Terpsichore: Renaissance and Early Baroque Dance Music. Ulsamer-Collegium, Josef Ulsamer. Archiv Produktion 415 294-2 (1985) barcode 028941529428
The short ride through dance music from the Renaissance to the Biedermeier
Originally posted on Amazon.com, 25 February 2015
The important thing to note here is that this is but a sample of a 4-CD set subsequently published by Archiv (Deutsche Grammophon’s early music label), 439 964-2, “Tanzmusik: Dance Music Through the Ages” (the original German title is “Dance Music from the Renaissance to the Biedermeier” – the latter being the thirty years that went from the fall of Napoleon and the Vienna Congress that redisigned Europe in 1815, to the revolutions of 1848). Link will open new tab to my review of that set, where you will get the the full details, but it gathers the contents of six LPs played by two different ensembles:
The three programs by the Ulsamer Collegium under Josef Ulsamer covered the Renaisance (from LP Archiv 2533 111, recorded in November 1971), the early Baroque, from about 1570 to 1620 (LP Archiv 2533 150, recorded in February 1973), and the “High Baroque” (LP Archiv 2533 172, recorded in February and April 1974), covering the 2nd half of the 17th Century and first half of the 18th.
The other two CDs in the set, played by the Eduard Melkus Ensemble, derive from LPs Archiv 2533 303 (1975), 2533 182 (1975) and 2533 134 (1972), and cover the Rococo (2nd half of the 18th century), Viennese Classical era (late 18th Century-early 19th) and Biedermeier.
What this single Archiv CD from 1985 collates is in fact half of the content of Ulsamer Collegium’s 1972 Renaissance Dances (13 tracks, corresponding to the set’s CD 1 tracks 1, 2, 5, 10-15, 24-27) and the complete 42 minutes from their 1973 Early Baroque Dances. I’m not aware of another CD gathering the rest of Uslamer Collegium’s Renaissance and High Baroque dances.
Here’s the exact track listing, since the back cover doesn’t display it (it is fully documented in the liner notes):
1. Anonymous: Lamento Di Tristano / Rotta
2. Anonymous: Trotto
3. Anonymous: Saltarello
4. (published by Pierre Attaingnant): Basse Danse La Brosse / Tripla / Tourdion
5. (published by Attaingnant): Basse Danse La Gatta
6. (published by Attaingnant): Basse Danse La Magdalena
7. Joan Ambrosio Dalza: Calata Ala Spagnola
8. Hans Neusiedler: Der Judentanz
9. Neusiedler: Welscher Tanz Wascha Mesa / Hupfauff
10. (published by Tylman Susato): Ronde
11. (published by Claude Gervaise): Branle de Bourgogne
12. (published by Gervaise): Branle de Champagne
13. (published by Pierre Phalèse): Passamezzo D’Italye / Reprise / Gaillarde
14.Giorgio Mainerio: Schiarazula Marazula
15. Giorgio Mainerio: Tedescha – Saltarello
16. Giorgio Mainerio: Ungarescha – Saltarello
17. Giovanni Battista Besardo: Branle – Branle gay
18. Anonymous: Mascherade
19. Simone Molinaro: Saltarello
20. Simone Molinaro: Ballo Detto “Il Conte Orlando” – Saltarello
21. Gesualdo Da Venosa: Gagliarda Del Principe Di Venosa
22. Fabritio Caroso: Barriera (Balletto)
23. Fabritio Caroso: Celeste Giglio (Baletto)
24. Pierre-Francisque Caroubel: Pavana De Spaigne
25. Pierre-Francisque Caroubel: Courante
26. Pierre-Francisque Caroubel: Courante
27. Pierre-Francisque Caroubel: Volte
28. Pierre-Francisque Caroubel: Volte
29. Anthony Holborne: Pavan: The Funerals
30. Anthony Holborne: Noel’s Galliard
31. Anthony Holborne: Coranto: Heigh ho Holiday
32. Anonymous: Kemp’s Jig
33. John Dowland: Queen Elizabeth Her Galliard
34. John Dowland: Mrs. Winter’s Jump
35. Thomas Simpson: Alman
36. Orlando Gibbons: Galliard
37. Michael Praetorius: Galliarde De Monsieur Wustron
38. Michael Praetorius: Galliarde De La Guerre
39. Michael Praetorius: Reprinse
40. Valentin Haussmann: Tantz
41. Valentin Haussmann: Paduan
42. Valentin Haussmann: Galliard
43. Valentin Haussmann: Catkanei
So, if you want the fast and incomplete track, this is for you. But for the complete thing, go to the 4-CD set. At any rate, the music is hugely entertaining, vigorous and invigorating, with welcome interludes of more peaceful atmospheres. A special highlight and treat is the variety, from track to track, of instrumentations – many of the scores from the renaissance and baroque eras do not specify any instrumentation, leaving the choice to the performers – together with the vast array of period instruments used (or copies thereof) and their ear-arousing timbral ruggedness and pungency. I don’t know how much of that great variety of instrumentation is “authentic” – some musicological sources tend to conclude that these works were played in the Renaissance and Baroque eras with much simpler lineups, but I have no complaint on this ground: I listen to music first for entertainment and pleasure, not for historical reconstruction in itself. If this is not “authentic”, in the sense that some of those pieces were never heard at the time played in these specific instrumentations (although all these instruments existed), then change the past.
Sundry excerpts of the Ulsamer Collegium programs were also used as complements in various collections centered around another great program of Renaissance dance music, this one originally recorded in 1960 by Collegium Terpsichore conducted by Fritz Neumeyer on Archiv 14 166 APM (mono), 198 166 SAPM (stereo), “Hochrenaissance” (High Renaissance, link to entry on Discogs). See my review of “Dances of the Renaissance”, twofer DG “Panorama” 469 244-2 for more details about that and links to my reviews of various other editions.