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The medieval dance
Medieval dance

Sources for an understanding of dance in Europe in the Middle Ages are limited and fragmentary, being composed of some depictions in paintings and illumination s, a few musical examples of what may be dances, and scattered allusions in literary texts....
 and musical form
Music genre

A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music....
 called the estampie in French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
, the estampida in Occitan, and istampitta (also istanpitta or stampita) in Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
 was a popular instrumental style of the 13th and 14th centuries.

estampie consists of four to seven sections, called puncta, each of which is repeated, in the form

aa, bb, cc, etc..


Different endings (ouvert (open) and clos (closed)) are provided for the first and second statement of each punctum, so that the structure can be

a+x, a+y; b+w, b+z; etc..


Sometimes the same two endings are used for all the puncta, producing the structure

a+x, a+y; b+x, b+y, c+x, c+y, etc..


A similar structure was shared with the saltarello
Saltarello

The saltarello was a lively, merry dance first mentioned in Naples during the 13th century. The music survives, but no early instructions for the actual dance are known....
, another medieval dance.

The earliest reported example of this musical form is the song "Kalenda Maya", supposedly written by the troubadour
Troubadour

A troubadour was a composer and performer of Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages .The troubadour school or tradition began in the eleventh century in Occitania, but it subsequently spread into Italy, Spain, and even Greece....
 Raimbaut de Vaqueiras
Raimbaut de Vaqueiras

Raimbaut de Vaqueiras or Riambaut de Vaqueyras was a Proven?al troubadour and, later in his life, knight. His life was spent mainly in Italian courts until 1203, when he joined the Fourth Crusade....
 (1180-1207) to the melody of an estampida played by French jongleurs. All other known examples are purely instrumental pieces. 14th century examples include estampies with subtitles such as Lamento di Tristano, La Manfredina, Salterello, Isabella, Tre fontane.

Though the estampie is generally monophonic, examples of two-voice compositions in the form of an estampie are also reported.

idealized dance character of all these pieces suggests that the estampie originally was a true dance.






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The medieval dance
Medieval dance

Sources for an understanding of dance in Europe in the Middle Ages are limited and fragmentary, being composed of some depictions in paintings and illumination s, a few musical examples of what may be dances, and scattered allusions in literary texts....
 and musical form
Music genre

A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music....
 called the estampie in French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
, the estampida in Occitan, and istampitta (also istanpitta or stampita) in Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
 was a popular instrumental style of the 13th and 14th centuries.

Musical Form

The estampie consists of four to seven sections, called puncta, each of which is repeated, in the form

aa, bb, cc, etc..


Different endings (ouvert (open) and clos (closed)) are provided for the first and second statement of each punctum, so that the structure can be

a+x, a+y; b+w, b+z; etc..


Sometimes the same two endings are used for all the puncta, producing the structure

a+x, a+y; b+x, b+y, c+x, c+y, etc..


A similar structure was shared with the saltarello
Saltarello

The saltarello was a lively, merry dance first mentioned in Naples during the 13th century. The music survives, but no early instructions for the actual dance are known....
, another medieval dance.

The earliest reported example of this musical form is the song "Kalenda Maya", supposedly written by the troubadour
Troubadour

A troubadour was a composer and performer of Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages .The troubadour school or tradition began in the eleventh century in Occitania, but it subsequently spread into Italy, Spain, and even Greece....
 Raimbaut de Vaqueiras
Raimbaut de Vaqueiras

Raimbaut de Vaqueiras or Riambaut de Vaqueyras was a Proven?al troubadour and, later in his life, knight. His life was spent mainly in Italian courts until 1203, when he joined the Fourth Crusade....
 (1180-1207) to the melody of an estampida played by French jongleurs. All other known examples are purely instrumental pieces. 14th century examples include estampies with subtitles such as Lamento di Tristano, La Manfredina, Salterello, Isabella, Tre fontane.

Though the estampie is generally monophonic, examples of two-voice compositions in the form of an estampie are also reported.

Dance Choreography

The idealized dance character of all these pieces suggests that the estampie originally was a true dance. There are no surviving dance manuals describing the estampie as a dance. Illuminations and paintings from the period seem to indicate that the estampie involves fairly vigorous hopping. Some estampies, such as the famous Tre fontane ("Three Fountains") estampie, contain florid and virtuosic
Virtuoso

A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa....
 instrumental writing; they may have been intended as abstract performance music rather than actual dance music.

Etymology

The etymology
Etymology

Etymology is the study of the roots and history of words; and how their form and meaning have changed over time.In languages with a long detailed history, etymology makes use of philology, the study of how words change from culture to culture over time....
 of the name is disputed; an alternative name of the dance is stantipes, which suggests that one foot was stationary during the dance; but the more widely accepted etymology relates it to estamper, to stamp the feet.