Anglaise
A stylised English dance in the suite.
What it means
Anglaise is the French word for “English” and denotes a dance in the English manner. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the term was not fixed to a single dance but was used for various dances that counted as English — in particular for forms of the contredanse, the line dance stemming from England.
In the suite the Anglaise appears as a stylised dance no longer intended for dancing but as an instrumental movement. It stands there among the so-called galanteries, those additional movements that could be inserted between the fixed core dances.
Characteristic is a rapid character in duple metre, usually two or four quarters, with clear phrase articulation. The Anglaise is to be distinguished from the Écossaise, the “Scottish” dance, which became independent in the nineteenth century, although it too had little to do with Scottish folk music.
In the notation
The Anglaise usually stands in duple or quadruple metre, divided into two repeated sections. The melody is plain and rhythmically pithy, frequently with an upbeat. The designation stands as a movement heading.
Musical use
As a suite movement the Anglaise is met with in keyboard and orchestral suites of the late Baroque. In the eighteenth century it was at the same time a popular social dance, published in collections for practical use. The designation shows how strongly dance fashions then travelled across national borders and altered their character in the process.
The Anglaise was spread in France and Germany in the eighteenth century as a fashionable dance and derived from the English country dance. In Baroque suites it appears as a lively movement in duple metre, usually with an upbeat and a clear division into four-bar groups. Later it merged into the contredanse.
Performance practice
Play lightly and tautly; the Anglaise is a rapid, bright dance. Work out the emphases clearly and keep upbeats light. Show the phrase articulation without heaviness. And observe the repeats — in Baroque practice the second repeat is often ornamented.