Popular Music Of The Olden Time Vol 1

Ancient Songs, Ballads, & Dance Tunes, Sheet Music & Lyrics - online book

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REIGN OF ELIZABETH.                                          155
The tunes of Cushion-Dances (like Barley-Breaks) have the first part in %, and the last in § time. The earliest printed copy I have found is in Tablature de Z/uth, intitule Le Secret des Muses, 4to., Amsterdam, 1615, where it is called Gaillarde Anglaise. In Nederlandtsche Q-edenck-Olanck, Haerlem, 1626, the same air is entitled Grallarde Suit Margriet, which being intended as English, may be guessed as " Galliard, Sweet Margaret." It is the following:—
The Galliard (a word meaning brisk, gay; and used in that sense by Chaucer) is described by Sir John Davis as a swift and wandering dance, with lofty turns and capriols in the air. Thoinot Arbeau, in his Orchesographie, 1589, says that, formerly, when the dancer had taken his partner for the galliard, they first placed themselves at the end of the room, and, after a bow and curtsey, they walked once