Rhythmic Gesture in Mozart
Wye Jamison Allanbrook's book on dance rhythms as character
Dances often connote certain character or personality traits in our minds. Composers have often used these cultural associations as a musical shorthand.
Composers of the 18th-century (especially Mozart) used dance rhythms to indicate the particular personality traits or class attributes that their opera characters bore. Dances in the 18th-century had clearly recognizable rhythmic patterns, and each was associated with a certain class in 18th-century, continental European society.
For example, the stately minuet (a rather difficult and polished dance form of the courtroom) would often indicate that an opera character was from the upper classes. The slow, delicate, mincing character of this dance (with three even beats per measure) was not only practiced by the members of the aristocratic court, but it also imitated the refinement and decorum that supposedly marked the upper class.
A gigue, on the other, with its quick and light triplets would indicate that a character was from the lower, peasant classes. The middle and upper classes thought that peasants were less restrained in their movements, and thus the liveliness of the gigue reflected that belief.
For more information regarding the use of dance rhythms in 18th-century opera, particularly in Mozart's operas, please read Wye Jamison Allanbrook's book, Rhythmic Gesture in Mozart.
She provides a fascinating look at all the dance forms available to composer and his audience alike. Dance rhythms seem to be a particularly effective way of communicating movement, because the pacing of the music provides us clues on how to move. 18th-century audiences then associated those movements with the values they attributed to various levels of society.
We do the same today. Do you find yourself listening to waltzes and thinking of romance? Or listening to Copland square dances and thinking of pioneers and cowboys? You are simply continuing the practice of drawing associations between dance rhythms and characters.
