The earliest recorded dance music we have dates to the 13th
century. For a span of about 150 years, several related forms
appeared in Frnace, Italy, and England. No choreographies have
survived, though several manuscripts containing music have. A
rough description of the dances, written by Johannes de Grocheio
(c. 1300), has also survived. This article describes the music
for these dances and includes suggestions for arranging and
performing these pieces. I have found that they are also fun to
compose, and include two examples of compositions in the style
of this music. Some general cautions should be applied when
doing research in this area: while there are surviving pieces,
there are too few to allow one to confidently draw conclusions.
The pieces described in this article come from a repertoire of
under two dozen pieces from three countries. This article
describes the properties of those pieces, but we cannot know if
all pieces of these types shared those properties. The estampie
is French and dates to the