Comparison of the "Barriere" for two dancers

Barriera: a surprisingly popular dance!

Katherine Davies / Katharine von Regensburg, 2005.

There are nine surviving choreographies called Barriera (‘Combat at the Barriers’) in seven late 16th and early 17th C Italian sources. This article compares the five versions of Barriera for a couple that I have access to: from the Chigi MS (mid – late 16th C), Caroso’s Il Ballarino (1580), his Nobiltà di Dame (1600), Negri’s Le Gratie d’Amore (1602), and Santucci’s Maestro da Ballo (1614). Caroso also included a version for three couples in a circle in each of his books. The steps are similar, and the circle form seems to be an adaptation of the couple form. There are at least two more extant choreographies of dances called Barriera in 16th C Italian sources that I don’t have access to yet. In the introduction to her transcription of the Chigi MS Sparti says that they are concordant.

The choreographies that I have looked at are very, very similar (closer than the various Spagnolette). That, plus it’s being recorded so many times, suggests that Barriera was a very popular dance, although it is so complicated (a ballo with seven ‘verses’ followed by three sciolte).

Since we have so many sources for this dance, the way they differ can tell us something about ornamentation, or perhaps regional variation in choreographed dances. For example: riprese of various sorts, (slow, fast, side to side, all one way), saffici, and corinti seem to be interchangeable; doppii and other walking sequences are sometimes substituted for seguiti ordinarii (though the sequence “2 puntati, 4 passi, seguito” seems to be very stable); the soli are quite varied, with passi, tranghi, and spezzati being used in the same places. Negri uses .SP. (fioretti spezzati) where the other sources use spezzati or trangi, which adds some weight to the argument that Negri’s fioretti spezzati are like Caroso’s seguiti spezzati.

The Barriera for two in Caroso’s Nobiltà di Dame is by far the most divergent. He explains that he has “corrected” numerous faults (mostly a lack of symmetry) in his earlier choreography. Santucci, our latest source, uses many of Caroso’s later steps (Corinti, Saffici, Dattili, Spondei) but he doesn’t pick up any of Caroso’s choreographic corrections. That suggests that Ballarino gives a more accurate picture than Nobiltà of what 16thC Italians were actually dancing, even at the very end of the sixteenth century.

Caroso, Negri and Antonio (not available to me) include music. The tunes are concordant, but not identical. There seems to be an instrumental interlude with no steps assigned between each of the sciolte in the music provided by both Caroso and Negri. I would love to know of any other cases like this in 16th C Italian dance music.

The Choreographies

In the first column is what is common to most or all of the dances. Under the indivudual sources (arranged chronologically) I have listed differences, or extra information they give. If nothing is listed, it’s as in the first column. The description in the Chigi MS is far sparser than the others: it rarely indicates direction, and the sections that match the sciolte in the other version are not marked off from the rest of the ballo. Santucci gives the most information: he almost always specifies direction (sometimes painstakingly: “with the left foot, on the left, moving to the left side”) and often includes small details about the floor pattern that others leave out.

First playing: opening honours.

In all the versions below the couple do a Riverenza grave, two continenze, left and right, some circling to change places, and finally another Riverenza. In every version but that in Nobiltà di Dame the couple starts with the man at the right hand of the woman, i.e. ‘improper’, but they end up in the usual position (man at left) for the final Riverenza. In Nobiltà Caroso says that the dance had been wrong, as the man should always put the woman in the position of honour, at his right hand. He ‘corrects’ the dance by having the couple start facing, not holding hands. It seems the correction didn’t take, as neither Negri nor Santucci follows it.

Second, third and fourth playing: Progressing.

In most versions the couple (now holding ordinary hands) processes up and down the hall three times, once for each playing. Santucci is the only source to explain how the couple turns around (though several say to go to one end of the room then the other): he has the man lead the woman in front of him during the Seguito ordinario. By the time he wrote Nobiltà it offended Caroso’s sensibilities to have a verse be repeated three times, so he has the couple process twice, then change places in verse four, and come back in five. Most sources substitute a riverenza for the continenze in verse four.

Fifth playing (fourth and fifth in Nobiltà) : Exchanging places.

The couple turn to face, take right hands, and exchange places. The simplest version seems to be to use the same steps that were used to process (2 puntate, 4 passi, a seguiti and some riprese). Negri’s instructions are very unclear, and he doesn’t mention enough steps to use up the music. Caroso in Nobiltà has the couple exchange places and return, to keep things symmetrical. Caroso, Negri and Santucci seem to have a ‘countercurl’, but Negri’s directions, in particular, are very unlcear.

Sixth and seventh playing: Soli

The sixth playing is the man’s solo, the seventh is the woman’s. The couple start facing, but a little separate. The man approaches the woman with four steps, he steps to each side and does a riverenza, and retreats with four steps, before they riverenza together . The woman has the same solo as the man. There isn’t a lot of consistency between versions in the steps used, perhaps because a solo verse doesn’t need to stay consistent.

Sciolta Grave

The sciolte are more varied than the first part of the ballo. As usual, Caroso in 1600 is the odd one out. None of the descriptions make the floor pattern clear, but it seems that the couple start facing, but apart, approach each other, either take hands or strike hands (the first “barriers” section) then retreat into their own places. This section repeats in all the sources. Chigi has the woman strike the man’s hands the first time, and the man strike the woman’s in the repeat. Negri has the reverse.

Saltarello – At the Barriers!

This section is done facing, and is not repeated. Caroso and Negri want their dancers to hop about AND clap hands. I suspect I’m not the only one to find this difficult, as the other sources don’t mention any footwork to go with the claps.

Galliard: Making up

Here, for a change, Santucci is the odd one out. He promised at the beginning that he would give us a new galliard, and he does: “the Cavalier will do the second mutanza of two tempi on page 141 and in the same time the Lady will do the first mutanza of the galliard of the lady from page 183”. Neither page number is correct.