| The loure, a French theatrical dance and air, flourished during the reign of King Louis XIV and spread throughout much of Europe during the eighteenth century. The music for this dance is generally characterized by its slow tempo, 6/4 time signature, iambic pickup and sautillant rhythms. The evolution of this dance, from its emergence in Jean-Baptiste Lully's operas and ballets through stabilization in the works of Andre Campra and his contemporaries to diffusion in Georg Telemann's works and the late operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau both support these general characteristics and exhibit flexibility within these limited traits.; The following study examines three types of source material in separate databases: definitions, music, and notated dances. Although some aspects of the loure arise in only one type of source, the three databases complement each other and together form a well-rounded portrait of the loure through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. |
