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, a few musical examples of what may be dances, and scattered allusions in literary texts. The first detailed descriptions of dancing only date from 1450 in Italy, which is after the start of the Renaissance.

Carol

The most documented form of dance during the Middle Ages is the carol also called the "carole" or the "ronde" or round and known from the 12th and 13th centuries in Western Europe in rural and court settings. It consisted of a group of dancers holding hands usually in a circle, with the dancers singing in a leader and refrain style while dancing. No surviving lyrics or music for the carol have been identified.

Chretien de Troyes

Some of the earliest mentions of the carol occur in the works of the French poet Chretien de Troyes in his series of Arthurian romances. In the wedding scene in Erec and Enide (about 1170)

:::Puceles carolent et dancent,

:::Trestuit de joie feire tancent

:::::(lines 2047-2048)

"Maidens performed rounds and other dances, each trying to outdo the other in showing their joy"

In The Knight of the Cart, (probably late 1170s) at a meadow where there are knights and ladies, various games are played while:

:::Li autre, qui iluec estoient,

:::Redemenoient lor anfances,

:::Baules et queroles et dance;

:::Et chantent et tunbent et saillent

:::::(lines 1656-1659)

"[S]ome others were playing at childhood games - rounds, dances and reels, singing, tumbling, and leaping"

In what is proabbly Chretien's last work, Perceval, the Story of the Grail, probably written 1181-1191, we find:

"Men and women danced rounds through every street and square"

and later at a court setting:

"The queen ... had all her maidens join hands together to dance and begin the merry-making. In his honour they began their singing, dances, and rounds"

The Christmas carol (as a musical form) survives to the modern era.

Estampie

If the story is true that troubadour Raimbaut de Vaqueiras (about 1150-1207) wrote the famous Provençal song Kalenda Maya to fit the tune of an estampie that he heard two jongleurs play, then the history of the estampie extends back to the 12th century. The only musical examples actually identified as "estampie" or "istanpita" occur in two 14th century manuscripts. The same manuscripts also contain other pieces named "danse real" or other dance names. These are similar in musical structure to the estampies but consensus is divided as to whether these should be considered the same.

In addition to these instrumental music compositions, there are also mentions of the estampie in various literary sources from the 13th and 14th centuries. One of these as "stampenie" is found in Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan from 1210 in a catalog of Tristan's accomplishments:

:::ouch sang er wol ze prise

:::schanzune und spaehe wise,

:::refloit und stampenie

::::(lines 2293-2295)

"he also sang most excellently subtle airs, 'chansons', 'refloits', and 'estampies'"

Later, in a description of Isolde:

:::Si videlt ir stampenie,

:::leiche und so vremediu notelin,

:::diu niemer vremeder kunden sin,

:::in franzoiser wise

:::von Sanze und San Dinise.

:::::(lines 8058-8062)

"She fiddled her 'estampie', her lays, and her strange tunes in the French style, about Sanze and St Denis"

A century and a half later in the poem La Prison amoreuse (1372-73) by French chronicler and poet Jean Froissart (c. 1337-1405), we find:

:::La estoient li menestrel

:::Qui s'acquittoient bien et bel

:::A piper et tout de novel

:::Unes danses teles qu'il sorent,

:::Et si trestot que cessé orent

:::Les estampies qu'il batoient,

:::Cil et celes qui s'esbatoient

:::Au danser sans gueres atendre

:::Commencierent leurs mains a tendre

:::Pour caroler.

"Here are all the minstrels rare Who now acquit themselves so fair In playing on their pipes whate'er The dances be that one may do. So soon as they have glided through The estampies of this sort Youths and maidens who disport Themselves in dancing now begin With scarce a wait to join hands in The choral".

Opinion is divided as to whether the Estampie was actually a dance or simply early instrumental music. Sachs believes the strong rhythm of the music, a derivation of the name from a term meaning "to stamp" and the quotation from the Froissart poem above definitely label the estampie as a dance. However, others stress the complex music in some examples as being uncharacteristic of dance melodies and interpret Froissart's poem to mean that the dancing begins with the carol. There is also debate on the derivation of the word "estampie". In any case, no description of dance steps or figures for the estampie are known.

See also

• Danse Macabre (Dance of Death)

Notes

1. "Carole" in
2. English translation from
3. English translation from
4. English translation from
5. English translation from
6. "Estampie" in
7. Quote and translation in