Capering & Kickery

Two "Branles Couppez" (Cut Branles) of Champagne

• Era: mid-1500s

"Our [musicians] of Lengres play ten in a suite, which they call the cut branles of Champagne."
          -- Capriol to Arbeau in a dialogue from Orchésographie; my translation. 

In Thoinot Arbeau's (pseudonym of Jehan Tabourot) 1589 dance manual, Orchésographie (available in English translation as Orchesography), the second set of branles he discusses are the "branles de Champagne couppez," or "cut branles of Champagne," one of a number of popular sets or "suittes" [sic] of branles.  Branles couppez, he explains, are characterized by a mix of steps, kicks, and jumps derived from the opening set of branles, with the occasional insertion of "mesures diverses" which do not follow the regular rhythms of the opening set.

Decoupements: Subdividing the Steps in Branles

• Era: mid-1500s

Young men who have great agility make decoupements at their pleasure...
         -- from a dialogue between Capriol and Arbeau from Orchésographie; my translation

In Thoinot Arbeau's (pseudonym of Jehan Tabourot) book of dances, Orchésographie (available in English translation as Orchesography), published in the late 1580s, he described four very simple branles which were generally played to open a dance.  The sequences are simple enough to quickly become dull.  Happily, Arbeau also included a solution: the decoupement, a substitution of sets of kicks for individual steps in the branles.  Adding the occasional decoupement into a branle is a good way to impress other dancers, possibly inspiring them to echo the move and start an escalating competition in decoupements.

Arbeau's Opening Set of Branles

• Era: mid-1500s

"I have noted that in good company, one ordinarily begins a dance with branles."
          -- Capriol to Arbeau in a dialogue from Orchésographie; my translation. 

When Thoinot Arbeau (pseudonym of Jehan Tabourot) published his book of dances, Orchésographie (available in English translation as Orchesography), in the late 1580s, he began his discussion of branles with a set of four easy branles with which he said musicians customarily opened a dance: Branle Double, Branle Simple, Branle Gay, and Branle de Bourgoigne (Burgundy).  He further explains that the four were danced by different age groups: the elderly would dance the first two "gravely," the young married people would dance the third, and the youngest would "lightly" or "nimbly" ("legierement" = modern "légèrement") dance the fourth.

Two Branles d'Escosse (Branles of Scotland)

• Era: mid-1500s

When Thoinot Arbeau (pseudonym of Jehan Tabourot) published his book of dances, Orchésographie (available in English translation as Orchesography), in the late 1580s, he described "regional" branles for Poitou, Brittany, and Scotland.  It is not clear whether the two Branles d'Escosse (literally "Branles of Scotland" but colloquially known as the Scottish Branles) he gives, the first and second in a suite of unknown length, were actually imported from Scotland, or merely a romantic French conception of what the Scots were doing.  The timing is suggestive: Arbeau described the Branles d'Escosse as having been "en vogue" around twenty years before, which would place them in the 1560s, soon after the marriage of the teenaged Mary Stuart to the future François II in 1558 and their brief reign from 1559-1560, though since Mary had been raised in France from the age of five, it seems unlikely that she personally introduced these dances!  Music still exists (published by Pierre Attaignant) for other suites of Branles d'Escosse, but no further dance instructions have come to light.

This pair of branles is choreographically notable in being the only standard branles to use the pied croisé (shown to the left) in which the free foot is crossed in front during a hop.  (There are grèves croisées in Arbeau's Gavottes, but those are atypical for other reasons.)