TMA 14 Praetorius M, BRANSLE de VILLAGES
Piffero + Clavicembalo
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Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) was a German composer, organist, and music theorist, known for his versatility and significant contributions to the development of musical forms based on Protestant hymns.
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“Bransle de Villages” is a dance piece from Praetorius’ collection “Terpsichore,” one of the largest unified collection of instrumental music from early 17^th Germany. The term “bransle” began to refer to a dance of apparently rustic origin in France around 1500, meaning “to sway, wobble,” and referring to the side-to-side movement of the dance.
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The piece is part of a collection that Praetorius assembled and arranged, but it’s unknown how many, or if any, of the works in the collection were actually composed by Praetorius as opposed to being popular dance tunes arranged by him.