NAVRS November Playing Meeting with Marea Chernoff

Dancing through Time

Though not always in the same way, music and dance have been intricately connected throughout history. Back in the mists of time, music accompanied dancing, but very little of it survives as most of it was not written down.  With the introduction of the printing press in the Renaissance, this all changed and dance music for both court and countryside circulated widely.  Though these dances enjoyed a more formal and complex construction than in earlier centuries, this music was still intended to be danced to.  A century or so later, in the Baroque era, dance music remained popular, but grew ever more sophisticated.  The majority of these compositions were meant to evoke the dance rather than to accompany it, a trend that continues to the present day.  During the playing meeting, we will trace these changing traditions across four centuries and enjoy playing a variety of dance-inspired compositions, including works by Morley, Bach, Fauré and Shostakovich.