Musical Theatre at the Court of Louis XIV
Le Mariage de la Grosse Cathos

This book reproduces the entire manuscript of the ballet and provides a comprehensive study of the work itself and of the circumstances in which it was created and performed.

Rebecca Harris-Warrick (Edited and translated by), Carol G. Marsh (Edited and translated by)

9780521020220, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 September 2005

360 pages, 101 b/w illus. 1 table 10 music examples
29.6 x 20.9 x 1.8 cm, 0.872 kg

'Rebecca Harris-Warrick and Carol Marsh's superb study … reflects a significant marriage of historical research methodology and historical performance experience, presented in a lucid reader-friendly format.' Music and Letters

Dance played a major role in all French Baroque theatrical entertainments. Le Mariage de la Grosse Cathos, a short ballet performed at the court of Louis XIV, is of major importance, largely because it has survived complete in all its components - choreography, music, and text - and also because it uses a previously unknown dance notation system. This book reproduces the entire manuscript of this ballet and provides a comprehensive study of the work itself and of the circumstances in which it was created and performed. Chapters devoted to the composer, choreographer, and performers provide a framework for understanding the performance context not only of this work, but of other court entertainments of the period. A study and evaluation of the notation system in which the dances are recorded, together with a detailed analysis of the dances, completes the introduction.

Introduction
1. The performance context
2. The creators and performers
3. Le Mariage de la Grosse Cathos in performance
4. The music
5. The dance notation
6. The dances
7. The sources
Appendix A. Libretto
Appendix B. Reproduction of the article 'Choregraphie' from the Encyclopédie ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des metiers (1753).

Subject Areas: Baroque music [c 1600 to c 1750 AVGC3]