La Traditora

By Il Papa

transcription and translation

Notes

• Note that feet in red are explicit in the text.

• Music for this dance appears in a variety of sources (see the music page). The simplest form, in Arbeau, is in gagliard time, broken into 4-bar segments. We are told by Ms. Koch (again, see music page) that this is typical, but could be interpretted in a number of ways in the other sources. For simplicity, however, we are assuming the gagliard form.

  If one assumes the 'chorus' (reverences for everyone, then the sides do a volta di lasso while the center comes between them) takes 4 measures - i.e., one musical section - then 80% of the dance fits nicely and easily. Working forward from the beginning of the dance, everything fits nicely until what we have marked as measure 17. Working backwards from the end of the dance, everything fits nicely back to what we have marked as measure 24. But measures 17-24 are somewhat problematic.

  What the text says is:

  And the lady leaves from the middle with four passetti. And when this has been doen, the men, giving right hands, change places with 4 passetti. Then all three do the riprese. Then all together give hands, and each one, while touching hands, does 4 passetti and they do this two times, so that they come to return to their place."

  Note that the only time in this in which anyone changes places is in the 4 passetti that the men do. So when he says, "they do this two times, so that they come to return to their place", "this" must refer back at least to there.

  Also note that the number of riprese is completely unspecified. If we assume that number is 1, then we have 4 measures, repeated twice, and voila! we have our fit with the music!