The dances of Posch’s collection Musicalische Ehrenfreudt as functional music

Abstract

Posch’s collection of ensemble pieces for four string instruments, his Musicalische Ehrenfreudt of 1618, contains four types of dances, which were to accompany actual dancing during noble feasts, so may be considered functional music par excellence. Italian choreographed dances by Cesare Negri and Fabritio Caroso were cultivated in the first decade of the 17th century among the Inner-Austrian nobility in Graz, who were Posch’s patrons. Given the complete absence of contemporary German sources concerning actual dance-steps of the period, solutions for the practical reconstruction of Posch’s dances may, it is suggested, be taken from the descriptions of steps and figures in the dance manuals of Thoinot Arbeau, as well as in those of the already mentioned Caroso and Negri.