| Title: | Ballets of songs |
| Original Title: | Ballets aux chansons |
| Volume and Page: | Vol. 2 (1752), p. 46 |
| Author: | Unknown |
| Translator: | Amanda Chase [Susquehanna University] |
| Original Version (ARTFL): | Link |
| Rights/Permissions: |
This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/terms.html for information on reproduction. |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.263 |
| Citation (MLA): | "Ballets of songs." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Amanda Chase. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2016. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.263>. Trans. of "Ballets aux chansons," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 2. Paris, 1752. |
| Citation (Chicago): | "Ballets of songs." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Amanda Chase. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.263 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Ballets aux chansons," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 2:46 (Paris, 1752). |
Ballets of songs were the first ballets made by the ancients. Eriphanis, a young Greek who passionately loved a hunter named Menalque, composed songs in which she lamented tenderly the harshness of her lover. She followed him, singing these songs, over mountains and through woods, but this unfortunate lover died of sorrow. People were not very noble in these distant times, whatever the Poets say. The adventure of Eriphanis caused a stir in Greece, because people had learned her songs, they sang them, and recreated through the songs the adventures and hardships of Eriphanis, using movements and gestures which greatly resembled dance.
Our branles are types of ballets of songs. See Branle. One could introduce these ballets into the opera. There is a sort of noble pantomime of this type in the third act of Talens Lyrique [1] which has been well-received, and which is a very pleasant invention. The dance of Terpsichore in the prologue of Fêtes Grecques et Romaines [2] must also be classified in this category. Fr. Ménétrier, Traité des Ballets [3] .
Notes:
1. Opera of Jean Phillipe Rameau from a libretto by Gautier de Montdorge, Antoine, and Jean-Baptiste-Christophe Ballard. Les Festes d’Hébé; [ou, Les Talents Lyriques]: Opéra-Ballet En 3 Entrées et Un Prologue, Fêtes d’Hébé.Vocal Score (Paris: T. Michaëlis, 188AD), http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015033632681.
2. Les Fêtes grecques et romaines, ballet héroïque, représenté par l'Académie royale de musique de Lyon en l'année 1741 .(Lyon: Aimé Delaroche, 1741), https://books.google.com/books?id=Nh2rxrJtsw8C
3. Claude-François Menestrier. Des Ballets Anciens et Modernes Selon Les Regles Du Theatre . (Paris: Chez R. Guignard, 1682), http://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32435017780768.