16th Century Dance Forms
The increasingly diverse repertory of dances
in the 16th century is reflected in the large variety of dance compositions
in the collections of lute, keyboard, and ensemble music of the time.
As in the 15th century, the starting point was usually a twin arrangement
of a slow-moving main dance followed by a lively
jumping dance. Among such pairs are the Italian bassadanza-saltarello
and the Franco-Burgundian basse-danse-pas de breban,
and the later Italian passamezzo-saltarello,
as well as the suite-like combinations such as basse
danse-recoupe-tourdion and pavana-saltarello-piva.