'Pavane and Galliard' for Carson Cooman by Graham Twist скачать в хорошем качестве

'Pavane and Galliard' for Carson Cooman by Graham Twist

In August of 2025, I received an email from organist Carson Cooman, who is currently composer-in-residence at Harvard Memorial Church. He invited me to contribute to his project focused on gathering contemporary pieces that re-imagine two historical dances: the Pavane and Galliard. Many acclaimed composers have written music to date for him, and so I felt very honoured to maybe join their ranks (even though it has taken me six months to complete these two pieces!). Carson notes that like many dances from past centuries, the musical forms stayed in use even after the popularity of the actual dancing had ended and the pairing of Pavane and Galliard went on to serve as a simpler proto-form for later multi-movement dance suites. The custom with the Baroque dance suite was for the dances to come in pairs: Allemande - Courante and then Sarabande - Gigue. Those dances had tempos of slow/fast, and this pattern was continued with the Pavane and Galliard. It is believed that the Pavane originated in Italy, with research suggesting that the first printed sources for the music can be attributed to Joan Ambrosio Dalza, in 1508. His book of lute music included five 'pavane alla venetiana' and four 'pavane alla ferrarese'. On the title page of the book, these works were collectively described as ‘padoane diverse’, which gives the clue that they came from the city of Padua. However, another theory has it that ‘pavane’ comes from the Italian word ‘pavona’ or ‘peacock’, indicating the parallel dignity of the dance and the spread of the peacock’s tail. In the dance, couples walk and pause and exhibit their fine clothing, very much in peacock fashion! The Pavane was a slow dance. In his book of 1588 titled ‘Orchésography’, Thoinot Arbeau (the anagrammatic pen name of French cleric, Jehan Tabourot) describes it as a dance for many couples in procession. Each dancer was free to add his own ornamentation to his steps. It has even been claimed that the halting and hesitating steps brides take to the altar (step - pause, step - pause) is a relic of the Pavane. The Galliard that followed was a much more lively dance. The basic dance consisted of 4 ‘grèves’, where the dancer hops on the ball of one foot while making a gesture with the other foot as though to kick someone, and then ending with a big jump with two feet ('saut majeur') and closing with a posture of rest, with one foot in front of the other (the jump and the rest together are called the ‘cadence’). These 5 steps - the grèves and the cadence - were known as the 'cinque pas'. Although the Galliard is a fast dance, it should not be too quick to give time for all the kicks and jumps. I was relieved to note that Arbeau said the Galliard must be slower for big men than for small men, since the big men would take longer to execute the steps. (So in my case, very much longer!) Arbeau describes how the dance starts on the left foot, and then after the cadence, it starts again on the right foot. After these 10 steps, you were to start again on the left foot. Arbeau goes on to urge dancers to be in control of their movements so that damsels don’t show their knees (!) from bouncing around, and to take care not to kick their partners in their motions. Once the dancers had mastered the basic steps, they could go on to add the flourishes. One of the most infamous of these was the 'volta' (or as it was known in England, 'lavolta'). During the volta, the woman is held in the air by the man as he turns 270 degrees, all of this taking place during one 6-beat measure. This figure replaced the 'cinque pas', though Arbeau thought this particular addition was unduly vulgar for something to be done in a gentlewoman’s ballroom! The Pavane and Galliard became the dances of the court, being developed without folk-music antecedents. The dances were designed for showing off one’s attire and skill on the dance floor and the Galliard, in particular, could be danced on a number of different levels - the simple steps of a beginning or the more complex jumps and kicks that could be added as one grew in confidence and ability. Queen Elizabeth I was a passionate dancer who really loved the athletic and energetic Galliard. It is claimed she practiced the dance daily as exercise, sometimes performing several before breakfast to maintain her health and vigour, even into her 50s. Renaissance aerobics, perhaps? You can listen to Carson’s much better recording of my Pavane and Galliard (and many other composers’ superior efforts) here on his YouTube channel:    • Graham Twist — Pavane and Galliard (2026) ...   For this performance, I have returned once again to the Rieger Organ sample set produced by Inspired Acoustics. If you would like a (gratis) copy of the music, just email me or message me on Facebook and I will furnish you with the score. It is quite heavy (in parts) with accidentals to give a little spice here and there . . . but no kicking the composer in retribution should you start dancing, please!