
As a dance, the galliard is improvised, with dancers combining patterns of steps which occupy one or more measures of music. In one measure, a galliard typically has five steps; in French such a basic step is called a cinq pas and in Italy, "cinque passi". This is sometimes written in English sources as sinkapace. These steps are: right, left, right, left, cadence. The galliard is an athletic dance, characterised by leaps, jumps, hops, and other similar figures. The main feature that defines a galliard step is that the last two beats consist of a large jump, landing with one leg ahead of the other. This jump is called a cadence, and the final landing is called the posture. The sources generally describe movement patterns starting on the left foot, then repeating it starting with the right foot. A galliard pattern may also last twice as long, or more, which would involve 11 steps, or 17 steps, and so forth. The galliard was a favourite dance of Queen Elizabeth I of England, and although it is quite a vigorous dance, in 1589 when the Queen was in her mid fifties, John Stanhope of the Privy Chamber reported, "the Queen is so well as I assure you, six or seven galliards in a morning, besides music and singing, is her ordinary exercise". (Brissenden 1981, 4-5). In addition to being an entire dance, galliard steps are used within many other forms of dance. For example, 16th century Italian dances in Fabritio Caroso's (1581) and Negri's (1602) dance manuals often have a galliard <b>...</b>
Two
Recorder
Galliards
by
Teleman
Susato
baroque
spanish
dance
folk
tune
popular
music
song
songs
renaissance
elizabethan
sixteenth
century
consort
descant
treble
bass
classical
group