[DOWNLOAD] Renaissance Dances - Brass Octet

Commissioned by Hanasaki Tokuharu High School Band (Director: Tomoko Kawaguchi) for ensemble contest in 2012. They won gold prize at the regional competition.

Pierre Attaignant (1494-1551) was a French composer and performer of the Renaissance and is also renowned as the first print music publisher in history. He was appointed as a royal music publisher and custodian, responsible for publishing more than 500 imprints. While many of his works are vocal, there are collections of lute and keyboard instruments and seven volumes of dances for instrumental music.

Claude Gervaise, a court musician, viol player and composer, is listed as a co-editor in the title of this collection. Only five of seven volumes were published during Attaignant's life, but Gervais served as his assistant before Attaignant passed away and continued to assist his wife who took over publication after his death. However, details remain unknown about Gervais's life (including his birth and death years).

The seven-volume dance collections contain not only the works of Attaignant and Gervaise but also various dances from the same period. This brass octet arrangement consists of four dances: "Basse Danse 'La Volunte'", "Gaillarde" from Volume 2, and "Pavane Passamaize and Gaillarde", "Pavane d'Angleterre and Galliarde" from Volume 6.

(Makoto Onodera)