Anglaise [anglois, angloise]

(Fr.: ‘English’).

18th-century term used on the Continent to refer to various types of English dance, primarily the ever-popular country dances, but occasionally also the hornpipe. Country dances were a recreational activity in the French court of Louis XIV as early as the 1680s, but they were soon altered to conform to French taste by the use of characteristic French steps such as the pas de bourrée and the contretemps de gavotte; the resulting hybrid was called Contredanse. In 1699 Ballard published a Suite de danses … qui se joüent ordinairement aux bals chez le Roy which contained 17 ‘contredanses anglaises’.

Pieces entitled ‘anglaise’ are generally in a style reminiscent of the music accompanying country dances: they may be in duple or triple metre or in 6/8, and they have an obvious accent on the first beat of the bar; the melodies are lively, often covering a wide range and with some disjunct motion. Examples of the stylized anglaise may be found in J.S. Bach’s French Suite no.3, J.C.F. Fischer’s Musicalischer Parnassus (where they are called ‘balet anglois’ or ‘air angloise’), and Telemann’s Ouverture in F minor for strings and basso continuo (Musikalische Werke, x, Kassel, 1955). All of these pieces are in duple metre with no upbeat and in a bipartite form consisting of two strains, each of which is repeated.

German theorists who described the anglaise include Mattheson, who applied the term to English ballads and hornpipes as well as country dances (Der vollkommene Capellmeister, 1739), D.G. Türk (Clavierschule, 1789) and H.C. Koch (Lexikon, 1802). The anglaise was popular until the late 18th century; an example may be found in the third movement of the string quartet by E.-B.-J. Barrière, op.3 no.2, 1778.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

C. Sachs: Eine Weltgeschichte des Tanzes (Berlin, 1933; Eng. trans., 1937/R)

J.-M. Guilcher: La contredanse et les renouvellements de la danse française (Paris, 1969)

MEREDITH ELLIS LITTLE