2 Allemandes
Pierre Phalése
This is a set of 2 Allemandes from the music collection of Pierre Phalése (1510 - 1573), also known by his slightly Latinized name Petrus Phalesius.
Pierre Phalése started a book company in Louvain (Flanders, Belgium) in 1545 and quickly expanded it to a publishing house. In four years he published six collections of lute tablatures with mant dances and arrangements of well-known songs and motets. Later he improved his production methods, which enabled him to increase his output.
Some call him composer, but in fact he was a music collector. Nobody complained about being “collected” by him, because music publications were rare in those days: if you were published as a composer, you were almost famous. Thus there is a lot of “borrowed” music in Phalése’s publications -presently they wouyld call that piracy- with music by famous composers such as Attaignant, Le Roy, Valderrabano and Newsidler.
An Allemande is a quiet step dance in duple metre with often an upbeat. The dance is almost ceremonial. Both Allemandes are not very difficult as long as you keep a moderate tempo.