In the long process of development which songs and dances thus undergo at the hands of composers, they of course lose to some extent their contrasting characters, until in modern music the dance and the song elements are as inextricably interwoven as the warp and the woof of a well-made fabric.
As imitation is only slightly available in homophonic music, the unity so vital to all art is attained in dances chiefly by transpositions of motives, often in systematic "sequences," by more or less exact balance of phrases, and by restatement after contrast. In crude examples these means are crudely used; in the work of masters they are treated with more subtlety and elasticity; but always a careful analysis will discover them. It will now prove enlightening to compare, from this point of view, three dance tunes of very different degrees of merit.
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FIGURE XVII.
A "Branle" or "Brawl" from Arbeau's Orchesographie, (1545).
Figure XVII shows an ancient "Branle" or "Brawl" of the sixteenth century, taken from Arbeau's "Orchesographie," published in 1545.
The strong meter, causing a distinct accent on the first note of each measure, will at once be noted, especially if it be contrasted with the more moderate accentuation of the folk-songs of Chapter II. Such strong meter is naturally characteristic of all dance tunes, intended as they are to guide and stimulate the regular steps of the dancer.
The phrase balance, though marked, is not absolutely regular, but the two two-measure phrases at the beginning and the single one at the end suffice to give an impression of pronounced symmetry. The six-measure phrase after the double-bar is generated by the sequential treatment of the little motive of measure 5.