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 The ancient Greeks can be said to have CREATED the 'logical approach' to the dance whereby classifying all its elements and organizing all its parts into one unified system which is still used today. In Greece the choral dance in honor of Dionysus played a part in the development of the drama and in religious worship as well as other god's and goddesses. These very early dances more often than not used a poetic meter rather than a musical meter for the rhythm.
Choral Dances are generally done in a double file formation, which are done in all parts of the world, were the particular motif of religious strife does not enter. Choral's of this kind were widespread among the primitive peoples of certain cultural levels around the 1400's, and are also frequent in Arabian countries today. They can even be found in Moorish Spain.
Chorus: |
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In music, large group of singers performing in concert; a group singing liturgical music is a choir. The term chorus may also be used for a group singing or dancing together in a musical or in ballet. By extension it can also mean the refrain of a song. Choral music stems from religious and folk music, both usually having interspersed singing.
French opera's:
Opera's began way back in the 12th Century. However the French didn't officially begin until 1669 with the establishment of the Académie royale de Musique, which was taken over in 1672 by dancer and composer Jean Baptiste Lully (Giovanni Baptista Lully - 1632-1687) after the bankruptcy of its founders, King Louis XIV (1638-1715). Italian opera, the pastoral, French classical tragedy, and the ballet de cour (a ballet) were the antecedents of French opera. Lully introduced his audience to grand-scale entertainment: lavish stage settings and scenery in addition to Ballets, choruses, and long disquisition's on love and glory. His operas were divided into five acts and a prologue. The operas of the French composer Jean Fillip Ramie (1683-1764) repeated on this tradition established by Lully, but were not very well received.
Suite:
in music, an instrumental form derived from dance and consisting of a series of movements usually in the same key but contrasting in rhythm and mood. The principle of the suite can be seen in the playing together of two dances in contrasting meters, e.g., Paean and Mallard or passamezzo-Saltarello in the 16th century. In France and Italy there developed sophisticated techniques for linking dances together, which were adopted by German musicians in the early 17th century. As the connection with actual dancing disappeared, the baroque suite evolved. In Germany the suites of Johann Jakob Froberger established the basic group of movements as Allemande, Courante, and Sarabande, with a Gigue often being played. The late baroque suite or overtures, e.g., the partitas of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750,) frequently had an introductory movement and one or more dances such as the
Minuet, Bourrée, Gavotte, Passepied, etc. |
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