katherine's blog

We've put Cupid and Death off until 2015 (it's a huge project, and we had some difficulty fitting the singers' and dancers' schedules together), so instead in September 2014 Capriol and Affetto are present "The Return of Terpsichore".

It will be a lovely, varied show, with 16th and 17th century dance and music, both refined and popular. All the usual gorgeous dances (and some new ones) to the wonderful music of Affetto, with their spectacular array of instruments: viola da gamba, theorbo, cornet, organ, recorder, sackbut, violin, and of course the human voice. 

I think I've now added all I have previously written about the various dances called Barriera - phew.

The Barriera for two in Nobilta di Dame was my first serious reconstruction project, in 2002. Then, in 2005, I studied and compared all the versions of Barriera I could find, and taught the Barriera for two from the Chigi MS, Il Ballarino, and Santucci. The Chigi MS and Santucci were both newly-published, so very exciting.

I'd forgotten quite how much material this produced.

I've finished adding my old translations of 16th-century Italian step-descriptions, at last!

Individual steps have their own pages, grouped by type. Links to all of them (and a clear indication of which I've translated and which I are still waiting) are on my concordance.

The quality is a bit variable, as these translations have been done over a number of years.

We'll see if this is a pleasing way to add informal notes about the stuff I'm currently working on. It might also be a convenient way to include running reconstructions of the improvisatory forms - new galliard and canary mutanze, for instance.