Two renaissance dances (Erasmus Widmann, 1613)

[Martin Jonas]

Erasmus Widmann (1572-1634): Musicalischer Tugendtspiegel
Neue Däntz und Galliarden mit vier Stimmen, 1613
(5) Christina - 0:00
(6) Sybylla - 0:45

These are two renaissance (or early baroque) dances from a collection of 20 dance tunes for four voices (SATB) published in 1613 by the Southern German composer Erasmus Widmann, then Master of Music at the court of the Count of Hohenlohe-Langenburg at the Palace of Weikersheim (shown in my photo slide show). Each dance is given a woman's name -- these are "Christina" and "Sybylla".

The collection is also at IMSLP, but I prefer the edition by Victor Freyer at:

http://www.victorfreyer.com/Widmann.pdf

Played as a quartet of mandolin, 2 tenor guitars and mandocello -- together they sound much like a harpsichord!

Soprano: 1915 Embergher mandolin
Alto: Vintage Viaten tenor guitar
Tenor: Vintage Viaten tenor guitar
Bass: Suzuki MC-815 mandocello



Martin

[Gelsenbury]

I love those dances and regularly play two others from the same collection too. Thanks for posting!

[kypfer]

Nicely played, and thank you for the pdf link, there's some nice tunes there

[Joseph Baker]

I appreciate Martin posting the pdf file with this dance music and I am enjoying playing these tunes.
But I have a question...
If the key signature is in C, for instance, the C & F notes may be sharp and the tune ends on a D note.
These tunes seem to end one note higher than the key signature.

As I thought about it, I realized that some other renaissance songs (The Beautiful Shepherdess of Arcadia and What if a Day or a Month or a Year, for example) are this same way. Key signature of F, but plays like it's the key of G..

Is this intrinsic to renaissance music?
With my meager understanding of music theory, I always thought that a song or tune should end on the note of the key signature.
What is it that I don't understand?

Thanks,

Joseph Baker