farandole

The tradition & historical record

The farandole (French: [faʁɑ̃dɔl]; Provençal: farandola [faʀanˈdulɔ]) is an open-chain community dance popular in Provence, France. It bears similarities to the gavotte, jig, and tarantella. The carmagnole of the French Revolution is a derivative. ¹

No satisfactory derivation has been given of the name. Diez connects it with the Spanish farándula, indicating a company of strolling players, which he derives from the German fahrende ("travelling"). A still more unlikely derivation has been suggested from the Greek fálanx (φάλαγξ, "phalanx") and doúlos (δούλος, "slave"), because the dancers in the farandole are linked together in a long chain. It has been also suggested that farandole may be an alteration of Provençal barandello, from brandello (derivative of branda, "stir"), under the influence of Occitan words such as flandina ("cajoler") and flandrina ("dawdle"). However, this hypothesis is not very convincing because it comes up against the fact that b(a)randello is defined as being a Languedocian farandole. ¹

The farandole is considered as the oldest of the dances as well as the most characteristic and the most representative of Provence. Its name is attested only from the 18th century, however, it has been represented since prehistoric times by rock engravings then during Antiquity on ceramics or frescoes. Today in Provence, it is danced to the tunes played by the drummers who accompany it with their galoubets and their tambourines. Its popularity made it enter in the Christmas crib (crèche) of Provence and it is one of the most characteristic elements of the Provençal tradition. The dance is very probably of Greek origin, and seems to be a direct descendant of the "Cranes' dance", the invention of which was ascribed to Theseus, who instituted it to celebrate his escape from the Labyrinth. This dance is alluded to at the end of the hymn to Delos by Callimachus: it is still danced in Greece and the islands of the Aegean, and may well have been introduced into the South of France from Marseilles. Folklorists of the early 20th century (e.g. Alford 1932) interpreted most folk dances as being very ancient, and postulated even for the farandole an ancestry traceable to ancient Greece, remaining more or less unchanged "during its two or three thousands years of life". Many recent websites, older encyclopedias, and some music history books claim that the farandole is a medieval dance, but never provide an actual medieval quote mentioning the farandole. ¹

After the Black Death, numerous exorcism rites appeared which aimed to tame the comrade, if not to push it back. In these rituals, music and dance played the leading roles. In this farandole, skeletons and living people alternate, arranged in a descending hierarchical order: the pope, the emperor, the cardinal, the king, the patriarch, the constable, the archbishop, the knight, the bishop, the squire, the abbot, the bailiff, the astrologer, the bourgeois, the Carthusian, the sergeant, the doctor, the wife, the usurer, and the poor. The number of characters and the composition of the dance depends on the place of creation. Death, most often represented with a musical instrument, draws everyone into the dance, not looking at rank, wealth, gender, or age. ¹

Current musical accompaniment is always performed by one or more drummers. The dancers join hands to form a wandering open chain and mark each beat with jumps. The leader guides the chain by drawing a snake shape. Its role is to articulate the farandole, dance of agrarian rites, in its two main themes: that of the spiral (also known as the snail or labyrinth) and that of the passage under the vault (known as the serpent). Also in Provence, other dances related to the farandole were practiced on more free steps: the brandi, the morisca ("Moorish"), the passa-carriera ("street passer", cf. the Spanish passacalle and the passacaille). It gave birth to certain medieval dances with repeated steps, such as the caroles of the 13th and 14th centuries, the branles of the 15th and 16th centuries. ¹

The santons dancing the farandole are one of the classics of the Provence crib. The dancers form a long line which moves by meandering. The twists and turns of this dance in the crèche must represent a labyrinth. The dancers are either dressed in traditional Arles, Provençal, or Comtadin clothing, with the different clothing nuances provided by the local santonnier. The dancers and the drummer wear an almost identical costume made up of white pants tightened by a taiole, a typical belt from Provence made up of a strip of red woolen fabric, and a white shirt tied at the collar by a cord. As the drummer is notable, he has put on his most elegant costume, wears a wide-brimmed felt hat, and under his velvet jacket appears his embroidered waistcoat on his white shirt. Nicknamed "Guillaume", by tradition, it is he who leads the farandole with his tambourine and his galoubet. This scene is one of the major subjects of the Provençal crib, to which it is essential. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Farandole”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

farandole is French community dance, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 14 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²