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The Brussels Manuscript: Interpreting the

Fifteenth-Century Basse Danse

Meg Pash

To cite this article: Meg Pash (2017) The Brussels Manuscript: Interpreting the Fifteenth-Century
Basse Danse, Dance Chronicle, 40:3, 414-420, DOI: 10.1080/01472526.2017.1368344

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/01472526.2017.1368344

Published online: 07 Nov 2017.

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DANCE CHRONICLE
2017, VOL. 40, NO. 3, 414–420
https://doi.org/10.1080/01472526.2017.1368344

The Brussels Manuscript: Interpreting the Fifteenth-Century

Basse Danse
Meg Pash

The Brussels “Basse Danse” Book, A Critical Edition

Edited and translated by Robert Mullally. 96 pp.
London: Dance Books Ltd., 2015. $42.00.
ISBN 9781852731724.

Robert Mullally’s The Brussels Basse Danse Book, A Critical Edition is a useful and thought-
provoking addition to the literature on the basse danse. His detailed introduction includes
sections on the book’s history, sources, manuscript, dances, music, and previous publica-
tions, as well as information on his editorial procedure. Following these sections is the
critical edition, including the full text and translation, transcriptions of the music and cho-
reographies, extensive notes, a comprehensive bibliography, an index of the dances, and an
appendix with iconographic references and suggested interpretations of the steps.
Mullally states that the first indisputable reference to the basse danse is found in a poem
by Alain Chartier, probably composed in 1416 just after the Battle of Agincourt (p. 3). He
then presents a history of references and sources from the mid-fifteenth century to the
decline of the basse danse in the sixteenth century and its last major appearance in Thoinot
Arbeau’s Orch
esographie, published in 1589 and reprinted in 1596.1 The book’s next sec-
tion describes four closely related sources: Brussels, Toulouze, Coplande, and Moderne
(pp. 8–9).2 Brussels and Toulouze are most closely linked by their late fifteenth-century
dates and contents. Both include the choreographies notated with a tablature of letters rep-
resenting each step correlated to music notated in equal black breves, with some exceptions
containing melodies in mensural notation. Although produced independently, Brussels
and Toulouze almost certainly draw their content from a common source now lost (p. 9).
Coplande (1521), with instructions and seven basses danses, and Moderne (1530–1538),
with instructions and 199 choreographies including duplications, do not contain music
and each is missing one of the step descriptions of the regular basse danse vocabulary
(p. 10). The Brussels manuscript3 is an expensively produced presentation book, written
on black-dyed parchment in liquefied gold and silver in a script known as lettre bourgui-
gnonne (p. 15). The manuscript is now missing at least one leaf, and has been rebound
with the pages out of order (p. 14). Mullally describes the manuscript, its ownership, and
provenance in detail, and concludes that it probably dates from 1495 to 1497, likely after
Toulouze (pp. 9–17).
Mullally traces the basse danse through the historical references and sources, starting
with seven choreographies in a manuscript probably copied at Nancy (c. 1445),* which
include hopping steps and step sequences not present in later sources (pp. 3–8). He contin-
ues with a comparison of the two main fifteenth-century sources, Brussels and Toulouze,

This source is an annotation on the flyleaf of an earlier manuscript, attributed to Guillaume Cousinot, Gestes des nobles
François, Paris, Biblioth
eque nationale de France, fonds fr.5699.
© 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
 DANCE CHRONICLE 415

noting that, although the contents are largely concordant, they are not identical. Mullally
notes that fifteen dances in Brussels not contained in Toulouze are later additions to the
original core repertory, as some of the titles reference Burgundian courtiers of the late fif-
teenth century (p. 18).
Brussels and Toulouze both name two kinds of basse danse: basse dance majeur and
basse danse mineur. Mullally demonstrates that the basse danse majeur is the basse danse
and the basse danse mineur is the pas de Breban, which is danced with only one step,
although it is not described in the text’s instructions (p. 18). Two dances in the Brussels/
Toulouze repertory use only the pas de Breban, and both employ mensurally notated tunes
rather than the usual breves of the basse danse music, indicating that these are not regular
basses danses. Mullally asserts without further explanation that the terms basse danse
majeur and basse danse mineur were used in Brussels, Toulouze, and Moderne “merely to
impart a degree of authority and learning to the subject of dance” (p. 18). One wonders
what prejudices would have made this necessary.
By the time of Brussels and Toulouze, the basse danse was defined by its prescribed step
sequences, called mesures, and its step vocabulary: pas simple, pas double, desmarche (later
named reprise) and branle, plus a reverence (bow) for the man at the beginning of each
basse danse. Each step is notated in the choreographies with a letter: s for simple (always in
pairs), d for double, r for desmarche/reprise, b for branle, and R for reverence (p. 19). Mul-
lally describes the step order for each type of mesure. At the time these dances were
notated, each basse danse was different and thus each had an individual title followed by
the number of musical notes and mesures. Since the instructions in the text specify that
each note equals one step (with each pair of simples counted as one step), the number of
notes also indicates the number of steps (p. 19). Dancers of the period had to memorize
the mesures and their order for each dance. Six dances in Brussels, three of which also
appear in Toulouze, are significantly different from the others. The most obvious difference
is that all six dances employ mensurally notated music, though all include basse danse
steps.

 La Beault
e de Castille (also in Toulouze) is notated in equal breves interspersed with

sections of mensural notation, with basse danse step vocabulary.
 Roti boully joyeulx and L’Esperance de Bourbon (both also in Toulouze) have mensu-
ral notation (pas de Breban) followed by a section in equal breves employing the basse
danse step vocabulary.
 La Danse de Ravestain (incomplete) is notated in all mensural notation, with basse
danse step vocabulary.
 La Danse de Cleves and La Franchoise nouvelle have all mensural notation, with basse
danse step vocabulary plus a variant called double demarchant.

According to Mullally, the French basse danse gave rise to the Italian bassadanza. He
compares the characteristics of the French and Italian dances, and points out similarities
to bassadanza and ballo in these six irregular dances. They are somewhat more complex
than the regular basses danses in the collection, and they specify the number of dancers as
do the Italian dances. Mullally states that the “complexity of the Italian dances, above all
that of the ballo, was practicable because their choreographers were creating dances for an
exclusive, aristocratic, and sophisticated circle of performers. Their dances were not
intended for the general public” (p. 21). Later he says, “As French dances of the general
period under review, and hence French dance manuals, were intended for a wide public,
this accounts for their early appearance in print” (p. 21). Mullally explains the lack of step
descriptions in the Italian sources by the fact that Italian aristocrats had dancing masters;
416 M. PASH

in contrast, the French manuals included step instructions (although they are unclear)
because they were directed toward a more general audience who, presumably, did not regu-
larly study with dancing masters (p. 21). He also suggests that it is this less aristocratic
French audience that explains the popularity of the shorter basses danses, which eventually
gave rise to the standardized and easier to memorize basse danse commune (p. 22).
Mullally’s impressive research and scholarship are evident in his discussion of the dan-
ces and his ability to put them in historical context. Nonetheless, it is worthwhile to note
that, although the Brussels manuscript almost certainly dates to the end of the fifteenth
century, it represents a repertory that was in use earlier in that century. This is relevant for
musical interpretation and dance performance practice. The sources for the basse danse
cover a period during which the notation of its music and the norms of performance prac-
tice for both the music and dances undoubtedly changed. This elongated chronology
presents problems for the reconstruction of this dance repertory in that the clearest evi-
dence for some aspects of a reconstruction comes from sources that are distant in time
from other necessary pieces of information. The chronology between sources is too wide to
assume one uniform practice.
Mullally notes that only three basse danse sources include music: Brussels, Toulouze,
and Arbeau (p. 22). The Brussels basses danses are notated in black breves ending with a
long, Toulouze is similarly notated in black breves ending in either a long or a breve, and
both Brussels and Toulouze also contain music in mensural notation. Arbeau’s tunes are
all in mensural notation. The clefs in the dances with music in equal black breves indicate a
tenor range, and these pieces are often referred to as basse danse tenors. Mullally pursues
three issues that must be explored to realize this music (p. 22):

1. Is the music monophonic or polyphonic?

2. What is the relationship of musical notation to choreography?
3. What are the possibilities for instrumentation?

Ernest Closson, in 1912, was the first to print the Brussels manuscript4 and he proposed
three possible solutions to the performance of the music (p. 22):

1. The notation must be varied rhythmically.

2. Written notes must be played with diminution to create a melodic line.
3. The music represents one voice, the cantus firmus, of a polyphonic composition.

All three solutions gained supporters. Closson ruled out the first solution because it
would destroy the correspondence between notes and steps. Against prevailing opinion,
Mullally prefers the second solution: players treat the breves monophonically as a basis for
a melody in improvised diminution. He makes a good case for this solution but, despite his
claim to the contrary, there is just too much evidence for improvised polyphony as an
equally likely, and perhaps most-used, performance practice in basse danse accompani-
ment to allow the choice of monophonic diminution to be the predominant mode of per-
formance. Mullally acknowledges that polyphonic performance has become the accepted
solution, especially since Manfred Bukofzer’s 1950 publication of Falla con misuras, a fif-
teenth-century version of the famous La Spagna tenor with an upper part in a jazzy impro-
visatory style, very possibly written by the dancing master Guglielmo Ebreo.5 Mullally
quotes Willi Apel, who opposed polyphonic improvisation, seemingly because Apel found
it difficult to imagine improvising multiple parts without frequent disasters “unless there
existed a very simple recipe as to how to do this”6 (p. 23). Mullally also reports Apel’s sug-
gestion that three-part improvisation might be possible using a discantus super librum
technique, which would produce parallel sixth chords (not contrapuntal parts). Mullally
 DANCE CHRONICLE 417

further cites Anthony Rooley, who discounted the extant polyphonic arrangements as “art”
music intended for listening, not for dancing, claiming that those arrangements “do not
work very comfortably for dancing”7 (p. 23). Mullally contends that these objections estab-
lish that neither rhythmic variation nor polyphonic realization has “been shown to have
been used for dancing” (p. 23). He asserts that “it is difficult to see how improvised upper
parts over a given written tenor could have been used for dancing, and the fact remains
that there is no evidence that the music of the basse danse, as music for dancing, was ever
polyphonic” (p. 23). However, speaking as both musician and dancer, I believe that both
improvising polyphony and dancing to improvised music—especially when one part is
familiar and played in an easily discernable rhythm—is neither impossible nor even partic-
ularly difficult. There is significant iconographic evidence for three-part dance music
played by a “loud band,” usually two shawms and a sackbut (Renaissance trombone) or
slide trumpet.* The players are shown performing without written notation, indicating
that the music was memorized or, at least partially, improvised.
It is important for musicians trained only in the performance practices of notated music
to remember that genres learned by ear and transmitted by ear can have highly standard-
ized conventions to which the players adhere. It is common for classically trained musi-
cians to view improvisation as a technique that cannot produce complex music in multiple
parts. However, truly improvisatory styles of music, such as modern jazz, prove that
improvisation in complex music, often learned and played completely by ear, is certainly
achievable to a high artistic standard. Good improvisers, especially when playing with
others whose personal styles they know well, understand what to play as a result of their
extensive ear training and experience in the conventions of their genre. There are currently
several specialists in the field of Renaissance improvisation who demonstrate that multi-
ple-part contrapuntal improvisation on the basse danse tenors can be done—and done
very well indeed.y
Mullally’s case for monophonic diminution apparently rests on references to pipe and
tabor in the written sources and iconography. It is quite true that a single wind player can-
not play a polyphonic arrangement and equally true that a single melody player can per-
form a danceable diminution based on the tenor notes, as Mullally describes (pp. 23–24).
While he acknowledges that there were aristocratic events that employed loud bands, he
resists the idea of fully contrapuntal improvisation (pp. 30–31). It seems possible that the
choice of how to realize the music might depend at least in part on the practical circum-
stances of the event, even as it does today, so that the choice between monophonic diminu-
tion or polyphonic ensemble improvisation would have been, in part, determined by who
was dancing, where the event took place, and the availability and skills of players, all of
which would be affected by circumstances of social class, venue, and resources, including
budget. Again, a single uniform practice for basse danse accompaniment is unlikely, given
the long chronology of the genre.

For one of many extant depictions of a loud band playing for dancing, see the illustration reproduced in Daniel
Heartz, “Basse danse” entry in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan,
1980). See also the discussion of fifteenth-century professional instrumentalists’ performance conventions regarding
playing from memory, improvising, and playing from notation in Keith Polk, “From Oral to Written: Change in Trans-
mission of Instrumental Music in Fifteenth-Century Europe,” in Songs of the Dove and the Nightingale: Sacred and Sec-
ular Music c. 900–c. 1600, eds. Greta Mary Hair and Robyn E. Smith, in Musicology: A Book Series, vol. XVII (Basel:
Gordon and Breach, 1995), 160–75.
y
Current expert improvising players include, among others, Ross Duffin at Case Western Reserve University, Crawford
Young at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, and Adam K. Gilbert at the University of Southern California. See Duffin’s
discussion and arrangements in “Ensemble Improvisation in the Fifteenth-Century Mensural Dance Repertoire,” in
Instruments, Ensembles, and Repertory, 1300–1600, eds. Timothy J. McGee and Stewart Carter (Turnhout, Belgium:
Brepols Publishers, 2013), 195–233.
418 M. PASH

Performance of these charming choreographies has long been hampered by the difficul-
ties of realizing the music itself and of correlating the steps to the music. If step descrip-
tions do not indicate a precise notational time value for the movements, then one must
look to the music for that information. One thing in the regular basse danse repertory of
which we can be sure is that each step (including the pairs of simples) equals one note of
music, and it seems clear that those notes, written as equal-value breves, are of equal nota-
tional value. Controversies ensue when we attempt a musical reconstruction that must
interpret how to perform those breves. The mensural notation of the six irregular dances
also presents problems of interpretation. The scope of this review does not permit a long
discussion of mensural notation or the problems inherent in interpreting it as presented in
the Brussels manuscript. Both Brussels and Toulouze state that the basse danse music is in
the major perfect. This translates to a compound duple time signature in which each black
breve (double whole note in unreduced time values) divides into two semibreves (whole
notes in unreduced time values) and each semibreve divides into three minims (half notes
in unreduced time values).* Mullally states that this time signature does not fit the basse
danse, with its apparent four distinct movements per step. His solution calls for each black
breve to be interpreted as a long (double the value of the breve in this mensuration), as
found in Antonius Arena’s instructions for the basse danse commune.8 This would give
each step four equal beats with triple subdivision (totaling twelve minims), a modern four
bars of triple time (3/2 in unreduced time values). Thus the music, according to Mullally,
is not major perfect but major imperfect (pp. 24–25). He points out, “This is exactly what
we find in Arbeau’s music for his basse danse, ‘Jouyssance vous donneray,’ where each step
has four bars to the value of three minims [half notes] each and the entire tune has a time
signature of ‘3’. (3/2 in modern notation)” (p. 25). As Mullally notes, whoever wrote the
music for the choreographies was probably not a trained composer and therefore may not
have known how to notate the basse danse tenors or the mensural tunes of the irregular
dances correctly. This would have had the effect of causing errors in the written step corre-
lations (p. 26). Since playing from written music was just coming into common practice,
dance musicians were used to playing from memory and improvising.9 The transition
from oral to written transmission may account for possible errors of notation and step cor-
relation when musicians who knew the repertory by ear started to write it down.y
The question of instrumentation for basse danse accompaniment depends on how one
chooses to interpret the performance practice. The most likely instrumentation is either the
loud band for polyphonic improvisation or a pipe and tabor for monophonic diminution. In
his discussion of instrumentation, Mullally notes that a mixed ensemble would be the excep-
tion, and that, when multiple instrumentalists were employed, the loud band was preferred
(p. 27). Although Toulouze says that the music can be played by “all kinds of instruments,”
Mullally dismisses this as “nothing more than publisher’s blurb” (p. 31). He believes that the
lists of instruments in Arena and Arbeau “merely indicate instruments on which it was phys-
ically possible to accompany the basse danse, but it is clear that both authors clearly favour
the pipe and tabor, which was the usual instrumental accompaniment” (p. 31).
This is a critical edition and as such represents Mullally’s interpretation of the original.
The author’s editorial procedure is clearly presented in regard to text, translation, and

Mullally reduces the time values to modern 6/4 or 6/8 from 6/2 (six minims). Although this is certainly common prac-
tice, reduction of note values in a scholarly edition can be counterproductive, especially when the reduction ratios
are not the same in all scholarly discussions of a given repertory.
y
I have worked for years with so-called nonliterate players who know a very large repertory of standards, can always
improvise an appropriate part in an arrangement, and through familiarity with conventions of style have no trouble
joining in on pieces they have not heard before.
 DANCE CHRONICLE 419

emendations. He has come to conclusions about how to interpret the music and step corre-
lations and has emended the music and choreographies to fit his conclusions. While he
includes extensive notes, it is not always immediately apparent what is original to the man-
uscript and what is an emendation, because the notes are given in a separate section. This
edition might be easiest to understand while using a facsimile for side-by-side comparison.
Although Mullally’s emendations are thoroughly documented, his conclusions would have
been better illustrated by examples of fully written-out arrangements of the music in mod-
ern notation with step correlations.
Given that Brussels is a collection of choreographies, Mullally pays surprisingly little
attention to the interpretation of the step descriptions. He does give iconographic informa-
tion and suggests verbal descriptions of the steps, each divided into four movements and
correlated to four bars of music. However, he does not discuss how he formulated these
interpretations.
Despite the few concerns I have raised here, I find that this edition of the Brussels man-
uscript is well researched and extensively documented. Mullally presents his arguments
clearly, even when he is discussing complex issues of musical interpretation and step corre-
lation. While some readers may not agree with his conclusions, this edition offers informa-
tion for reconstruction of the dances and their music according to those conclusions. I
hope the renaissance dance community will try these choreographies as presented, perhaps
as a kind of laboratory test of Mullally’s conclusions and as a basis for further discussion.

Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Robert Eisenstein, Director of the Five College Early Music Program
(based at Mount Holyoke College), for an illuminating discussion of mensural notation, and
Nona Monahin of the Five College Early Music Program for discussing the issues raised in this
review and offering suggestions.

Notes
1. Thoinot Arbeau, Orch
esographie: m
ethode et th
eorie en forme de discours et tablature pour
apprendre a danser, battre le tambour (1596; facsimile repr., Geneva: Editions Minkoff,
1972).
2. Les Basses Danses de Marguerite d’Autriche, facsimile with introductions by Claudine Lem-
aire, Claude Thiry and Victor Gavenda, Codices Selecti Phototypici Impressi, vol.
LXXXVII, 2 vols (Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck, U. Verlagsanstalt, 1988); Michel
Toulouze, L’Art et instruction de bien dancer, facsimile with a bibliographical note by Vic-
tor Scholderer, London, 1936, reprint with musical transcriptions by Richard Rastall,
English trans. A. E. Lequet (New York: no publisher given, 1971); Robert Coplande, The
Maner of Dauncynge of Bace Daunces after the Use of Fraunce and Other Places Translated
out of Frenche in Englysshe (London: Robert Coplande, 1521); Sensuyuent plusieurs Basses
dances tant Communes que Incommunes: comme on pourra veoyr cy dedans (Lyon, France:
Jaques Moderne, between 1530 and 1538; Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France, Collec-
tion Rothschild VI-3 bis 66 no 1).
3. Brussels, Bibliotheque royale de Belgique, MS 9085.
4. Le Manuscrit dit des basses danses de la Bibliotheque de Bourgogne, facsimile with introduc-
tion and transcription by Ernest Closson (Brussels: Soci
et
e des Bibliophiles et iconophiles
de Belgique, 1912).
5. Manfred F. Bukofzer, “A Polyphonic Basse Dance of the Renaissance,” in Studies in Medie-
val and Renaissance Music (New York: W. W. Norton, 1950), 190–216.
420 M. PASH

6. Willi Apel, “A Remark about the Basse Danse,” Journal of Renaissance and Baroque Music,
no. 2 (1946): 140.
7. Anthony Rooley, “Dance and Dance Music of the 16th Century,” Early Music, vol. 2, no. 2
(1974): 80.
8. Antonius Arena, Ad suos Compagnones Studiantes (Lyon, 1528), transcribed and edited by
David Wilson, with commentary on the music by V
eronique Daniels, in The Basse Dance
Handbook, Wendy Hilton Dance and Music Series no. 16 (Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press,
2012), 149–78.
9. See Keith Polk, “From Oral to Written: Change in Transmission of Instrumental Music in
Fifteenth-Century Europe,” in Songs of the Dove and the Nightingale: Sacred and Secular
Music c. 900–c. 1600, eds. Greta Mary Hair and Robyn E. Smith, in Musicology: A Book
Series, vol. XVII (Basel: Gordon and Breach, 1995), 169–72.

MEG PASH is currently on the faculty of the Five College Early Music Program based at Mount
Holyoke College where she teaches lute and Renaissance and Baroque dance, and plays in
ensembles for classes and concerts. After earning a master’s degree in Performance of Early
Music (Voice) at New England Conservatory, she studied early dance and music history with
Dr. Julia Sutton at New England Conservatory, earning a second master’s degree in a program
that merged intensive training in Renaissance and Baroque dance for musicians with the study
of dance-derived performance practice. Following graduation she joined the New England Con-
servatory faculty, serving as Collegium Director and teaching performance practice, music his-
tory, and early dance. As a singer and multi-instrumentalist, she performs in a variety of styles,
including early music, folk, and jazz, and is a member of AyreCraft, a trio performing song liter-
ature from John Dowland to Warren Zevon.