Terpsichore

Michael Praetorius (aka Mike Schultze) was a near exact contemporary of Shakespeare and by all accounts a fellow of letters and a musician of some skill. Terpsichore was the muse of the dance and in 1612, he (Mike "Praetorius" - the 'latin' equal of or for Schultze) - put together a compendium of instrumental dance pieces of the time and named the collection after her (Terpsichore or terp -sic -or - e) -  music he mostly if not entirely wrote and they have exotic titles - Lytle Blayk for instance,  after which I named my first cat, being one of them.

This is a great source of renaissance/early baroque dance music and exhibits all forms of the time -an early American Bandstand - the stuff they played at the court and here are three from the collection, 2 bourrees and 1 volta and what follows is the Volta from the dance scene from Shakespeare in Love. 

400 years ago there were bands and dances and that is what people did. Terpsichore, the muse, was aways depicted as sitting somewhere with a lyre and playing music for other's entertainment.  A Greek Beatle I guess.

Now you can say you have heard the music of the time of Shakespeare and there are tons recordings of these nifty little dance pieces.  Next time you have a cocktail party, instead of endless big band CDs providing mood music, try one of these.  Honestly, they grow on you.

Just thought you would like to know.