Estampie
Medieval instrumental dance.
What it means
The estampie is one of the oldest transmitted forms of instrumental music in Europe. It dates from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and is usually interpreted as a dance, even though the question of whether and how it was danced has not been conclusively settled in scholarship.
Characteristic is its construction from several sections, the so-called puncta. Each section is played twice, the two passes ending with different closing turns: an open one that leads on, and a closed one that concludes. These endings are often common to all sections and act like a refrain.
The estampie is to be distinguished from later dances such as the branle or the galliard, which belong to a different period and different formal principles.
In the notation
Estampies are transmitted in a few medieval manuscripts, usually in a single line and without indications of scoring, tempo, or rhythm in the present-day sense. Modern editions transcribe them into present-day notation and interpret the rhythm in doing so; the open and closed endings are often represented by repeat signs with first and second brackets.
Musical use
The estampie is an important testimony to the instrumental practice of the Middle Ages, of which little is otherwise transmitted in writing. Today it belongs to the fixed repertoire of ensembles for medieval music. Since the sources say little about the execution, performances rest largely on reconstruction and improvisation.
Estampies are transmitted, among other places, in the Robertsbridge Fragment and in a Parisian manuscript of the late thirteenth century. It consists of several sections, the puncta, each of which is repeated, with an open and a closed ending. It is usually transmitted in a single line.
Performance practice
Inform yourself about the state of the sources and about which parts of an edition are supplied. Bring out the open and closed endings clearly, for they articulate the form. Choose instruments and scoring with an eye to what is attested for the period. And use the repeats for variants — the practice of the time was presumably more flexible than the transmitted text.