Pierre Attaingnant’s only book of dances for a keyboard instrument. The tunes are often elaborated.
The present volume is a complete edition of Pierre Attaingnant’s collection of keyboard dances – the earliest surviving printed source of its kind – the full title of which reads as follows:
Quartorze Gaillardes nerf Pavennes sept Branles et deux Basses Dances le tout reduict de musique en la tabulature du jeu D’orgues Espinettes Manicordions et telz semblables instrumentz musicaulx (henceforth referred to as QGN).
Daniel Heartz, in his catalogue of the Attaingnant production says that the collection appeared in 1531, before June 18. By the time QGN appeared, Attaingnant had already issued three collections of chanson intabulations and three of sacred pieces. This may possibly explain the fact that the title page mentions organs, harpsichords and clavichords in that order: presumably the editor simply repeated the formula already used for pieces that would have been suitable for the organ, and we should not assume that the present dances were intended to be played on organs, even small ones.
