London Manuscript

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Early fifteenth-century Tuscan manuscript which is held at the British Museum in London (GD-Lbl Add.29987). It contains four Saltarelli pieces so designated found on ff62r-63v, bookended by eight estampie, a “trotto” and the relatively well-known pieces La Manfredina and Lamento di Tristano. The first of these four saltarelli is the one that is most frequently played and recorded. A signature figuration of this otherwise untitled work is the rising fifth found in the fifth and sixth bars of the piece. In some instances, this saltarello is combined with the trotto that comes at the end of this group of dances as given in the manuscript source. No author or compiler is known for any of these works. This catchy, folk-style fourteenth century monophonic dance melody from Italy is an estampie in two parts (prima, secunda), one of the shorter melodies to be found in a manuscript, presumably written for the solo vielle (viola) and perhaps other mid-range solo instruments, that is preserved in the British Museum. There are many other such collections of estampie or independent melodies without text, counterpoint or harmony, the name possibly coming from the Latin terms “stare”/to stand, and “pes”/foot, or possibly the name is an old French term for stamping the foot. But in fact there are some estampie (many of which can be quite long, up to 100 measures plus repeats) that may not have been intended as dances. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA Lice