Scan 37
A dictionary of old English music & musical instruments 1923, 1923
11 lines. Read by computer on 19 September 2026. Printed page 19. See the scan on archive.org.
1the Duke "a Bergomask dance between two of our Company" (Midsummer Night's Dream, V, 1) would be difficult to explain did we not know something of its early history. It was a dance-form of a rustic nature, and originated among the peasants of that part of Lombardy which had Bergamo for centre. These peasants had the reputation—whether deserved or not, I cannot say—for being the most unsophisticated people known; and this probably explains Shakespeare's direction in the scene already mentioned: "Here a dance of Clowns."
3The form seems to have had its inception in a song peculiar to the district, and which was used to accompany the dance it named. Two specimens of such airs are contained in the Villote del Fiore (Bk. III, 1569) of Filippo Azzajuoli, words and music being given. Uccellini's Two and Three-Part Sonatas (1642) give the Bergomask as an instrumental piece. Here it appears that the tune has been taken as a Ground, labelled "Aria sopra la Bergamasca," and supplied with a number of variations over a basso ostinato.
5As a dance the Bergomask consisted of an even number of measures, generally multiples of four, and, according to most authorities, in 2/4 time. Variations in the time-signature may have existed, but two beats to the measure seems to have been the commonest indication. The example written by Piatti, the celebrated violoncellist, himself a native of Bergamo, is usually accepted as being typical of the orthodox form, though its time-signature is 6/8. Mendelssohn, writing the music for the "dance of clowns" in Midsummer Night's Dream, gives it a different form and treats it with poetic freedom.
7The circumstance that the Bergomask was not used at Court in any country may account for the paucity of examples printed; but as absolute music for the lutes and viols, it enjoyed a certain vogue for a time. Used in the country of its origin it was most probably danced to traditional tunes that may never have been written down. A specimen "Bergamasco" in lute tablature is given in J. B. Besarde's Thesaurus Harmonicus (1603), and reprinted in modern notation by Dr. O. Chilesotti (Ricordi, 1886).
9B-FA. } v. CLIFF, FLAT, and SHARP.
10B-MI. }
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.