The Royal Ballet of the Dowager of Bilbao’s Grand Ball by Daniel Rabel
(Photo Credit: FR.Wikipedia)

Ballet des fées des forêts de Saint-Germain – Entrée des Esperlucates
(Photo credit: FR.Wikipedia)[1]

Dances

• Ballet de cour
• Suite (a music form normally containing dance music)

In 1635, Louis XIII of France composed the Ballet de Merlaison.

As for Suites, they are a musical composition most of which contain a number of dances, such as the minuet.

I have featured a minuet composed by Italian-born Luigi Boccherini, who worked in Spain. His minuet is classical.

However, Boccherini was also influenced by the music of Spain and Portugal, Iberian music: the Passacaglia and the Fandango.

Daniel Rabel

Daniel Rabel (1578 – 1637), an artist, was the stage and costume designer for two ballets.

• “Les Fées de la forêt de Saint-Germain” (First performed in February 1625)[2]
• “Ballet de la Douairière de Billebahaut” (First performed in February 1626)

The Grotesque

Rabel could not resist a “grotesque” presentation of his ballets: Les Fées des forêts de Saint-Germain (1625) & The Royal Ballet of the Dowager of Bilbao’s Grand Ball (1626).

RELATED ARTICLES

1. Boccherini’s Iberian Music: the Passacaglia & the Fandango (11 August 2012)
2. Daniel Rabel’s “Grotesque” Depictions of Ballet (10 August 2012)
3. The Ballet de cour, the Grotesque & a Minuet by Boccherini (8 August 2012)
4. The Duc de Joyeuse & Louis XIII as Composer (7 August 2012)

La Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid

Boccherini’s La Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid is our best example of Iberian music by Boccherini.

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[1] In the Wikipedia English entry for Rabel, this image is identified as a depiction of the ballet for the dowager of Bilbao.

[2] “Ballet of the Fairies of the Forest of Saint-Germain”

La Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid, Op. 30 n. 6 (G. 324), Jordi Savall

© Micheline Walker
10 December 2015
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