The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1905-06-30
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The Origin of the Waltz.

The opinion generally held is that
France received the waltz from Ger
many toward the close of the eight
eenth century, and among many be-
liefs this contains the most truth; but
the Justice of attributing to Germanic
influence the renaissance of the waltz
in France does not of necessity verify
the statement that it had its origin IN
Germany.
The waltz did not emanate in its
present form from the brain of a dane
ing master. Long before 1880, the
time when we find it first mentioned
under this name, its graceful curves
and cadences we're displayed on the
village green's as we'll as in the golden
salons Of palaces; it had its alternatives
of vogue and neglect, Its supporters
0Iu
The wal,z, like many other secular
things, we find first in the church,
where, in the midst of baroaric disor-
der. it serves to trace the union between
ancient civilization and that OF the
middle ages. The sacred dance of the
pagans is preserved to certain point
in Christian rites; it is transformed to
a series of revolutions made to the
sound OF the tambourine. St Isidore,
archbishop of Seville, born about A.
D. $50, was intrusted by the Council
of Tolide with the revision of the lit
urgy as it was then practised in the
Roman Church, in which there was a
sort of tambourine dance. The coun-
Gil decided to adopt the Isidorian lit
urgy in all Spain, and it differed but
little from that used in other countries
at that time. This rite, celebrated be-
fore the eighth century, when the
Moors first invaded Spain, was still
celebrated 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 Moorish rite.
This was known and employed in
Provence and Italy. The tambourine
in use in this religious dance was call
ed by St Isidore "moitie de sym
phonie," and evidently corresponded
to the instrument which, in the an
cient sacred dances, accompanied the
flute, a sort of bagpipe invented two
centuries B. c. And thus, as the
religious dance of the middle ages IS
allied to the ancient sacred dance, 80
the waltz is an evolution of this relig-
ious dance, having passed through
many changes before arriving at it's
present form.
In the eleventh century, when the
Gregorian rite supplanted the Moor
ish rite, the dance disappeared from
the church ltappeared very quickly
in society under the name of carole, a
word derived from the Latin caroler;
afterward under that of basse dance,
in which the grand prelates, kings,
and die nitaries do not disdain to join.
1t was 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
we're the people-used the last part,
called the turdion, 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 romanesco, and
from there it passed to Provence and
southern Germany, but in each OF these
countries it was diversified and devel-
opel according to the character of the
people.
In Provence it soon became the gail