d'Aubat de Saint-Flour: 109 contredanses from Ghent

About d’Aubat de St. Flour

Robert Daubat, who styled himself d'Aubat de Saint-Flour, was born at Saint-Flour in the Cantal on 8 February 1714 and died in Ghent on 15 December 1782. He trained as a dancer and dance master rather than as a composer in the church or theatre sense. The son of a saddler, he arrived in Ghent in 1752 with his wife, Michelle Le Quay of Mons, and made his name there with the pantomime L'Amour d'Arlequin at the city theatre.

In Ghent he directed dances and choirs for the Jesuit college and supplied music for its school plays, including Nabuchodonosor (1758), Lapsus angelorum (1759), Jacobus Machabaeorum (1760) and Susanna (1762). He published three Italian motets in 1762, joined the theatre orchestra as second violin in 1768, and worked until 1780 as dance master to the colleges and convent boarding schools.

His principal publication is Cent contredanses en rond, propres à exécuter sur toutes sortes d'instruments, avec les basses chiffrées pour le clavecin, printed in Ghent in 1757. Later editions added six dances each, bringing the definitive 1767 edition to 124; the subscription list suggests a print run of about 130 copies, of which fewer than ten survive in public collections. The catalogue's 109 entries are drawn from this corpus, with C.Cd. numbers and a few additions such as La Pastorella from the 1759 edition.

Listening and playing notes

These are functional dances, not character pieces to be lingered over. Keep the pulse firm and the repeats plain; the charm comes from the lift of the phrase, not from rubato. The bass is figured for harpsichord, but the title page allows any instruments, so a single melody player with a chordal accompanist is enough. Watch the ends of phrases, where the cadence is often approached by a short running figure that needs to stay even. Above all, keep the tempo steady enough for dancers to follow.

Selected scores

1. La Pucelle (C.Cd.072)

   The most-viewed dance on the page (127 views), No. 72 in the C.Cd. numbering; a title that invokes Joan of Arc, though the dance itself carries no programme.

2. Le Tourbillon (C.Cd.093)

   A whirlwind dance, No. 93, with one of the fuller note counts in the collection.

3. La Tendresse (C.Cd.038)

   A tender or affectionate character dance, No. 38, among the shortest files at about 31 seconds.

4. La Pastorella (C.Cd.add.09)

   A pastoral dance from the additions to the collection, marked as coming from the 1759 edition rather than the original 1757 run.

5. Jacques Lutin (ou L'Angloise / C.Cd.021)

   No. 21, also known as L'Angloise; the file preserves both names.

6. La Fortune (C.Cd.096)

   No. 96, a fortune or fate dance, one of the longer sets at about 69 seconds.

7. La Corne (C.Cd.046)

   No. 46, a hunting-horn character piece; the simple two-part texture is typical of the collection.

8. La Tamborina (C.Cd.079)

   A tambourine dance, No. 79, with a repeated rhythmic figure suited to the instrument named in the title.

9. Le Rossignol (C.Cd.020)

   The nightingale, No. 20, one of several bird and nature titles in the set.