information that its poetic subject is to center on “love and homage” and supports
Grocheio’s description of the estampie’s difficult nature by stating that it requires more
“vigor” in singing than do other songs. Seven complete instrumental estampies survive,
as well as twenty-six estampie texts, two with music. The most famous medieval
estampie, Kalenda Maya, is reported to have been both a vocal and instrumental
composition; the text is said to have been written by the troubadour Raimbaut de
Vaqueiras (ca. 1155–1205), to a melody he heard performed on the fiddle by two
jongleurs at the court of Montferrat.
Although the carole was one of the two most popular dance forms from the 11th to the
14th century, little is known of its music or steps. Caroling is found frequently in the
literature as a part of the picture of courtly entertainment and pastoral relaxation, as in the
13th-century romance Guillaume de Dole by Jean Renart: “Hand in hand...before the
tent, in a green pasture, the maidens and young men have begun the carole.” Reference to
“hand in hand” suggests that the carole was danced in the round, a fact confirmed by
Grocheio, who also implies that the difference between it and round dance (rondeau) was
that the round dance was danced completely in round formation, while the carole could
also use other formations, including that of a line, as in Philippe de Remi’s La Manekine
(ca. 1270): “Such a carole had never been seen, nearly a quarter league long.” In
performance, the dance leader would sing the carole verses and all of the dancers would
reply with the refrain. Numerous French carole texts survive from these centuries, but we
do not have even one musical example either of a text setting or an instrumental carole.
About the nota, little is known beyond the enigmatic statement by Grocheio that it had
a musical form that was in some ways similar to the instrumental estampie and ductia
(“either a form of carole or an incomplete estampie”). Jean Maillart’s reference to it,
cited above, where the nota is listed with caroles, estampies, and dansas, indicates that
the nota was definitely a separate form. Only two examples are known to have survived,
both from the 13th century: La Note Martinet and a piece by Adam de la Bassée, canon at
Saint-Pierre in Lille. His composition is identified as “a Notula on the composition that
begins ‘to play and dance....’” The two compositions have only vague reference to the
verse-refrain format of the estampie and carole and are formally quite different from one
another, leaving little opportunity to draw conclusions as to what a nota was. I have
speculated that perhaps nota was a term for those dances that had unique forms but bore
some resemblance to the estampie and carole.
Most of the literary evidence and references are to courtly circles, but there is the
constant suggestion that similar dances were also danced by the lower classes, especially
the carole, although the absence of material does not allow us to know how they differed.
Because the dance forms discussed above were closely related to the troubadour and
trouvère lyric tradition, they began to wane through the 14th century as the social and
political organization of France changed. One of the changes in courtly life was the
introduction of dancing masters and the sophisticated basse danse, in which the steps for
each dance were individually choreographed. Some of the earlier dance names are
occasionally found in the literature throughout the 15th century, but by then they had lost
their social status. From the early 15th century, all the earlier dance forms were
overshadowed as the basse danse became the most popular and fashionable court dance
of the century.
Timothy J.McGee
The Encyclopedia 551