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Allemande
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Allemande [allemand, almain, alman, almond]

(Fr.: German [dance]; It. alemana, allemanda).
One of the most popular of Baroque instrumental dances and a standard movement, along with the courante, sarabande and
gigue, of the suite. It originated some time in the early or mid-16th century, appearing under such titles as Teutschertanz or
Dantz in Germany and bal todescho, bal francese and tedesco in Italy. Originally a moderate duple-metre dance in two or
three strains, the allemande came to be one of the most highly stylized of all Baroque dances and by 1732 was likened to a
rhetorical Proposition, woraus die brigen Suiten, als die Courante, Sarabande, und Gigue, als Partes fliessen (WaltherML).
30 years later Marpurg (Clavierstcke, 1762, ii, 21) referred to the allemande as similar to the prelude, in that it was said to be
based on a succession of changing harmonies in an improvisatory style, although he noted that in the allemande dissonances
were to be more carefully prepared and resolved.

1. 16th-century allemandes.
The origins of the allemande are obscure. Possibly the dance began as a German variant of the basse danse or HOFTANZ, for
the earliest known use of the title allemande occurs in a short dancing manual devoted to the basse danse published in
London in 1521 (Here Followeth the Manner of Dancing Bace Dances after the Use of France and Other Places translated out
of French in English by Robert Coplande, an appendix to Alexander Barclays The Introductory to Write and to Pronounce
French, London, 1521, repr. 1937). One of the seven choreographies included by Coplande, without its accompanying music,
is entitled La allemande. It is a short basse danse, filling only 20 longs instead of the usual 32. This may not be the first
appearance of the dance, however. As early as the 1480s two Italian dancing treatises, Guglielmo Ebreos De praticha seu
arte tripudii (ed. F. Zambrini in Scelta di curiosit letterarie, cxxxi, 1873) and Giovanni Ambrosios De pratica seu arte tripudii
(F-Pn it.476) referred to one of the four varieties of bassadanza to be derived by imposing proportions on a single tenor, the
quadernaria, as saltarello tedesco. (The series is bassadanza, quadernaria, saltarello, piva, with the mensural proportions :
:3:2.) It is worth noting that the proportion bassadanza to quadernaria or saltarello tedesco, 6:4, is very nearly that of the
normal basse danse in Coplandes treatise to the dance he called La allemande.

In the middle of the 16th century, allemandes for lute, guitar, cittern, keyboard, or instrumental ensemble began to appear both
in prints and manuscripts across Europe. French and Netherlandish printers seem to have been responsible for the application
of the term allemande, or alemande, to the new dance, for Phalse (Carminum testudine liber III, 1546), Morlaye (Tabulature
de guiterne o sont chansons, gaillardes, pavanes, bransles, allemandes, 1550), Adrian Le Roy (Premier livre de tabulature
de luth, 1551), Gervaise (Troisime livre de danceries, 1556) and Susato (Het derck musyck boexken bassedansen,
ronden, allemaingien, pavanen, 1551) used that title for pieces called simply Tantz or ballo todescho in contemporary
German and Italian sources. Susatos inclusion of both basse danses and allemandes in the title cited above suggests that if
the allemande had begun as a kind of bassadanza, by 1551 it was a distinct genre. Most of these early allemandes were
grouped together at the end of dance music collections, after the basse danses, pavanes and galliardes, and many were
followed by afterdances (with such titles as Nachtanz, saltarello, reprise, recoupe) using the same harmonic and melodic
material for a faster triple-metre dance.

Only one French choreography with music for the allemande is extant from this period, that given by Arbeau in
Orchsographie (1588). It is a couple dance, with the man and woman side by side; the dancers proceed in a line of couples
from one end of a hall to the other, each turning his partner around in such a way as to reverse the line and go back to the
original place. Arbeau called it a plain dance of a certain gravity, and claimed that it must be among our most ancient dances,
for we are descended from the Germans. The steps are shown in ex.1 with the opening strain of an allemande for lute printed
by Le Roy in 1551: step 1 represents the basic unit, repeated over four minims, consisting of three walking steps followed by a
grve, or raising of the free foot in the air. Occasionally the four minims might be taken up by a stepgrvestepgrve
pattern, shown here as step 2. Arbeau mentioned a third part to the allemande, to be danced with greater lightness and
animation, with little jumps inserted between each step as in the courante; apparently he referred to the third section of the
dance itself rather than to a separate afterdance. Afterdances were nearly always in triple metre, and he specified that one is
to continue in duple in this third section. Further, contemporary literary references to the allemande consistently mention
almayne leaps (as in Ben Jonsons The Devil is an Ass Act 1 scene i: And take his almain-leap into a custard). The music he
provided for this third livelier section of the allemande is similar melodically and identical harmonically with that provided for the
first strain of the allemande.

Ex.1Adrian Le Roy: Almande from Premier livre de tabulature de luth (Paris, 1551)

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A typical 16th-century allemande (ex.2), one of the earliest surviving (GB-Lbl Roy.App.75, c1548), shows some of the traits
that may have encouraged the extensive stylization of the form for solo instruments in the 17th and 18th centuries. The dance
is written in with no syncopation, consists of three repeated strains, each of which is in turn made of repeated motifs, and
has a homophonic texture. As in many 16th- and early 17th-century allemandes, the tonality of the second strain of the dance
contrasts with that of the first and third strains, and this contrast is often emphasized by the use of shorter phrases. In ex.2, as
in the air de allemande printed with Arbeaus description of the dance, the third strain returns to the original key with a variant
of the opening motifs, creating a rounded (ABA) form. Often the middle section of an allemande stresses the area of a half-
cadence (i.e. the modern dominant), although stress on the subdominant and minor supertonic, as well as on the relative
major, are equally common. Such a formal scheme, shared by many of the dances called Teutschertanz and bal todescho,
seems to be one of the chief characteristics of the allemande, for it occurs even in dances of only two strains (the first phrase
of the second strain would either hover around a cadence formula in the contrasting key or begin with a cadence in that key
and move by sequence back to the original tonal area). This rather early tendency to explore contrasting tonal areas, coupled
with the apparently flexible tempo limits and neutral duple metre of the 16th-century allemande, may have predisposed this
form, of all the dances emerging from the late Renaissance, to develop into the prelude-like succession of harmonies
described by Marpurg.

Ex.2Allemana dAmor, GB-Lbl Roy.App.75, f.44r. The manuscript has key signatures of one flat in the Altus and Tenor parts.

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2. Solo allemandes for keyboard and lute.

The English school of virginalists in the early 17th century seem to have been almost as fond of the allemande as of the
pavangalliard, and Mohr has credited them with a significant contribution to the development of the allemande as a form
independent of actual dancing. About two dozen almans appear in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, rather fewer in other sources
like Parthenia and the Dublin Virginal Manuscript (c1583), as well as in manuscript sources of works by such composers as
Byrd and Orlando Gibbons. Roughly half show a rounded tonal and motivic plan like that of ex.2, described above, while half
consist of successive unrelated strains, each built in two-bar units and each followed by a reprise or variation displaying some
aspect of keyboard virtuosity. In both kinds of allemande, harmonic movement seems to be the main organizing factor, for
melodic phrases are often irregular, blurred by the free-voice arpeggiation so characteristic of both lute and harpsichord styles.

Contemporary French composers for both lute and keyboard combined this idiomatic arpeggiation (style bris) shared by both
instruments with a growing awareness of the contrapuntal possibilities of the newly intricate texture. Ex.3, the beginning of an
allemande for lute by Franois de Chancy (printed by Mersenne in Harmonie universelle, ii, 1637), shows an early application
of style bris to the French allemande, written in free-voice texture enlivened by motivic play among the parts. The tendency of
the allemande to be a vehicle for motivic and harmonic exploration within a binary or rounded binary form continued through
the works of Denis Gaultier, Pinel, Nicolas Vallet, Joseph de La Barre, N.-A. Lebgue, J.-H. dAnglebert, Chambonnires, and
Louis and Franois Couperin (see HAM, nos.216 and 250). Ex.4, from Chambonnires second set of Pices de clavessin
(1670), shows a typical French stylization of the allemande, including a somewhat veiled use of points of imitation at the
opening (see brackets in ex.4), the use of motivic inversion in bars 6 and 7, and the strong thrust of the initial upbeat.

Ex.3Franois de Chancy: Allemande pour luth from Mersenne: Harmonie universelle, ii (1637), 88

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Ex.4Chambonnires: Allemande from Pices de clavessin, ii (1670)

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The 37 titled allemandes of J.S. Bach form an artistic high point of the genre. All are pieces for a soloist, and are found in his
keyboard suites, two of the solo violin partitas, and all six of the cello suites. Bach incorporated a wide variety of styles,
including the French overture style (BWV827 and 830), ornamental aria (BWV828 and 829), two-voice counterpoint using triplets
(BWV829), as well as established idiomatic techniques such as motivic play and a pseudo-polyphonic texture. Ex.5 shows the
openings of allemandes by J.S. Bach (c1722) and his earlier contemporary Froberger (c1681). Ex.6 illustrates differences in
texture exploited by German composers such as Pachelbel; other examples may be found in suites by F.T. Richter, J.C.F.
Fischer, Gottlieb Muffat and J.P. Krieger, and in the deliberately archaic allemande movement of Mozarts suite for piano
K399/385i (1782).

Ex.5Allemandes by Froberger (c1681) and J.S. Bach (c1722)

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3. Ensemble allemandes.
Allemandes for ensemble performance or dance accompaniment were slower to relinquish the relatively simple texture and
clear phrase structure of the Renaissance form. Early 17th-century composers such as H.L. Hassler, Melchior Franck and
Scheidt used the allemande to open a set of dances, while Schein continued the older practice of ending groups of dances
with an allemande and its Nachtanz in the suites of his Banchetto musicale (1617). Scheins allemandes, typical of most
written by his generation, were nearly all homophonic, written in two or three strains with occasional motivic and tonal links
between the first and last sections. The use of imitation in ensemble allemandes was not unknown in 17th-century Germany,
for a five-voice allemande by William Brade appeared in Hamburg in 1609 (Neue auserlesene Paduanen, Galliarden, printed
in GMB, no.156), written as a strict four-voice canon over a drone. Nonetheless, German allemandes for ensemble by
composers such as Rosenmller, J.C. Pezel, R.I. Mayr, Hieronymus Gradenthaler, Esias Reusner and Pachelbel (see
examples printed in Mohr) were unaffected by the concern for textual and motivic interest that marked keyboard versions of
the dance. Ex.6 shows the beginnings of two allemandes by Pachelbel, one from a keyboard suite and one from a trio sonata,
illustrating how differently the texture of the allemande might be treated by a single composer.

Ex.6(a) J. Pachelbel: Allemande from Suite in E(b) J. Pachelbel: Allemande from Sonata for 2 violins and continuo

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English and Italian composers of ensemble music treated the allemande with more contrapuntal imagination than their
German contemporaries. Most of the alman movements in the fantasia-suites of William Lawes, John Jenkins and Coprario
feature imitative openings in the two main sections, and several have rather long sections in which the two upper parts play in
canon (see MB ix, xxi and xxvi). Corellis use of the allemande in his trio sonatas and some of his concertos is more varied;
some are as homophonic and direct as contemporary German examples, while others use the exchange of motifs among
parts to suggest imitation. Genuine imitation like that of the English composers remained rare. Corellis tempo markings for the
allemande are among the most diverse encountered, ranging from largo and adagio to allegro and even presto. Neither Corelli
nor such prominent Italians as Bononcini and Vivaldi, however, were much concerned with introducing the motivic imitation of
keyboard allemandes into their ensemble settings.

4. Late 18th-century allemandes.

The allemande continued to be performed as a dance throughout the 18th century. Louis Pcours Lallemande, a social dance
in duple metre for a gentleman and a lady, was first published in 1702 but also appears in various other manuscript and printed
sources (Little and Marsh, 1992, no.1200). By the later 18th century the title allemande referred to a new dance in 6/8 metre.
Guillaume (1786) pictured it as a sentimental and tender dance in which the partners joined hands throughout while turning
around each other in various ways (see reproduction in Horst, Pre-Classic Dance Forms, New York, 1937/R). Clments
Allemande la Dauphine, published in about 1771, is a choreography for two gentlement and two ladies intended for social
dancing (Little and Marsh, 1992, no.1220). In 1793 Mozarts German Dances K571, for piano, appeared in Paris under the title
Allemandes. A character in Sheridans The Rivals linked the allemande with the cotillon (Act 3 scene v, ll.435, Acres: these
outlandish heathen Allemandes and Cotillons are quite beyond me). Pieces called allemande by the turn of the 19th century,
such as Webers Douze allemandes op.4 (1801), are actually examples of the newly popular GERMAN DANCE, a waltz-like form
known as early as the 1730s.

Bibliography
T. Arbeau: Orchsographie (Langres, 1588; Eng. trans., 1925/R)

C. Negri: Le gratie damore (Milan, 1602/R1969 and 1983 in BMB, 2nd ser, civ; ed. and trans. of 1st edn by G.Y. Kendall (DMA diss.,
Stanford U., 1985))

Dubois: Principes dallemandes (Paris, 1760)

S. Guillaume: Almanach dansant, ou Positions et attitudes de lallemande (Paris, 1768)

F.M. Bhme: Geschichte des Tnzes in Deutschland (Leipzig, 1886/R)

E. Mohr: Die Allemande (Zrich, 1932)

A. Anders: Untersuchungen ber die Allemande als Volksliedtyp des 16. Jahrhunderts (Gelnhausen, 1940)
 M. Dolmetsch: Dances of England and France from 1450 to 1600 (London, 1949/R)

K.H. Taubert: Hfische Tnze: ihre Geschichte und Choreographie (Mainz, 1968)

R. Hudson: The Allemande, the Balletto, and the Tanz (Cambridge, 1986)

M. Little and C. Marsh: La Danse Noble: an Inventory of Dances and Sources (Williamstown, MA, 1992)

V. Mansure: The Allemandes of Johann Sebastian Bach: a Stylistic Study (diss., U. of Oregon, 1992)

Meredith Ellis Little, Suzanne G. Cusick

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