The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-02-23
ORIGIN OF WALTZING
THE DANCE AN EVOLUTION FROM A
CHURCH CUSTOM.

Its Various TrRnsformationsT Through
Many Centuries Until 1t Assumed
It's Present characteristics In Ger
many In 1850.
The opinion most generally conceded Is
that France received the waltz from Ger
many toward the close of the eighteenth
, century, and among many lNliefs this
contains the most truth, but the justice of
attributing to Germanic influence the re-
naissance of the waltz in France does not
of necessity verify the statement that it
had its origin in Germany.
Like everything else that touches hui
mainly where nothing is born spontsnes
ously, but everything is the product os n
series of successive evolutions, the waltz
did not emanate in its present form from
the brain Of dancing master. Long be-
fore 1880, the time when we find 1t first
mentioned under this name, its graceful
curves and cadences were displayed on the
village green's as we'll as in the golden
salons of palaces.
The waltz, like many other secular
things, we find first In the church, where
in the midst of barbaric disorder it serves
to trace the union between ancient civil
cation and that of the middle ages The
sacred dance Of IL pagans is preserved to
certain point II Christian rites. 1t is
transformed to series Of eyOlutions
made to the sound Of the tambourine. St.
Isidore, archbishop Of Seville, born about
A. d. $50, was intrusted by the council
Of Toledo with the revision of the liturgy
as 1t was then practiced in the Roman
church, in which there wks tambourine
dance. The council decided to adopt the
Isidorian liturgy In all Spain, and it
differed but little from that used in other
countries at that time. This rite, cele-
brated before the eighth century, when the
Moors first invaded Spain, was still cele-
brated by the Christians in the seven
churches Of Toledo which the Moors
abandoned after their capture of the city
and was after that time called the Moor
ish rite.
This was known and employed in Pro-
vence and Italy. The tambourine in Use in
this religious dance was called by st. Isl
dore "moitie de symphonic" and evident
ly correspondent to the instrument which
in the ancient sacred dances accompanied
the flute, sort of bagpipe invented two
centuries B. G. And thus, as the religious
dance of the middle ages is allied to the
ancient sacred dance, so the waltz is an
evolution Of this religious dance.
In the eleventh century, when the Gre
gorlan rite supplanted the Moorish rite,
the dance disappeared from the church.
1t appeared very quickly in society un!er
the name of carole, word derived from
the Latin caroler; afterward under that
Of basse dance, in which the grand Trel-
ates, kings and dignitaries did not dstlain
to join, composed Of three parts, two very
slow and one more lively.
The people-and at this time all who
were not Of the clergy or royalty were the
people-used the latter part, called the
tourdion, which, lighter and more lively,
appealed to them, and little by little it
became changed. In Italy it was first
separated from the rest under the name
Of romanesca, and from there it passed to
Provence and southern Germany, but in
each Of these countries it was diversified
and developed according to the character
Of the people.
In Provence 1t soon became the gaillard, e.
and this name indicates the character Of
the Transformation.
Five hundred years later they danced
the volte, which was in turn a trans
formation Of the gaillard. The measure
was ternary like the latter and might be
designated technically thus: Two stops
skip, feet together, pause. The man
first faced the opposite couple, then
skipped on the loft foot, turning the left
shoulder toward them. Repeating this
four times, he again faced the other
dancers. AS for the lady, her movements
wero reduced to embracing as tightly MS
possible the neck OF her cavalier
As can be seen at once, this dance re-
sembled the waltz In three ways-it was
danced in three time, it was the first dance
in which turn was made and the first in
which the dancer embraced his partner.
The latter, in fact, did not touch the
ground The cavalier held her suspended
with his left arm az he executed the four
movements described above.
At the court OF Valots the volte was a
favorite dance, especially with Catherine
de- Medici, while Henry II was charmed
with the psalm which Clement Marot ser
to an air Of the vote, thinking perhaps
that what came from the church should
60 back to the church. The volte, as did
later the waltze, turned the heads Of this
court. The queen, Marguerite de Ma
varre wife Of Henry w. was an admira-
BILE vOlteuse.
After the corrupt court of Valois had
been dispersed by the league, and Henry
III, the last Of the great volteurs, had fall
len under the knife of Jacques Clement,
this dance disappeared forever from court,
city and people. Though it greatly re-
sembled the wa'tz, the latter did not de-
scend from 1t directly, but was rather the
younger sister of 1t.
In fact, the rOmanesca, transported as
we have said to Provence and southern
Germany, was developed in these countries
very differently-in Provence into the
gaillard and vote, while the Germans,
more dreamy and slow, changed the
romanesca into the german and waltz.
The yolte succumbed while young 70
oblivion in the sixteenth century by very
reason of Its excess, but the german lived
long and produced the waltz which reigns
to-day.
ADOUt ltoU all OCCuTlVu winch
tended to fix definitely the waltz among
German customs in Its present form and
nainc placing it in high society and maxi
Ing 1t known to foreigners. This was its
Introduction in al opera by Vincent Mar
tin, Una Cosa Nara," which in 1857 de-
throned at Vienna the Figaro Of Mo-
cart Four characters in this opera,
Lubia, Vita, Chita and Lila, dressed in
black and rose color, danced on the stage
the first waltz.
The favorable reception of the opera
drew the attention Of society to
the dance, and under the name of cosa
vara 1t Immediately became the fashion
and shortly afterwurd assumed the name
Of waltz, by which it has been known ever
since.
Thus from the tourdion Of the aristo- |
sratic dance, transformed by the people, /
was born the rolnanesca, which became in
France the gaillard and volto and in Ger
many, through various stages, emerged a, !
last into the waltz, and this last avatar OF !,
the old dance Of the eleventh century !
seems to DO installed definitely and to have
fred the fancy Of tina world Partisan.
DOES THIS STRIKE YOU |