Theory and Practice in Taubert: Four Readings

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Tilden Russell – Theory and Practice in Taubert: Four Readings
Theory and Practice in Taubert: Four Readings1
TILDEN RUSSELL
It would be easy for most dance historians to define what is understood as “practice” in
eighteenth-century dance manuals: the five positions, step tables, notated or verbal
choreographies, etc. The term “theory,” on the other hand, is rarely used; most often the
theoretical can be identified only as whatever textual matter is not explicitly praxis. The
ultimate futility of this definition-by-default method becomes clear when we consider
that by the late nineteenth century, especially in French sources, the term théorie referred
to a list of steps used in a dance, or an entire verbal choreography: e.g. “Théorie du
Menuet par deux couples.”2 Gottfried Taubert, in his Rechtschaffener Tantzmeister, is
one of the rare dance book authors who not only tells us what he means by “theory,” but
also devotes full attention to both dimensions of dance instruction in his treatise.3 I will
explore the relationship of theory and practice in Taubert with reference to four topics:
(1) the book’s frontispiece; (2) the organization of Book II; (3) Taubert’s description of
the minuet cadence in comparison with his description of the various minuet steps; and
(4) a discussion from the translator’s point of view of one word, Lection, that Taubert
employs in an uncharacteristically free manner to refer equally to theory and practice,
depending on the context.
For Bathia Churgin: Your seminar on the early symphony at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1977 was the most
formative of my graduate studies, and there is nothing I have written, presented, or taught since then that
has not been imbued in some way with what I learned from you. Outside of class we played chamber music
on several memorable occasions, and the Brioschi symphonies the class edited became publishing debuts
for some of us. Surely I am only one of many of your students who can declare, with pride and joy and
gratitude: Bathia, you made a dix-huitièmiste of me.
1
An earlier version of this article was read at the conference: Repenser pratique et théorie/Re-thinking
practice and theory: International symposium on Dance Research, Centre national de la danse, Paris-Pantin
(2007).
2
A sampling: Laure Fonta, “Le Menuet,” Les danses de nos pères (Paris: Choudens, [ca.1880?]), no. 11;
Album de danses illustrées anciennes & modernes… Prime du supplement illustré en couleurs du “Petit
Journal” (Paris: Choudens fils, n.d.), p. 20; G. Desrat, Nouveau menuet de la cour d’après l’ancien
menuet. Théorie réglée par G. Desrat musique originale transcrite par E. Desgranges (Paris: Le Bailly,
[1880]); Desrat, “Du Menuet,” Traité de la danse, new edn. (Paris: H. Delarue et Cie., n.d. [190?]), pp.
125–29; Eugène Giraudet, “Théorie du Menuet par deux couples,” Traité de la danse, 7th edn. (Paris:
Imprimerie A. Ventin, [1894 or later]), pp. 77–79; Giraudet, “Le Menuet,” La danse, la tenue, le maintien
l’hygiène & l’éducation, 55th edn. (Paris: author, [1897 or later]), pp. 142–43; Giraudet, “MENUET (Le)
de la Cour,” Traité de la danse; Tome II: Grammaire de la danse et du bon ton à travers le monde et les
siècles depuis le singe jusqu’à nos jours (Paris: author, 1900), pp. 230–34; Charles d’Albert, “Menuet de la
Cour.—By Perin,” Dancing. Technical Encyclopaedia of the Theory and Practice of The Art of Dancing
(London: author, 1913–14), pp. 102–104 (Part XIII, June 1914); d’Albert, The Encyclopedia of Dancing,
revised edn. (London: T.M. Middleton & Co., [1920]), pp. 85–86.
3
Gottfried Taubert, Rechtschaffener Tantzmeister (Leipzig: Friedrich Lanckischens Erben, 1717; facs. edn.
Leipzig: Zentralantiquariat der DDR, and Munich: Heimeran Verlag, 2 vols., 1976). Numbers in wedgeshaped brackets and bold type refer to pages in Taubert.
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1. Frontispiece
Taubert’s title page is a summary overview, in a single, page-long sentence, of the
subject matter of the three constituent books of his treatise. Here, theory and practice are
embedded in the middle of the page as two of the three principal elements (“Ethice,
Theoretice und Practice”) in Book II (see Appendix 1, Figure 1).
The title of the frontispiece: “The Compleat Dancing Master, Learned, and
Taught in Theory and Practice,” is far more concise than the official title on the title page,
while it emphatically isolates as its subject the duality of theory and practice (see Figure
2).4 The dancing master, the book’s subject, is shown in three roles that for the sake of
pictorial legibility are set in a single, large space that should nevertheless be understood
as conflating three separate locales. Right under the title cartouche he is shown in his role
as theorist, seated pensively in a book-lined study, with an open folio in front of him, and
an inkwell and pen, pochette, and books spread out on the table. In the foreground, he is
shown in two aspects of his role as teacher. On the left, he is instructing a young man in
social dance, either in his own studio or in the young man’s house. On the right, he is
leaning against the proscenium of a stage as he supervises an ensemble of male theatrical
dancers; the instrumental ensemble halfway back on the right is probably accompanying
these dancers, since, for the private lesson, the dancing master would use his pochette
when necessary.
The illustration of the master teaching a young man social dance is remarkably
similar to two other sources published five years or less before Taubert: the frontispiece
of Louis Bonin’s Neueste Art zur galanten und theatralischen Tantz-Kunst (see Figure
3)5; and the illustration “Menuet” in Gregorio Lambranzi’s Neue und curieuse
theatralische Tantz-Schul (see Figures 4a and 4b).6 Three characters—the master, the
student, and a young fiddler—show up in varied but closely related configurations and
dress. In Taubert, the dancing master and his student are reversed as in a mirror image
(with some differences: e.g. the master is pointing with his right hand instead of his front
hand), evidence of a common engraving technique. In Lambranzi, which exists in both a
manuscript and printed version, the figures are positioned as in Bonin but farther apart,
and both are wearing hats. The fiddler is placed with the instrumental ensemble in
4
“Der Rechtschaff’ne Tantzmeister Meditiret, und So wohl in Theoria als Praxis Informiret.” Reproduced
and discussed in Walter Salmen, Tanz im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, Musikgeschichte in Bildern IV/4
(Leipzig: VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, 1988), pp. 124–25.
5
Louis Bonin, Die Neueste Art zur Galanten und Theatralischen Tantz-Kunst (Frankfurt and Leipzig: Joh.
Christoff Lochner, 1712; repr. edn. Berlin: Edition Hentrich, 1996).
6
Lambranzi (Figure 4a), from the facsimile edition of the preliminary manuscript version: Gregorio
Lambranzi, New and Curious School of Theatrical Dancing by Gregorio Lambranzi, ed. F. Derra de
Moroda (New York: Dance Horizons, 1972), fol. 43v. Lambranzi (Figure 4b): “Menuet” in Gregorio
Lambranzi, Neue und curieuse theatralische Tantz-Schul (Nuremberg: Johann Jacob Wolrab, 1716; facs.
edn. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2002), Part II, no. 51. Stephanie Schroedter, Vom “Affect” zur
“Action”: Quellenstudien zur Poetik der Tanzkunst vom späten Ballet de Cour bis zum frühen Ballet en
Action (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2004), p. 295, points to Lambranzi’s title “Menuet” and its
accompanying text (“Dieses ist die erste Lection, so ein Tantzmeister weiset …”) as an indication of how
the minuet was a prototype of dance instruction and of pedagogy in general (“Prototype tänzerischdidaktischer Unterweisungen”).
150
Taubert; to the dancers’ right in Bonin; between them in the Lambranzi drawing; and
below them—either in front of a stage or below the picture frame—in the Lambranzi
print. Since these images all come from books published in Germany—two of them in
Leipzig—within a few years of one another, the likelihood of their having the same artist,
or of being copied from a common source, is strong.7
Turning now to the dancing master as theorist, it is worth pointing out that no
other dance manual frontispiece that I know of shows books—much less a wall full of
them—or illustrates or personifies the idea of theory in any way (see Figure 5).8 The
books represent Taubert’s learning, which he shows off copiously throughout the treatise,
and make the more important point that his teaching is based solidly on venerable and
high authority.9 The image of a theorist indicates the importance of theory as the
foundation of praxis in his system. By the way, magnification of the sheet of paper in
front of the dancing master reveals that it contains not words, but dance notation for what
could be either his own composition or a transcription of someone else’s.10 Turned
sideways (see Figure 6), this figure seems to show two dancers moving along parallel
rather than symmetrical tracts, and it almost resembles part of Taubert’s own minuet
chorégraphie (perhaps the last three steps of his fig. 5, <661>; see Figures 7a and 7b). If
this interpretation is correct, it would be yet another example of the centrality of the
minuet in Taubert’s treatise as a whole.11 It is more likely, however, that the figure is the
artist’s generic or inexpert impression of the look of a page of Beauchamps-Feuillet
choreography.
7
Lambranzi’s artist is J.G. Puschner. The dancing master is not wearing a hat in Bonin and Taubert. In
Bonin and the Lambranzi drawing, the student seems to be more elaborately dressed than in the other two
images.
8
There is one exception: a portrait of Kellom Tomlinson was added as frontispiece to some copies of the
second issue (misleadingly called “The Second Edition” on the title page) of his The Art of Dancing
(London: author, 1744). Tomlinson is portrayed seated at a table holding a book opened to the title of a
French dance dated 1753, with a scrap of music and a page of dance notation lying on the table next to him;
the engraving, dated 1754, is after a painting dated 1716. For a discussion of the two issues, and in
particular of the confusingly anachronistic dates related to the portrait, see Meredith Ellis Little and Carol
G. Marsh, La Danse Noble: An Inventory of Dances and Sources (Williamstown, New York, Nabburg:
Broude Brothers Limited, 1992), pp. 126–28; and Kellom Tomlinson, A Work Book by Kellom Tomlinson,
ed. Jennifer Shennan (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1990), p. 3, with a reproduction of the portrait as
the frontispiece (Plate 1). It should be pointed out that the book, music, and choreography in the portrait all
refer to practice, not theory. I am grateful to Marie Glon for reminding me of this portrait. See her “The
Materiality of Theory: Print Practices and the Construction of Meaning through Kellom Tomlinson’s The
Art of Dancing explain’d (1735),” Society of Dance History Scholars Proceedings: Thirtieth Annual
Conference Co-sponsored with CORD, Centre national de la danse, Paris, France 21-24 June 2007
(Society of Dance History Scholars, 2007), pp. 190–95.
9
Walter Salmen comments specifically on the significance of Taubert’s bookcase in Der Tanzmeister:
Geschichte und Profile eines Berufes vom 14. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert, Terpsichore Tanzhistorische
Studien 1, ed. Walter Salmen (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1997), p. 78.
10
Taubert mentions both operations as uses for chorégraphie (<F10–11, 738>): “… to set down on paper
dances learned elsewhere or composed by himself” (“die anderwerts gelernten, oder welche er selber
componiret, zu Papier bringen”).
11
See Tilden Russell, “The Minuet According to Taubert,” Dance Research 24/2 (Winter 2007):138–62.
151
2. Organization of Book II
An overview of the organization of Book II reveals that it is different in some very
significant ways from any other treatise. It begins conventionally, with amplification of
some of the topics broached in Book I: the antiquity, historical development, biblical
justifications, morality, propriety, and usefulness of dance. The rest of the Book is
divided into two Parts: low or chamber (or ball) dance; and theatrical dance. Low or
chamber dance is in turn divided into five Sections on prosaic and poetic dance, and it is
important to point out that this concept is Taubert’s own invention, without precedent or
parallel in contemporary treatises.12 Prosaic dance consists of standing, walking, bowing,
and costume; and poetic dance is dancing to music. Poetic dance is divided into three
parts: theory, praxis, and notation. Theory deals with bon air and “porte les bras” (as
Taubert often puts it); most importantly, in this section the six universal steps, namely the
pas ordinaire, pas glissé, mouvement (consisting of plié and élevé), demicoupé, coupé,
and pas grave, are introduced. These steps are called universal because they are the
components of the basic steps of the three fundamental dances: the courante, minuet, and
bourrée. It is necessary to explain them here because they will be needed when those
dances, and none other, are taught in the section on praxis. Additional steps are not
introduced until after the section on the menuet ordinaire, when they are needed for
variations in the figured minuet. The notation section is a bilingual edition of Feuillet’s
Chorégraphie of 1701, the second edition with its supplement of tables, plus the Traité de
la Cadance of 1704.13 Book II concludes with a section on theatrical dance.
Right at the beginning of Book II, Taubert gives a definition of dance, derived
from Johann Pasch’s Beschreibung wahrer Tanz-Kunst (1707),14 which is based on the
relationship between theory and practice:
The true art of dancing, in its theory, is a science that applies rational,
philosophical rules of art to rehabilitate the God-given, inborn natural impulse [to
move], an instinct buried in the mortal body after the Fall, to a more than highly
necessary and also more joyous [kind of] movement, that in practice is executed
in a truly natural and rational manner according to mathematical principles, for
one or another useful purpose, such as, in particular, visible ethics, physical
12
Schroedter, Vom “Affekt” zur “Action,” pp. 79–80, 137.
Raoul Auger Feuillet, Chorégraphie ou l’art de décrire la dance (Paris: author, 1701; facs. edn. Bologna:
Forni Editore, 1970); “Traité de la cadance,” in Recüeil de dances contenant un tres grand nombres, des
meillieures entrées de ballet de Mr. Pecour (Paris: author, 1704). Jean-Noël Laurenti, “L’Etude théorique
et pratique des traités de danse allemands,” Society of Dance History Scholars Proceedings: Thirtieth
Annual Conference Co-sponsored with CORD, Centre national de la danse, Paris, France 21-24 June
2007, p. 528, justly refers to this bilingual edition as “une véritable pierre de Rosette.” Taubert’s bilingual
edition adds considerably to the heft of his book, but it is worth considering how the art of dancing might
have developed had he not made this contribution, in view of rival German dance-notation systems prior to
Taubert; see Schroedter, Vom “Affect” zur “Action,” pp. 320–43.
14
Johann Pasch, Beschreibung wahrer Tanz-Kunst (Frankfurt: Wolffgang Michahelles und Johann Adolph,
1707; facs. edn. Leipzig: Zentralantiquariat der DDR, and Munich: Heimaren Verlag, 1978), p. 16.
13
152
fitness, and [theatrical] representation of gestures and actions. (<290–91>; also
<346>)15
This convoluted definition can be summarized in three main ideas. (1) Theory is a
science created by wise men for the purpose of organizing, according to rational
principles, man’s God-given and innate impulse to move. (2) Practice is the physical
realization of these principles, and it is based on mathematics; that is, the arithmetic of
meters and rhythms combined with the geometry of figures. (3) The ultimate goal of
theory and practice is the reclamation of fallen humanity through Sitten-Lehre or ethics,
which corresponds to the word “Ethice” on the title page. Taubert usually modifies
Sitten-Lehre with the word äusserliche, visible or physical, indicating that what he has in
mind is really the visible embodiment of morality and virtue through physical movement;
this intense moral dimension of theory is typical of Taubert and his German dancingmaster contemporaries who also wrote treatises, and it is unrivalled in the dance manuals
of other nationalities.
Appendix 2 is an outline summary of the most important topics covered in the 51
chapters of Book II. No Part is devoted specifically to ethics; however, Chapters I
through VI, and also Section I on prosaic dance, are the sections that deal most
extensively with this theme. Next, we see that sizeable parts of the sections on poetic
dance are devoted to theory and practice. Section II, on theory, is 80 pages long, while
Sections III and IV, on practice, are more than twice as long. The sections on practice are
based on the three fundamental dances, with the lion’s share devoted to the minuet and its
variations. It is not clear whether Taubert considers Section V: Descriptio, his Feuillet
translation, as part of theory or practice. By its position in the book, it would seem to be
an extension or supplement of practice, but on the basis of the dancing master’s
choreographic sketch in the frontispiece, it would appear to be a function of theory.
The topics in the theory section require further elucidation. The six parts of
theory, which Taubert quotes directly from their original source, Pasch, may be
summarized thus (<490–93>):16
Scopos finalis is physical training of the human body to show spiritual discipline,
and to prepare the body for further training in the ways of the nobility.
Materia is the rationalization and regulation of bodily motions for the
rehabilitation of fallen man.
Inventio is the use of musical organization to facilitate learning.
Ordinatio consists of rules for social intercourse between men and women, for
example at assemblies and weddings.
Decoratio refers to the décor and lighting of a ballroom, dress of the dancers, and
musical accompaniment.
Executio is praxis.
All six of these categories prepare the human body for visible ethics. Pasch even refers to
them as the six parts of Sitten-Lehre, and Taubert retains that wording in his quoted text.
There is no contradiction in the fact that praxis or executio is the sixth part of
theory. Sections III and IV are concerned only with actual dances, that is, the three
15
16
See Appendix 3 for the original texts of extended quotations.
Cf. Pasch, Beschreibung wahrer Tanz-Kunst, pp. 18–25.
153
fundamental dances—the courante, minuet, and bourrée. Executio is concerned with
essential elements of dance in general, in other words, with the theory of dance in the
same sense that the theory of music is concerned with melody, harmony, and rhythm. The
chapters on steps, for example, treat not only the six universal steps necessary to produce
the basic steps of the three fundamental dances, but also the five step shapes (pas droit,
pas ouvert, pas rond, pas tortillé, and pas battu), and the eight kinds of step modification
(plié, élevé, sauté, cabriolé, tombé, glissé, tendu or pied en l’air, and tourné) (<500–20>),
and how all of these elements work together through ars combinatoria, or combinatorial
art (<300, 501, 737, 954>).17 Taubert’s organization shows that praxis is a natural
outgrowth of theory. It is also the necessary goal of theory, since only through praxis is
ethics revealed visibly.
3. Taubert’s Description of the Minuet Cadence in Comparison with his
Description of the Various Minuet Steps
Taubert describes four minuet steps; according to his terminology, they are: (1) pas de
menuet un seul mouvement (D-M|M-M); (2) pas de menuet en fleuret (D-D-M-M; or D|B
[often called “one and a fleuret,” though not by Taubert]), which he considers the most
commonly used step; (3) pas de menuet à deux mouvements (D-M|M-D); and (4) pas de
menuet à trois mouvements (D-D|M-D) (<632–37>) (see Table 1).18
Table 1
17
In calling the Chorégraphie an example of ars combinatoria, or combinatorial art <300, 501, 737, 954>,
Taubert may be the only writer on dance to refer to the ars combinatoria concept, which was used later in
eighteenth-century music theory. In the composition of minuets, for example, combinatorial art was used
motivically or in canonic and dice-game minuets. When danced, Taubert’s menuet figuré could conceivably
unite both applications of the ars combinatoria: the choreographic and the musical. A good starting point to
explore the ars combinatoria in the classical style is Leonard G. Ratner, Classic Music: Expression, Form,
and Style (New York: Schirmer Books, 1980), pp. 98–102. On Beethoven’s use of the ars combinatoria in
his dance movements, see: Ratner, p. 101 (on the “Alla danza tedesca” in Op. 130); also Emil Platen,
“’Voila quelque chose aus dem Alten Versatzamt’; zum Scherzo des Klaviertrios B-dur opus 97,”
Beethovens Klaviertrios; Symposion München 1990, ed. Rudolph Bockholdt and Petra Weber-Bockholdt
(Munich: Henle, 1992), pp. 168–84. Bathia Churgin, “Recycling Old Ideas in Beethoven’s String Quartet
Op. 132,” Essays in Honor of László Somfai on His 70th Birthday, ed. László Vikárius and Vera Lampert
(Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2005), pp.249–65 (especially pp. 261–3); and in the expanded version of
this article that is the final chapter of her Transcendent Mastery: Studies in the Music of Beethoven
(Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2008), pp. 285–394 (especially pp. 330–33), shows how Beethoven
combines the ars combinatoria with metrical dislocation to re-cast an early Allemande (WoO 81) and
effectively “make something out of nothing,” in the second-movement trio of Op. 132.
18
D = demicoupé; M = pas marché; B = pas de bourrée; | = barline. The rhythm of the pas de menuet à
trois mouvements is conjectured, based on Taubert’s other comments in this passage. For a concise
summary of the various minuet steps and what a dozen or so dancing masters, including Taubert, had to say
about them, see Judith Cobau, “The Preferred Pas de Menuet,” Dance Research Journal 16/2 (Fall 1984):
13–17.
154
In reading through his comments on all four steps and their proper rhythmic execution,
we gather several criteria that determine Taubert’s evaluation of each step:
•
•
•
•
There must be an equal number of bent and stiff steps (<633, 637>).
“Any half coupé really requires two beats, one for the bend (plié) and the other for
the rise (élevé)” (<634>).19
There must be two steps in each measure (<635>).
Bent and stiff steps should be segregated: bent steps in one measure and stiff steps
in the other (<636>).
Taubert’s preferred step, the pas de menuet à deux mouvements in the rhythm: half note,
quarter note|quarter note, half-note (see Table 1, no. 3), is the only step that satisfies all
the criteria listed above:
I regard this minuet step as the best and most suitable, by virtue of its equal
separation of stiff and bent steps, its accurate rhythmic division of the steps, and
the symmetry of its cadence, in that in the first measure there are two stiff steps,
on the right and left legs, and in the second measure there are two steps with a
bend, on the right and left legs. (<636>)
19
“… von rechtswegen zu einer jedem halben Coupé, als welche aus einem Pas plié und élevé bestehet,
zwey Viertel, als eins zum Niederbiegen, und das andere zum Strecken erfodert wird.”
155
It is also the only step that allows two beats for the two demicoupés without obscuring the
6/4 feeling of the dance measure. For these reasons it is the step used predominantly in
his five choreographic figures (see figs.1 and 2, <657–58>).
Taubert disapproves of the pas de menuet un seul mouvement because it clearly
does not meet two of his four criteria and, as a result, seems “to limp like Mephibosheth”:
It should be observed that in this first sort of minuet step there is a noticeable
inequality between the straight and bent steps. Because the left leg bends only
once, on the last beat of the second measure, there are five beats during which the
legs are stiff and only one—the sixth and last, always on the left—with a bend,
the result being that a minuet dancer who makes a somewhat deep bend will
unavoidably seem to limp like Mephibosheth [see II Samuel 4:4]. (<633>)
The pas de menuet à trois mouvements is similarly unsatisfactory because it has too many
bent steps instead of stiff steps, and favors the right side with more bends than the left
(<637>).
Taubert’s term for the pas de menuet en fleuret, his second step, is confusing
because it subsumes several rhythmic solutions, one of which corresponds to the step
known in many other sources as “one and a fleuret,” while the other versions might be
considered variants of the minuet step with deux mouvements. Taubert is “not altogether
happy” with this step in any form, even if it is the most common, because “… the two
[demi]coupés cannot be made to fit comfortably within the first three beats.”20 If two
beats are given to the first demicoupé and one to the second, the step “looks too jumpy”
(“kömmt…allzu hümplerisch heraus” [<634>]) because there is both a bend and a rise on
the same beat. If one beat is given to the first demicoupé and two to the second, the sense
of the cadence is weakened “because rising and holding on the first step for two full beats
not only ensures that the cadence of the basic step is clearer, since it falls on the
beginning of the measure, but also the momentary pause in the air at the beginning of
every step imparts a certain grace to the dancer and a special air to the cadence.”21 In the
version otherwise known as “one and a fleuret,” with three beats given to the first
demicoupé and one to the second, “a proper balance between the total number of steps in
20
“Allein! es will mir dieser Pas gleichfalls nicht allerdings wolgefallen; bevoraus, weil sich die beyden
Coupés nicht gar füglich in den ersten Drey-Viertheil-Noten absolviren lassen” (<634>). This sentence
gives the impression that Taubert is counting the step beginning on the downbeat with a rise and change of
weight, and indeed, this is the way he explains how to count steps. When he explains how to dance steps in
the correct rhythm, however, he begins the step in the conventional way, on the upbeat with a bend. Here,
even if his counting seems anomalous, his general meaning is clear: he does not like two demicoupés in one
3/4 measure.
21
“Sintemal dieses, wenn man auf dem ersten Schritt zwey Viertel-Noten hebet und hält, nicht allein die
Cadence unter denen Haupt-Pas viel deutlicher machet, weil nemlich der Tact zwey Viertel im
Niederschlagen hat; sondern es wächset auch dißfalls dem Täntzer eine nicht geringe Grace zu, wenn er
sich nemlich iederzeit beym Anfange des Haupt-Pas eine Weile in der Höhe halten, und mit der Cadence
eine besondere Air geben kann…” (<634–35>).
156
each measure is not maintained,”22 and the step “looks affected in the highest degree
when used too many times in succession.”23
Taubert’s definitions of cadence are found in his sections on prosaic dance and
theory, not practice. Therefore, we might expect that his ideas about cadence in general
may not correspond with the details of a particular dance. Nevertheless the incongruity
between the minuet cadence and the rhythms of the four minuet steps described by
Taubert is surprising. Taubert’s definition of cadence can be synthesized from two
passages. The first is found in the chapter on bowing in the section on prosaic dance: “By
cadence is meant the duration of time in which is contained the compound step and
normal basic or fundamental step of each dance, as for example a six-four measure in the
courante, … two three-four measures in the minuet, and a common or simple measure in
the bourrée” (<474>).24 The second passage is a subtitle from his discussion, under
theory, of executio: “On cadence, or how to divide the step both poetically and
rhythmically according to the meter” (<523>).25 Cadence, then, is two things: the metric
length, and the characteristic rhythmic profile, of the fundamental step.26
Having seen how Taubert extols the virtues of evenness and symmetry in the pas
de menuet à deux mouvements, and, by the same criteria, rejects the pas de menuet un
seul mouvement and à trois mouvements, we come to his discussion of the minuet
cadence and find it problematic on this very point. Taubert is very clear about the
rhythmic division of the two three-four measures in the minuet cadence. There can be no
doubt that he means what he says here, for in his typical, exhaustively thorough manner
of presenting important ideas, he says the same thing four times, in slightly different
ways, in the following two conjoined passages:
The regular minuet step consists of four individual steps in two three-four
measures, that is, in one dance measure or two measures of music, and in this case
[one might say] there is no correct cadence and way to divide the steps according
to the meter such that the four component ordinary steps always end precisely
together with the two three-four measures: such is the supposition of many dance
teachers, which only reveals that they clearly have no understanding of how
22
“Allermassen zwar dadurch die Eintheilung des Tacts auf die Coupés, aber nicht auf die sämtlichen Pas
simples gebührender massen ihre Richtigkeit erhält” (<635>).
23
“…wenn er allzu offt nach einander gemacht wird, im höchsten Grad affectiret lässet” (<635>). On
<618>, Taubert includes all minuet steps consisting of two demicoupés followed by two pas marchés
under the term pas de menuet en fleuret. On <635>, however, he singles out this third rhythmic variation as
the true fleuret step, probably because the entire pas de bourrée is contained within one 3/4 measure.
24
“Durch die Cadence wird allhier ein solches Tempo und Maaß der Währe oder Daurung der Zeit
verstanden, in welchem eines ieglichen Tantzes sein in sich enthaltenes Pas compose und ordentliches
Haupt- oder Fundamental-Pas absolviret wird, als: bey der Courante ein sechs Viertheils Tact, … bey der
Menuet zwey Drey-Viertheils Tacte, und bey der Bourrée ein gemeiner oder schlechter Tact.”
25
“Von der Cadence, oder wie die Pas gleichsam poëticè und metricè nach dem Tact einzutheilen.”
26
In the sections on practice, cadence often takes on a simpler meaning of “downbeat” (e.g. <589>, on the
courante): “Thus the bend comes on the upbeat and the rise on the cadence [or downbeat], a universal rule
that applies also to other dances, namely, that the bend always comes before the measure and the rise
comes exactly on the downbeat at the beginning of the new measure” (“Geshiehet also das Beugen im
Auftact, und das Heben in der Cadence, als welche Regel so universal ist, daß sie auch in allen andern
Täntzen observiret werden muß, nemlich, daß die Beugung allemal vor dem Tact hergehet, und die Hebung
justement mit dem neuen Tact und Niederschlage geschiehet”).
157
symmetry and time are fundamentally related to cadence, and therefore cannot
demonstrate the theory to a student. No! rather you must always give two beats to
the first step on the downbeat, only one beat to the second step on the upbeat, two
beats again to the third step, and only one beat to the fourth step, which otherwise
represents and is known as an accurate cadence and division of steps according to
the meter […]. (<527–28>)
Yet a symmetrical cadence and correct division of steps according to the beat will
not result merely from precisely ending each step at the same time that a twomeasure group ends, as many dancers vainly think; no, every step must have its
own particular rhythmic division within two 3/4 measures, such that in the first
measure there are always two beats on the first step and only one on the second,
and in the second measure again two beats on the third step and only one on the
fourth.
Thus one always gives twice as much time to the first and third steps,
which are both on the right foot, as to the second and fourth steps, which are on
the left: the first pair of steps, right then left, comprises the first 3/4 measure, and
the second pair, right then left, begins and ends in the second 3/4 measure, both of
which measures of music together produce a two-measure cadence very easy on
the ears. For, even though one minuet melody might fit the steps more clearly
than another, nevertheless one hears each pair of two measures as a self-contained
unit [T: intercision und Abschnitt], just like a rhymed couplet [T: Gesetzlein], and
with the next pair of 3/4 measures a new couplet begins. For this reason they stay
together as pairs and must never be broken.
And this is the very advantage, proved by daily experience, thanks to
which you can teach the cadence as easily to a beginner—even a child—as to the
finest musician. Namely: accustom yourself to begin the four steps in a minuet
step only right at the beginning [of each cadence], and every time you take the
first step, which is always with the right leg, count: “One.” The second time,
which is always with the left leg: “Two.” The third time: “Three.” And the fourth
time: “Four.” Persistently make the child remember in this way that the right leg,
on the first and third steps, receives exactly twice as much time as the left leg on
the second and fourth steps; when he is ready to dance with the music, first count
off the “one, two, three, four” of the symmetrical cadence, taking him by the
hand, and accentuating the cadence by playing on the violin or singing certain
parts of the tune more loudly and clearly, even though this takes more time than
other [methods]. (<630–31>)
Taubert’s step sequence for the minuet cadence can be only a theoretical concept; if
realized in movement it might resemble a dance, but not in the way that that dance should
be performed artistically. It is apparent that Taubert is describing a counting technique for
teaching students how to feel the minuet cadence kinesthetically. One can see its
usefulness in emphasizing the metrical underpinnings of the minuet cadence, consisting
of two 3/4 measures, or one 6/4 measure, and the association of the right foot with the
beginning of the cadence. However, it is also obvious that this step sequence is
158
unbalanced and asymmetrical, and in practice would resemble the step-patterns (again,
minus the mouvements) of the minuet steps with one and three movements, and share
their same problems of unevenness and lopsidedness as described above. Moreover, it
fails to distinguish between the true beginning of the cadence (which Taubert sometimes
calls the entre-cadence) and its second half (or contre-cadence), despite his vivid
characterization of their relationship as a “rhymed couplet.”
A key refinement that Taubert adds to his definition of cadence sheds light on
how the minuet cadence differs from the rhythm of its steps: “In a word: cadence in the
true art of dancing, like prosody in works of poetry, means the measurement of sound”
(<524>, on theory: executio).27 To pursue Taubert’s analogy between cadence and
prosody a bit further, a dance phrase might be likened to a line of poetry in a particular
meter, such as iambic pentameter. Prosody tells us that in each line there should be a
fixed number and pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. In real poetry, however, the
number of syllables, and the distribution of accents, is handled more flexibly and
creatively. So too in a real minuet, the rhythms of the dance step and the music will not
necessarily be identical from one measure to another. Taubert’s idea of cadence, in other
words, allows for a uniform theoretical interpretation as well as a more flexible
interpretation in practice.
Much later in the eighteenth century, Bacquoy-Guédon grappled with the same
problem of teaching how to count the minuet cadence while maintaining the distinction
between the cadence and contre-cadence. The solutions he came up with are more logical
than Taubert’s. Instead of having the student get up and move around the room in
rhythm, as if dancing, he proposed a series of hand and foot exercises in place. For
example, the first measure (“la bonne mesure”) is marked by the hands striking the knees
while raising the heels; the second measure (“la fausse mesure”) is marked by letting the
hands hang at the sides and lowering the heels. Bacquoy-Guédon also specifies that the
striking of hands against knees, and heels against the floor, should last two beats and be
released on the third.28
4. Lection
If theory and practice are split in Taubert’s treatment of the minuet cadence and steps,
they are reunited in a word that he uses frequently and in both contexts. One advantage in
translating all of Taubert is that occasionally, maybe hundreds of pages later, I am lucky
enough to find a usage of a problem word that helps me deduce its meaning. The word
Lection, however, can’t be narrowed down. It is used so frequently and in so many
different contexts, that it conveys many possible meanings, some of them theoretical and
others practical.
27
“Mit einem Wort: Es bedeutet die Cadantz bey der wahren Tantz-Kunst, gleich wie de Prosodia in dem
Poëtischen Wercken, die Thon-Messung.”
28
[A.] Bacquoy-Guédon, Méthode pour exercer l’oreille à la mesure, dans l’art de la danse (Amsterdam:
chez Valade, ca. 1784; facs. edn. Geneva: Minkoff, 1972), pp. 14–19, esp. pp. 15–16 (no. 3 and fn. 9).
159
Lection comes from the Latin lectio, a reading, and by extension a lecture. The
singular Lection with an “n” at the end is the simplest form in which Taubert uses the
term. He also uses several plural forms: Lectiones in the nominative or accusative;
Lectionen, usually genitive; and Lectionibus in the ablative. His simplest and most
frequent use of the term is in the realm of practice, though even here there is rich
ambiguity in that it can refer to a simple step; a part of a step; a combination of steps,
compound step, step-sequence, or pattern; a step modification; or a technical exercise.
The original texts of my translations are provided in Appendix 4.
simple step (context: Theoria—executio)
[1] …so too will a compleat dancing master consider first of all how he should
present information to his student in an orderly sequence, one bit at a time, that is,
from the smallest and most rudimentary step [T: Lection] and motion to the
biggest and most imposing, so that subsequently he will be able to dance by
connecting such details confidently and coherently. (<500–501>)
part of a step (context: Theoria—executio)
[2] Indeed! it makes a big difference in steps, whether the plié, élevé, or other
small step comes at the beginning, during, or at the end of a step. Therefore
[steps] are always named in different ways depending on the disposition and
identity of their parts [T: Lectionen], for example: demicoupé en avant et
emboëtté; demicoupé avec un rond de jambe par devant, avec un tour de jambe à
côté;…. (<502>)
combination of steps, compound step, step-sequence, pattern (context: Praxis—
minuet variations)
[3] You can also pair this fleuret with a pas de sissonne on the left leg. And these
combinations [T: Lectiones], just like those above, can be done two or three times
in a row without disrupting your partner’s figure or steps in the least. (<685–86>)
[4] Others precede the pirouette with yet a different combination [T: Lection] as
long as a minuet step. For example: a forward contretemps with the right, and a
backward [demi]coupé battu with the left. (<701>)
modification (context: Praxis—minuet variations)
[5] … so too can one take the five universal steps in dancing, namely: (1) straight;
(2) open; (3) circular; (4) waving; and (5) beaten (which are analogous to the five
primary colors in painting and the five vowels in writing, which make literature
possible by their placement next to consonants), and, by combining them with
other modifications [T: Lectionen] such as bending, rising, leaping, gliding,
turning, etc., can create thousands of different steps—every kind of simple step,
indeed, that mortal shanks can make. (<670–71>)
160
technical exercise (context: Theoria—executio)
[6] And I am certain that other than this mouvement I know of no exercise [T:
Lection] that so well prepares a beginner for dancing, and trains his feet to be
more neat and adroit;…. (<512>)
But Taubert also uses the same word in a more nuanced way, to refer to various
things or ideas that are clearly not steps and that therefore have less to do with practice
than with pedagogy and something at once more vague and rudimentary, that perhaps is
best understood as coming from the realm of theory. In the first example, Lection refers
to essentials or first principles.
essentials (context: Theoria—executio)
[7] So too must a compleat dance instructor not rush his beginner immediately
into all the basic steps and figures of a specific dance, thereby neglecting the
relevant rudiments and leading the student only into confusion; rather must he,
before everything else, establish [the student’s] basic knowledge of the smallest
and most rudimentary essentials. [T: Lectionen] (<493>)
In the next two examples, Taubert uses the term with two different meanings in close
proximity. In quote [8] it refers first to a dance lesson or unit of dance pedagogy, and
second to a reading or interpretation of Feuillet’s Chorégraphie.
lesson, and reading (context: Taubert’s introduction to Descriptio)
[8] … and having made special reference in every lesson [T: Lectionibus] to the
aforementioned French Chorégraphie, we now introduce this incomparable work
itself here, that is, the French Chorégraphie in our German mother-tongue, so that
the curious amateur may look up the passages referred to and thus see not only
how closely our readings [T: Lectiones] from this compleat dancing master are
thoroughly based on the genuine French foundations, but also how this work
might be of truly advantageous use to him. (<737>)
In the next example, the word is again used twice, first to refer to studies or a course of
studies, and second to lessons.
studies or course of study, and lesson (context: Book III—the responsibilities of
students)
[9] Once a student has meditated on the ultimate goal of dance instruction,
investigated his natural aptitude, and also chosen for himself a good master, as
[outlined] in the preceding chapter, and embarks on his studies [T: Lectiones], if
in his instruction he wants to distinguish himself from his fellow-students, he
must above all let himself be guided by the following two basic principles:
1. receptivity; and
161
2. practice.
That is, learn and practice your lessons [T: Lection] intelligently.29 (<1061–62>)
In the most abstract example in this more theoretical vein, Lection refers to the idea of
language itself as a communicative medium through which things are taught and learned.
Here, the Latin phrase in which Taubert incorporates lectiones confirms what might
otherwise seem a too-figurative translation.
[communicative] language (context: Book II, chap. VI—on teaching the terminology of
French dance)
[10] It behooves him always to explain to them thoroughly the common
vocabulary or communicative language [T: vocabula communia s[ive] lectiones
communicativas], that is, the terms used and recognized, not only by the French
Chorégraphie, but also by compleat masters everywhere when teaching….30
(<372>)
So far the usages of Lection have involved language as a bearer of information,
information that can be conveyed orally, by physical demonstration, or in writing. A final
category of usages involves the printed word or sign as a tangible artifact: Lection as
graphé (γραφη) instead of logos (λογος). Taubert’s usages in this category bestride the
gamut from glyph to tome.
glyph (context: Vorrede—summary of contents of Book II)
[11] In addition, each [verbal description of a] dance will conclude with the
helpful provision of the authentic French choreography of that dance in special
symbols, followed soon thereafter by the master key and complete description of
this art that has up to now remained a secret, explained from one sign [T: Lection]
or character engraved in copper to another and also translated word for word into
German from the French of the excellent work published by M. Feuillet in Paris.
(<F10>)
lesson book (context: Book III—the responsibilities of the compleat dancing master)
29
It is interesting to note that “lesson” (<1061ff. and 1065>) is the only usage of Lection referenced in
Taubert’s index.
30
In the continuation of this sentence (<372–3>), Taubert uses Lectionen again, but in the simpler sense of
“lesson,” as in quotes [8] and [9]. The notion of Lection as a written dance language finds a modern echo in
the writing of Mark Franko, Dance as Text: Ideologies of the Baroque Body (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1993), p. 26: “One can say, without being overly metaphoric, that one of choreography’s
goals was to inscribe dance in theatrical space. The textuality of dance was not limited to figural
inscription: textuality encompassed the motion with which an act of inscription is accomplished.” In other
words, dance notation is writing for the body. When dancing, the body reads, so to speak, notation through
space and time.
162
[12] I also recall someone else who was introduced into a rather large and
distinguished gathering, but who greeted the company ranged on both sides with
such irregular compliments and bows, that one perceived that there was no
chapter in his dancing master’s lesson book [T: Lection] devoted to this topic.31
(<1031>)
The most telling usage comes in Taubert’s Foreword, where he refers to his own
thousand-page opus as a Lection. This usage encompasses theory and practice and
everything else in Taubert’s encyclopedic conception of dance.
the Rechtschaffener Tantzmeister (context: Vorrede)
[13] So in allowing this Compleat Dancing Master to make his public entrance on
the world’s vast stage, I have provided anyone, whether a man or a woman, a
dance-lover or dance-hater, a dancing master or student, a practitioner or spectator
of dance, with an unbiased and authoritative book [T: Lection] that truthfully and
comprehensively [T: rechtschaffen] treats virtually every point related to dancing.
(<F6>)
The title of this paper comes from the idea of reading one word—Lection, which means,
basically, “reading”—in a number of ways. But it also refers to how we can read one
text—Taubert’s Rechtschaffener Tantzmeister—in a number of ways to gain different
insights on what theory and practice meant to him. Finally, we see that this one text, by
its author’s own word, is a meta-Lection, a reading of readings, on the universe of dance.
31
Taubert presents this sentence as part of an extended quote from two passages in John Locke, Some
Thoughts Concerning Education (London, 1693), ed. John W. and Jean S. Yolton (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1989), pp. 124–25 and 252. It is not to be found, however, in the original text, and may come from a
later commentary or, unwittingly, Taubert himself.
163
Appendix 1: Illustrations
Figure 1. Taubert, title page. Photo: after Gottfried Taubert, Rechtschaffener Tantzmeister (Leipzig:
Friedrich Lanckischens Erben, 1717; facs. edn. Munich: Heimeran Verlag, 2 vols., 1976).
164
Figure 2. Taubert, frontispiece. Photo: after Gottfried Taubert, Rechtschaffener Tantzmeister (Leipzig:
Friedrich Lanckischens Erben, 1717; facs. edn. Munich: Heimeran Verlag, 2 vols., 1976).
165
Figure 3. Bonin, frontispiece. Photo: after Louis Bonin,
Die Neueste Art zur Galanten und Theatralischen Tantz-Kunst
(Frankfurt and Leipzig: Joh. Christoff Lochner, 1712; repr. edn. Berlin: Edition Hentrich, 1996).
166
Figure 4a. Lambranzi, “Menuet.”
Figure 4b. Lambranzi, “Menuet.”
Photos: Figure 4a after Gregorio Lambranzi, New and Curious School of Theatrical Dancing by Gregorio
Lambranzi, ed. F. Derra de Moroda (New York: Dance Horizons, 1972), fol. 43v. Figure 4b after Gregorio
Lambranzi, Neue und curieuse theatralische Tantz-Schul (Nuremberg: Johann Jacob Wolrab, 1716; facs.
edn. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2002), Part II, no. 51.
167
Figure 5. Taubert, frontispiece. Detail of dancing master as theorist.
Photo: Author.
Figure 6. Taubert, frontispiece. Detail
of open folio, rotated 90°.
Photo: Author.
168
Figure 7a. Taubert, menuet ordinaire, fig. 5.
Photo: (see Figure 1)
Figure 7b. Taubert, menuet ordinaire, fig. 5,
showing last three steps only.
Photo: Author.
169
Appendix 2: Organization of Book II
Chapters I–VI (<289–378>)
Part 1. Low or chamber dance
A. Prosaic
[Introduction and Section I (<378–488>)]
1. standing
2. walking
3. bowing
4. dress
B. Poetic
1. Theoria
[Section II (<488–568>)]
a. scopos finalis
b. materia
c. inventio
d. ordinatio
e. decoratio
f. executio=praxis=parties de quantité
i. aptitude
ii. making steps (including the six universal steps)
iii. connecting steps
iv. cadence
v. figure
vi. air (including porte les bras)
2. Praxis
[Section III (<568–661>)]
a. courante
b. minuet
c. minuet variations
[Section IV (<663–735>)]
d. bourrée
3. Descriptio: translation of Feuillet’s Chorégraphie (1701)
and “Traité de la cadance” (1704)
[Section V (<736–915>)]
Part 2. High or theatrical dance (<917–72>)
170
Appendix 3: Longer German Texts
<290–91>
Es ist demnach die wahre Tantz-Kunst in Theoria eine Wissenschafft, welche
dem von Gott anerschaffenen natürlichen Triebe, oder der nach dem Fall in dem
menschlichen Cörper verborgenen Disposition zu mehr als höchst-nöthiger oder auch
freudiger Bewegung mit vernünfftigen Philosophischen Kunst-Regeln zu Hülffe kömmt,
damit solche Bewegung in Praxi durch die Mathematischen Grund-Sätze, und also recht
natürlich und vernünfftig verrichtet, und zu einem und andern nützlichen Gebrauch, als in
specie zu der ausserlichen Sitten-Lehre, Geschicklickeit des Leibes, und Rapraesentation
derer Gestuum und Actionum &c. angewendet werden könne.
<527–28>
Das ordentliche Pas de Menuet bestehet aus vier einzelnen Schritten und zwey
Drey-Viertel-Tacten, das ist, aus einem Tantz- oder zwei Spiel-Tacten, und ist dißfalls
noch lange keine rechte Cadence und richtige Eintheilung derer Schritte nach dem Tact
vorhanden, ob man gleich iederzeit praecisè, wenn die zwey Dreyviertel-Tacte
schliessen, auch zugleich mit denen darinnen verfaßten ordinairen vier Schritten fertig
ist; wie sich wol viel Tantz-Informatores einbilden, woraus aber deutlich genung erhellet,
daß sie die Cadence selber nicht fundamentaliter in Symmetria und à tempo verstehen,
und sie consequenter keinem Scholair theoreticè zeigen können; Nein! man muß
vielmehr iedes mal auf dem ersten Schritte beym Niederschlage zwey, und auf dem
andern beym Aufhube nur ein Viertel, auf dem dritten Schritt wieder zwey, und auf dem
vierdten nur ein viertel vom Tacte zu bringen, wofern es anders eine accurate Cadence
und Eintheilung der Schritte nach dem Tacte seyn und heissen soll.
<630–31>
Doch ist bey weiten noch keine symmetrische Cadence und richtige Eintheilung
derer Schritte nach dem Tact verhanden, ob man gleich iederzeit praecise, wenn die zwey
Drey-Viertel Noten schliessen, auch zugleich mit dem darzu verordneten Haupt-Pas
fertig ist, wie sich wol viele bey ihrem Tantzen vergeblich einbilden; Nein, es muß
vielmehr ein ieder Schritt seine gewisse Mensur und Abtheilung von den zwey DreyViertel-Tacten haben, und zwar so, daß man iederzeit über dem ersten Schritt zwey, und
über dem andern nur ein Viertel (das ist der erste Drey-Viertel-Tact) über dem dritten
wieder zwey, und über dem vierdten nur ein Viertel vom Tacte zubringet (das ist der
andere Drey-Viertel-Tact).
Hat man also iederzeit über dem ersten und dritten Schritt, als welche beyderseits
mit dem rechten Bein verrichtet werden, justement noch einmal so lange Zeit, als über
dem andern und vierdten, welche mit dem lincken geschehen, zuzubringen: Und werden
die ersten beyden Schritte, davon der eine mit dem rechten, und der andere mit dem
lincken Bein geschiehet, just mit dem ersten Drey-Viertel Noten; und die andern beyde,
davon der erste abermal mit dem rechten, und der andere mit dem lincken Bein verrichtet
wird, mit dem andern Drey-Viertel-Noten angefangen und vollendet, als welche
zusammengehörende zwey Spiel-Tacte eine Cadence ausmachen, und gar leicht am
Klange gehöret werden können. Denn, ob wol immer eine Menuet-Melodie deutlicher, als
die andere, zum Schritten gesetzet ist; so höret man doch fast jedes mal bey dem Ende
171
derer zusammengehörenden zwey Drey-Viertel-Noten eine Intercision und Abschnitt,
gleich als ob sich daselbst ein Gesetzlein endigte, und bey den folgenden zwey DreyViertheil-Noten ein neues anfinge. Derowegen sie auch allezeit beysammen bleiben und
niemals getrennet werden dürffen.
Und eben dieses ist derjenige Vortheil und Avantage, dadurch man einem
Incipienten die Cadence mit gar leichter Mühe, ja einem Kinde, wie die tägliche
Erfahrung bezeuget, eben so leicht, als dem besten Musico, beybringen kan. Nemlich:
wenn man dasselbige nur stracks am Anfange zu der Zahl der vier Schritte im Menuet
Pas gewöhnet, und jederzeit, wenn es zum ersten mal fortschreitet, welches allezeit mit
dem rechten Bein geschiehet, zehlen lässet: Eins. Zum andern mal, welches mit dem
lincken Bein geschiehet: Zwey. Zum dritten mal: Drey. Und zum vierdten mal: Vier. Und
darneben fleißig erinnert daß das Kind allemal auf dem rechten Bein, als bey dem ersten
und dritten Schritt justement noch einmal so lange, als bey dem andern und vierdten auf
dem lincken halten und zubringen müsse; Bevoraus, wenn man ihm beym fertigern
Tantzen under der Music das Eins, Zwey, Drey, Vier selber nach der symmetrischen
Cadence vor zehlet, dabey selber Hand anleget, wie auch unter dem Geigen oder Singen
an den besagten Orten der Melodie, allwo es vor andern etwas länger halten muß, durch
ein schärfferes Gethöne mit der Stimme oder Violine, gleichsam als durch einen Accent,
die Cadence exprimiret.
<633>
Hernach wird auch bey dieser ersten Sorte derer Menuet-Pas eine grosse
Ungleichheit derer steiffen und gebogenen Schritte remarquiret. Denn, weil man dabey
nur ein eintziges mal, als beym letzten Viertel von den zusammengehörenden zwey DreyViertel-Tacten, auf dem lincken Bein beuget; so werden ja iederzeit fünff Viertel steiff,
und nur ein einiges, als das sechste und letztere, und zwar allemal auf dem lincken Bein
gebogen tantzet, welches gewißlich einem solchen Menuet-Täntzer, zumal, wenn er
etwas tieff coupiret, nicht anders lässet, als wenn er den hinckenden Mephiboseth
repraesentiren wolte.
<636>
Ich halte, wie gesaget, diesen Menuet-Schritt, so wol wegen der gleichen Abtheilung
derer steiffen und gebogenen Pas simples, als auch wegen der accuraten Eintheilung
derselben nach dem Tact und der symmetrischen Cadence unter allen IV. Sorten für das
beste und bequemste; Sintemal dabey allemal beym ersten Drey-Vierteil-Tact zwey
steiffe Schritte, als mit dem rechten und lincken, und beym andern Drey-Vierteil-Tact
zwey gebogene, mit dem rechten und lincken, vorkommen.
172
Appendix 4: Lection Texts
[1] Also wird auch ein rechtschaffener Tantzmeister principaliter dahin bedacht seyn,
wie er bey der Information wolle seinen Scholair alles und jedes singulatim, Stück vor
Stück, das ist, von der allerersten und kleinsten Lection und Motion an, biß zu der
allergrösten und stärcksten ordentlich beybringen…. (<500–501>)
[2] Ja! es giebet eine grosse Difference unter den Schritten, nachdem das Plié, Elevé, oder
ander petit Pas entweder bey dem Anfange, oder fort-Marche, oder am Ende eines
Schrittes formiret wird. Daher sie auch allemal nach der Beschaffenheit und Unterscheid
der Lectionen, und also auf unterschiedliche Art und Weise benahmet werden, als DemyCoupé en avant & emboëtte, Demy-coupé avec un rond de Jambe par devant, avec un
tour de Jambe a côte, …. (<502>)
[3] Man kan auch diesen Fleuret mit einem Pas de Sissonne mit dem lincken Bein
accompagniren. Und können diese Lectiones, gleichwie die vorhergehenden, zwey biß
dreimal hinter einander gemacht werden, ohne daß die mittantzende Person dißfalls das
allergeringste in ihrer Figur oder Schritten gehindert wird. (<685–86>)
[4] Andere machen auch vor der Pirouëtte noch eine andere Lection, so ein gantzes Pas
de Menuet lang dauret. Als zum Exempel: Sie machen den Contretems mit dem rechten
vorwarts, und die Coupé battu mit dem lincken rückwarts:… (<701>)
[5] Also kan man auch im Tantzen aus denen V. Universal-Pas, als:
1. Pas droit, 2. Pas ouvert/ 3. Pas rond,
4. Pas tortille, und 5. Pas battu,
…durch die Accompagnirung anderer Lectionen, als: Beugen, Heben, Springen, Streiffen,
Drehen, u.s.w. viel Tausend andere differente Pas componiren, ja es kan bey nahe kein
einiger Pas simple mit menschlichen Schenkeln gemachet werden, der nicht darein fallen
solte. (<670–71>)
[6] Und gewiß, ich weiß ausser diesem Mouvement keine Lection, dadurch sich ein
Incipient besser zum Tantzen praepariren, und seine Füsse netter und adroiter gewöhnen
könte;… . (<512>)
[7] Also muss auch ein rechtschaffener Tantz-Informator mit seinen Incipienten nicht
alsobald die gantzen Haupt-Pas u. Figuren von einem gewissen Tantz vornehmen, als
wodurch das gehörige Fundament versäumet, und der Scholair nur confus angeführet
wird; sondern er muß ihn vor allen Dingen in dem gründlichen Erkäntniß der allerersten
und kleinsten Lectionen feste setzen. (<493>)
[8] …und uns bey allen Lectionibus besonders auf die besagte Frantzösische
Chorégraphie bezogen haben; Als wollen wir nunmehr allhier das unvergleichliche
Werck selber, die Frantzösische Chorégraphie meyne ich, in unserer Teutschen MutterSprache beyfügen, damit der curieuse Liebhaber die allegirten Loca gleich nachschlagen,
und also nicht allein sehen könne, wie sich unsere Lectiones in diesem rechtschaffenen
Tantz-Meister durch und durch auf die wahrhafftigen Frantzösischen Fundamenta
stützen, sondern sich auch derselben auf eine recht avantageuse Weise möge bedienen
lernen. (<737>)
[9] Wenn demnach der Scholair in dem vorigen Capitel den Scopum finalem zum
Tantzen-lernen erwogen, sien Naturell untersuchet, und sich auch einen guten Maître
erkieset hat, und nunmehro seine Lectiones antritt; so muß er sich bey der Information,
173
wenn er sich anders wol vorstehen will, hauptsächlich diese zwey nachfolgende HauptRegeln recommandiret seyn lassen, als:
1. Accipe, und
2. Exerce.
Das ist: Nimm weißlich Lection, und übe die genommene weißlich aus. (<1061–62>)
[10] Dieses zwar will ihm allerdings gebühren, daß er ihnen die vocabula communia
s[ive] lectiones communicativas, das ist, diejenigen Terminos, welche nicht allein in der
Frantzösischen Chorégraphie; sondern auch überall von den rechtschaffen Maîtren bey
der Information gebraucht werden und bekannt seyn…. (<372>)
[11] Noch weiter wird er allemal bey dem Beschluss eines ieglichen Tantzes denselben
mit feinen nach der veritablen Frantzösischen Chorégraphie eingerichteten Characteren:
wie auch alsobald darauf den Haupt-Schlüssel und die ausführliche Beschreibung zu
dieser biß dato secreten Kunst, und zwar so, wie sie zu Paris in einem vertrefflichen
Wercke von Monsieur Feüillet publiciret worden, von Lection oder Character zu
Character durch Kupffer erkläret, wie auch von Wort zu Wort aus dem Frantzösischen in
das Teutsche übersetzet, sincerement offeriren. (<F10>)
[12] So besinne ich mich auch eines andern, der in eine ziemlich grosse und vornehme
Compagnie von ungefahr introduciret wurde, der aber die auf beyden Seiten rangirte
Compagnie mit so unordentlichen Complimenten und Vorbeugungen grüssete, daß man
wohl sahe, daß in seines Tantzmeisters Lection kein Capitel von dieser Sache zu finden
wäre. (<1031>)
[13] Als habe ich diesen Rechtschaffenen Tantzmeister lassen auf dem grossen SchauPlatze dieser Welt öffentlich auftreten, und einem ieglichen, er sey gleich männlichen
oder weiblichen Geschlechts, Tantz-liebender oder Tantz-Hasser, Tantzmeister oder
Scholair, Täntzer oder Zuschauer, eine unpartheyische und wolgegründete Lection, ja fast
von einem ieglichen Punct, so nur von dem Tantzen mag gehandelt werden, rechtschaffen
zu geben. (<F6>)
174

Theory and Practice in Taubert: Four Readings

Transcription

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