{{Short description|French Renaissance dance}} {{Italic title}} The '''''tourdion''''' (or ''tordion'') (from the French verb "tordre" / to twist) is a lively dance, similar in nature to the galliard, and popular from the mid-15th to the late-16th centuries, first in the Burgundian court and then all over the French kingdom.<ref>{{Citation |last=Halfyard |first=Janet|title=tordion |date=2011-01-01 |work=The Oxford Companion to Music |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199579037.001.0001/acref-9780199579037-e-6847?rskey=zOJsbk&result=1 |access-date=2025-01-29 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780199579037.001.0001/acref-9780199579037-e-6847 |isbn=978-0-19-957903-7}}</ref><!--The Encyclopedia Britannica article says nothing about this, and it is doubtful that the tourdion was known at all after the 1530s. Arbeau's book clearly indicates it was long out of fashion by 1589.--> The dance was accompanied frequently by the basse danse, due to their contrasting tempi, and were danced alongside the pavane and galliard, and the allemande and courante, also in pairs.{{Citation needed|date=March 2016}}<!--Previously cited reference, [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-15700/Western-music#363047.hook], formerly noted as {{Failed verification|date=October 2014}}("This article does not claim that the 15th/16th century Basse danse/tourdion pair was dance alongside even the slightly later pavane/galliard pair, let alone the allemande/courante pair of the 17th century!")has now been changed to a generic definition of "Western Music".-->
{{listen|filename=Harmonica sings Tourdion.flac|title=The Swedish choir Harmonica sings a tourdion ("Quand je bois du vin clairet").}} In a triple meter, the tourdion's "was nearly the same as the Galliard, but the former was more rapid and smooth than the latter".<ref>{{cite book|author=Sir George Grove|author-link=George Grove|title=A Dictionary of Music and Musicians: (A.D. 1450–1889)|date=1889|volume=4|page=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmusi04grov_0/page/154 154]|publisher=Macmillan And Co.|publication-date=1890|publication-place=London|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmusi04grov_0}}</ref> Pierre Attaingnant published several tourdions in his first publication of collected dances in 1530, which contains, as the sixth and seventh items, a basse dance entitled "La Magdalena" with a following tourdion<ref>{{cite book|editor=Pierre Attaingnant|editor-link=Pierre Attaingnant|title=Neuf basses dances deux branles vingt et cinq Pauennes auec quinze Gaillardes en musique a quatre parties|date=1530|publisher=Pierre Attaingnant|location=Paris|pages=fol. iiv–iiir|url=http://imslp.org/wiki/51_Galliards,_Pavans,_Branles_and_Basse_Dances_(Attaingnant,_Pierre)}}</ref> (it was only in 1949 that César Geoffray arranged this "following" tourdion as a four-voice chanson, by adding the lyrics "Quand je bois du vin clairet...").{{Citation needed|date=May 2019}} Thoinot Arbeau later documented information about the tourdion in his work ''{{ill|Orchésographie|fr||ca||de||hu||ja|オルケゾグラフィ|ru|Орхезогра́фия}}'' (''Orchesography'', pp. 49–57), published in 1589.
== Dance elements ==
Nearly all variations on the dance are based upon the simple ''cinq pas'' (five step) tourdion.{{Citation needed|date=October 2014}}<!--Arbeau nowhere mentions any "five-step tourdion". Although he says the tourdion is closely related to the galliard and uses the same music, all his references to "the five steps" are only in connection with the galliard.--> The ''cinq pas'' begins in either a ''posture droit'' or ''posture gauche'' (the former with the right foot slightly in front, the latter with the left), with weight evenly distributed between the feet. Assuming a ''posture gauche'', a ''pied en l'air droit'' and a ''petit saut'' follow in one beat, that is, a small kick of the right foot into the air at the same time as a slight hop as to land with the left foot (It should be remembered that all ''pieds en l'air'' are accompanied by the ''petit saut'' of the opposite foot.).
The step is repeated as a ''pied en l'air gauche'', with the left foot kicked into the air and a slight hop to land upon the right. The two steps are then repeated, with care that the kicks are small (as the dance is brisk). Following the four kicks, one performs a ''saut moyen''—a small jump into the air that pulls the feet into the ''posture gauche'' or ''droit''—whichever is the opposite of the first. This combination of the ''saut moyen'' and the ''posture'' is typically called a ''cadence''.
The process repeats, mirrored to reflect the new starting posture, until the song ends.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/lod/vol1/galliardintro.html|title=The Galliard and Tourdion: An Introductory Description}}</ref><ref>Arbeau, Thoinot: ''Orchesography'', translated by Mary Stuart Evans, with a new introduction and notes by Julia Sutton and a new Labanoation section by Mireille Backer and Julia Sutton (New York: Dover Books, 1967): 78–79, 93–97.</ref>
== Notes == <references/>
Category:Renaissance dance Category:Renaissance music Category:Triple time dances Category:French dances Category:Dance forms in classical music