Le Roy: Semi Basse-dance

A stately dance written specifically for the Renaissance guitar (an early ancestor of the ukulele). It is translated from a facsimile of the piece in:
Tiers livre de tabulature de guiterre, contenant plusieurs préludes, chansons, basse-dances, tourdions, pavanes, gaillardes, almandes, bransles, tant doubles que simples le tout composé par Adrian Le Roy, Paris, 1552.
Royal Holloway Digital Repository, permanent url: http://purl.org/rism/AI/L2045

A couple performing the basse danse. [Wikipedia]

It's quite a simple piece, and fun to play, helped by the slow tempo. I have included all of Le Roy’s fingering indications, along the lines described in the article here. He used the simple but elegant system of inserting dots under a single unaccented note to indicate plucking with a finger (preferably the index), and under 2 or 3 notes to indicate the use of the fingers only (no thumbs). I have spelled these out using the p-i-m-a system. Thus in “duet “ sections (e.g. bars 21 – 23), the melody is played with a finger and the bass line with the thumb. This gives a different sound to using the two first fingers. The main decision you have to make about left-hand fingering is whether to play the G chord using the fingers o -1-2-1 or o -1-3-2, depending on context. (o = open string.)

The basse-danse or basse-dance was a slow, gliding dance set in triple time (6/6, 3/2) which evolved into the pavane (2/2 or 4/4). This piece is, however, in 2/4 time. According to Wolzein & Bliven, in EGA1, writing of a similar piece:

“LeRoy wrote his basse dance in duple meter, following the rhythm of the chanson; but this is problematic indeed, considering the fact that the basse dance was danced in triple, not duple time. Since the basse dance was archaic by this time, perhaps Le Roy conceived this piece as a pavan instead.”

I do not know the significance of “demie” (half): perhaps it is a diminutive.

The basse-dance would have been followed by a tourdion, such as the one in the next post in this blog.

A guitar arrangement has been published in Calmes, “Guitar Music of the 16th century”, page 93. The interpretation of voices here largely follows Calmes’.

Available to download for free in the following formats:

• pdf
• TablEdit 3
• MIDI