7.1 The development of instrumental music and music printing
In the second half of the sixteenth century, the history of dance was intertwined with the evolution of instrumental music. The need to compose texts intended for dance, in fact, offers composers the inspiration for the creation of a rhythmic framework in an era in which, as the "metronome" did not yet exist, the "tactus" was measured by heart rate. Tersichore, a collection by the composer Michael Praetorius, a fundamental figure for the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque as well as one of the main exponents of the German musical Renaissance, testifies to the influence that the dances in vogue in that period also exerted on composers who mainly dedicated themselves to Holy music. Terpsichore contains 312 short texts of music and songs for dance, offering an overview of the entertainment dances in vogue in France at the author's time.
The vast publishing production that followed the invention of movable type printing also contributed to the development of music, and therefore of dance music, in the European Renaissance. In 1501 the first collection of printed music made with movable type was published in Venice, the anthology entitled Harmonicae Musices Odhecaton, including 96 polyphonic chansons by Franco-Flemish authors. But it was the typographer-publisher Ottaviano Petrucci da Fossombrone (1466-1539) who gave a turning point to musical printing, inventor of a complex system called "triple impression" based on three phases: in the first phase the musical staves were printed, in the second the notes and the various musical symbols and in the third the words of the text. The difficulty was making the three parts fit together perfectly. Having adapted Gutenberg's invention to musical texts marked a turning point in the history of music and Petrucci obtained an exclusive from the Republic for the printing of musical scores.
The music press deserves the credit of having saved from oblivion a heritage of dances, mostly anonymous, therefore linked to tradition, which were very popular in Europe at the time and whose degree of diffusion is revealed precisely by the presence of a same dance in more than one collection. In these anthologies, among the traditional dances of European origin, others appear whose names document the cultural contributions that come from the "new world", which the European powers begin to colonize. Thus, alongside the already well-known pavana, gagliarda and branle, dances with exotic notes such as sarabande, canario and chaconne make their appearance.
In the category of publishers, Pierre Attaingnant, who lived between 1494 and 1552, occupies a prominent place. From his native Douai, he arrived in Paris in 1514 to dedicate himself to the book trade; its first edition Chansons nouvelles en musique à quatre partie, dating back to 1527, was followed by around a hundred musical collections which represent almost all of the French production of the first half of the 16th century. Thanks to him, the unique movable type printing developed in France. In fact, Attaignant perfected the technique invented by Ottaviano Petrucci, significantly reducing the costs of printing books, allowing for greater production and, consequently, wider diffusion. In addition to being a publisher, Attaignant was also a composer of dances and chansons, including the famous turdjon, the name with which he titled the second part of the dance La Magdalena, due to its excited and whirlwind character. The dance was very successful throughout the century, but experienced a rapid decline at the beginning of the next, until its definitive disappearance.
Much dance music is contained in the Intabolatura de Lauto by Marc'Antonio del Piffero, published in Venice in 1546. It is largely music for the chiaranzana, a court dance similar in structure to the better-known pass'e mezzo.
The Flemish Tyelman (or Tylman) Susato (circa 1515-1566) was, as well as a musician, a music publisher. Active in Antwerp, he was first a trumpet player until, in 1543, he started a publishing business which developed widely and was continued after his death by his son Jakob. As a publisher Susato published over fifty volumes of music including some of his own compositions; The famous collection of Danseryes dances dates back to 1551.