (the country dances are generally better) but they seem danceable. Credit for not adding an extra half-bar in An Ecchoe.]
Lully/Philidor, Stage Works [Find on Amazon.com]: Recording by the London Oboe Band of instrumental music from Philidor's Le Mariage de la Grosse Cathos, and works by Lully. [Nicely rhythmic playing here. The tempi chosen are generally moderate, which some dancers will agree with, and others will tell you is all wrong. Unfortunately a few of the pieces are played a bit too dreamily for me: the Philidor passepied in particular seems way too slow (although I haven't reconstructed the dance) but also the Philidor minuet, the Lully gavotte, and the two Lully chaconnes – Harlequin asleep. The obviously lively pieces like gigues and bourées are better, but of course they're only about thirty seconds long each.]
Gaetano Grossatesta, Balletti: Book including a facsimile of LMC Ms-85 (3 dances in Beauchamp-Feuillet notation), an introduction by Gloria Giordano (in Italian and English), and a CD of the music. (Site in Italiano, but as an English speaker I found it pretty easy to work out how to order a copy.)
Chorégraphie, Andrew Lawrence-King [Find on Amazon.com]: A CD of music from Feuillet's dance collections played on the baroque triple harp. [Don't buy this expecting to be able to dance to many of the pieces. It's beautifully and sensitively played, but it often lacks rhythmic purpose even though the beat is always clear. It's not that the tempi are wildly off (dancers don't agree about tempi anyway) but unfortunately he has a tendency towards the languorous that affects either the tempo or the mood of many of the pieces, nudging them out of the zone of danceability. This languor shows itself in both the slow pieces, where he has a habit of inserting small pauses at cadences (a cardinal, but lamentably common sin in playing dance music), and the lively pieces, where he never seems to achieve liveliness, even when the tempo is around the right area of the metronome. Overall, worth getting if you want to listen to some favourite dance tunes played as purely instrumental pieces, but not if you are the sort of person that gets irritated when baroque dance music isn't played to your definition of correctness. Disappointing really because ALK and his Harp Consort are so good in the Spanish and Latin-American repertoire.]
Handel in Hamburg [Find on Amazon.com]: A CD of instrumental music by the young Handel, played by the Parley of Instruments directed by Peter Holman. None of the music here is for extant choreographies, however much of it is dance music. [I'm listing this CD as a personal recommendation. A recording of baroque dance music is nothing unusual in itself, however a recording in which more than a handful of tracks are suitable for dancing is unusual. So this is for dancers, who, I think, will love it (though of course there will be disagreements about tempi), and for musicians as a demonstration of one way to play that is both appropriate for dancing and musically satisfying.]

Sheet music

BaroqueDance.com: Offers music for extant dances.
Measure for Measure: Offers music for extant dances, arranged by Jonathan Dobin.
French Opera in the 17th and 18th Centuries: A Facsimile Series: Series including works by Lully, Campra, Destouches, Delalande, Rameau...
Chanterelle Verlag: Publishers of guitar music including a facsimile of Santiago de Murcia's Resumen de Acompañar la Parte con la Guitarra (1714) which includes baroque guitar arrangements (in tablature) of many of the dances published by Feuillet.

Videos

For online clips see: Informational –> Video clips.

BaroqueDance.com DVDs: A pair of video-DVDs from Paige Whitley-Bauguess: Introduction to Baroque Dance – Dance Types [Find on Amazon.com], and Dance of the French Baroque Theatre [Find on Amazon.com].
Video:Baroque Dance: Baroque dance performed in costume by Nicola Gaines and Chris Tudor, with Michael Holmes and Dr. Susan Danby. [I haven't seen this video, but I saw the dancers perform at the Royal Festival Hall in August 2000. Opinions might vary, but mine was that they were okay (quite a lot better than me!), but not brilliant. He was the better of the two, but while his footwork was fine when he was demonstrating steps, it sometimes went rather sloppy when he was dancing (I couldn't see her feet because of her dress). I thought that both of their arms lacked a sense of rhythm, in particular she was much too wafty. Also, they didn't bend very much, which gave a uniformness to their dancing. Anyway, all that is a matter of taste, much worse was that they danced a gavotte starting the steps on the half-bar upbeat – despite saying (correctly) in their workshop that this was not what was done. Sigh...]
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme: DVD recording (and upcoming performances) of a production with many "authentic" elements. Semi-baroque choreography by Cécile Roussat. (Français)
Jean-Baptiste Lully: Persée [Find on Amazon.com]: DVD recording of Opera Atelier's production, with semi-baroque choreography by Jeannette Zingg.
IMDb: Le Roi Danse [Find on Amazon.com]: Internet Movie Database entry for a film featuring that great cinematic rarity – historically informed dance (choreographed by Béatrice Massin). [Dancing episodes are pretty brief and you have to ignore Louis' grimmaces and watch the dancers in the background. Strangely enough, the King dances much better when the camera only shows his legs.]
Hof-Dantzer: This company have produced a CD-ROM, see their "Repertory" section. (Deutsch/English)
BaroqueDance.jp: Japanese dancer Yasuko Hamanaka has a couple of DVDs available. (Japanese)
Performance Practices in Baroque Keyboard Music (with Bonus Lecture on Baroque Dance): DVD by Maurice Hinson. Also available with some (not all dance) sheet music.
Berkut Dance International: Mikhael Berkut's website, offering historical dance videos. You probably want to read this review of these videos. [Even before reading that review I had heard from different sources that these videos are completely inaccurate – they apparently show 20th-century Russian creations meant to represent various historical dance types.]
Rebel's Les Eléments: What appears to be a video of a performance plus some educational bits.
Les Caractères de la danse: Kids video of choreography to Rebel's ubiquitous composition. (Français)
Dancetime Publications: Publish Videos/DVDs of historical dance. Seem to be associated with Dance Through Time. [They've just put some sample clips online. Their "baroque dance" clips look rather dubious, but I probably need to see more than the low-res clips that are online.]
The Parts of the Suite: Video introduction to baroque dance by The Dance Project and Luisa Meshekoff. [The first thing to note is that the style of baroque dance presented throughout this video is very close to classical ballet, so much so that some other reconstructors probably wouldn't consider it to be "baroque dance" at all. In particular, the rather twee second minuet and the siciliana have essentially nothing to do with 17th or 18th century dance. It's not completely uninformed though, and I'd say that the primary sources do allow for a variety of interpretations. The dances that I recognised as being from extant notations were L'Abbé's Prince of Wales's Sarabande, Rousseau's Harlequin, and the first third of L'Abbé's Passacaglia of Venus and Adonis. The Spanish entrée for a man was to the well-known music by Campra, and though I didn't recognise the dance as being one of the the originals, it was very much in the style of the extant male solos. With some of the dances (minuets, courante, gigue), although they used baroque steps, to me they didn't succeed in finding the spirit of the particular rhythm. All-in-all not completely terrible, but rather disappointing – particularly as all the dancers clearly knew how to dance, so there was the potential there to make this really good.]