French danse chantee and the concept of «character'» in the music of the age of Louis XIV

Danse chantee (dance song) is a kind of baroque dance which became widespread in the musical-theater productions in France in the 17th early 18th centuries. This phenomenon was of some importance not only for dance practice, but also for instrumental and vocal music in French in the age of Moliere and Lul-ly. As a clear confirmation of the importance of the so called affect theory, danse chantee allows musicians and listeners of today to much better understand the expressive meaning the authors and performers of the baroque music put into their works. Danse chantee directly interacts with another concept which was important for the French music danse de caractere (''dance with character"). It was a benchmark in the field of emotional and artistic expression for composers during the 18th century. It is important to note that the word caractere has two meanings: it does not only indicate the emotional qualities of the person (as it was used by La Bruyere), but is was used in the sense of a special "sign", "mark", "imprint". For musicians of the 17th early 18th centuries the word ''caractere'' also had both meanings. Music theorist M. Mersenne in his treatise "Harmonie Universelle" has described the system of printed characters (''carateres d'imprimerie''), by which the poet could arrange the "accents of passion" like "little flame tips" in the lyrics. They point to the increased expression of the singer voice's tone, special clarity of articulation, tempo changes of vocal speech. At the same time Mersenne used the term ''carateres d'imprimerie'' to name ''rhythmic movements'' (mouvements rythmiques) of poems that are based on long vowel sounds of French prosody (we can recognize long vowels in writing due to special characters). The conception of the character in music was formed on the basis of the historically close relationship of poetry and dance. It is dance that preserves this relationship and is a real symbol of the French Baroque, and has become one of the most exciting forms of imprinting soul movements. That is why composers in search of ideas of their works appealed to common French dances, and instrumentalists did phrasing and articulation similar to dance movements. Performers translated the character of the musical composition in a special way as if they suggested the emotional content on public, imitating the speaker. Steps, gestures and postures of the dancers were the mute equivalent of passionate words used in the speech and rhetorical figures. In case of the danse chantee singers and instrumentalists together with the dancer had to imitate the exaggerated articulation of consonants and the expressive sound of long recited vowels (each in its own way), they had to understand the emotional message, marked by melodic accents and embellishments. They had to do it because they worked with the characters (signs) of the feelings contained in the French dance with character. Their description can help all modern musicians feel the music of the French Grand siecle more subtly and deeply.

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