Michael Praetorius – Bransle de la Torche à 5 from "Terpsichore"
Michael Praetorius's dance collection "Terpsichore" is the largest unified collection of instrumental that survives from early seventeenth-century Germany. It consists of dances in 4, 5, and 6 parts and can be performed on any combination of instruments. This selection is a bransle, a peasant dance thought to have originated in France. It was performed by concentric circles of dancers who may have traded off dancers between the circles as they changed direction of movement from clockwise to counter-clockwise. The heavy down-beats call to mind the stamping of muddy boots.
Recorded at St. Martin's Lutheran Church in Austin, TX, on May 22, 2021.