The estampie (French: estampie, Occitan and Catalan: estampida, Italian: istanpitta) is a medieval dance and music style that was widely used in the 13th and 14th centuries. It was performed with instruments and singing. The term "estampie" was also used to describe poetry.

Musical form

The estampie shares a similar structure with the lai, as both consist of repeated musical notes. Johannes de Grocheio described estampies as having both vocal and instrumental forms, which he called "stantipes" in Latin. These forms had some differences in structure.

Grocheio referred to the sections within both French vocal and instrumental estampies as "puncta" (singular: "punctus"). Each punctum includes two lines that repeat the same melody. The two versions of the melody in each punctum differ only in their endings, which Grocheio called "apertum" (open) and "clausum" (closed). He believed that six puncta were standard for the stantipes, though he also noted some stantipes had seven puncta. The structure can be shown as:

In instrumental estampies, the open and closed endings of the puncta remain the same each time, making the ending of the punctum act as a repeated section, or refrain, in the pattern:

a+x, a+y; b+x, b+y; c+x, c+y, etc.

Ian Pittaway identified a type of estampie called the "compound estampie." In this form, the puncta after the first one begin with new material and then repeat sections from earlier puncta before ending with open and closed endings. No specific structure beyond this rule exists.

An example of a compound estampie is found in the works "Tre Fontane" and an English estampie, with a pattern like:

abcd+x abcd+y ebcd+x ebcd+y fcd+x fcd+y gd+x gd+y

Because estampies were written in many different ways, some works labeled as estampies do not follow the exact forms described earlier or include multiple structures. The manuscript Douce 139 functions as a compound estampie for the first three puncta, but later sections do not repeat earlier material, instead following a more linear pattern like a+x, a+y, b+x, b+y, etc. This manuscript also has errors, such as missing endings or fully written endings that are not marked. It is unclear if these are due to the scribe’s mistake or if the manuscript is incomplete.

Compared to other dance forms, Grocheio described instrumental estampies as complex, with puncta of varying lengths. This contrasts with the more regular verse lengths of the ductia. Estampies also have more puncta than ductia. He noted that this complexity held the attention of both performers and listeners. Grocheio also stated that vocal estampies began with a refrain, which was repeated at the end of each stanza. The text and melody of the refrain were separate from the stanza itself. However, surviving songs do not label sections as refrains, leading some scholars to suggest that a tradition existed for selecting lines to serve as refrains. Like instrumental estampies, vocal estampies required focus, which helped distract young people from harmful thoughts.

Scholar Elizabeth Eva Leach discussed a poetic form of estampie in her book Music and Instruments of the Middle Ages, specifically in a chapter titled "The Estampies of Douce 308." She explained that poetic estampies lacked musical notation, relying instead on the stress of syllables and the continuation of sentences (enjambment) to make the form recognizable.

History

The estampie is the first known type of dance music from the medieval era that is still used today. The earliest known example of this music is the song "Kalenda maya," written by the troubadour Raimbaut de Vaqueiras (1180–1207), who may have used a melody that already existed. In the 14th century, estampies had titles such as "Isabella" and "Tre fontane." The estampie is also the first musical style to combine both singing and instrument playing, with each part written in a different way. It is also the first example of dance music developing at the same time as music becoming more complex.

Instrumentation

Sources for individual songs usually do not list the instruments used. However, Grocheio stated that the vielle was the most important instrument of the time. The stantipes, along with the cantus coronatus and ductia, were the main types of music played on vielles during celebrations by wealthy people. Although there is not much evidence that estampies were played on instruments other than bowed strings, some examples do exist. Evidence shows that estampies were played on keyboard instruments like the organ. A letter from 1388 by King John I of Aragon asks an organ player named John to bring his book of estampies to perform for the king. Although estampies are usually monophonic, one example shows Kalenda Maya being played by two musicians. One played the main melody, and the other added decorative notes, showing that some improvisation was possible. Some estampies have two voices, like the two keyboard pieces in the Robertsbridge Fragment. The French estampie was played in a lively triple meter, which means each measure has three beats.

Dance

Although some people disagree, most experts agree that the estampie was a type of dance. Scholars such as Peggy Dixon and Belinda Belinda Quirey have suggested that the estampie may be the first known example of a dance performed by couples. Based on the meanings of certain words, many believe that the name "estampie" is connected to the action of stamping feet, which was likely a feature of the dance.

Etymology

There is disagreement about the exact origin of the word "estampie." According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the name comes from the Provençal word "estampida," which is the feminine form of "estampit," a past participle of "estampir," meaning "to resound." According to Ian Pittaway, the name was given by Grocheio from the Latin words "Stantipes" or "Stantipedes," which mean "standing or stationary feet." According to Curt Sachs, the word comes from the vulgar Latin words "Stante" or "Stantiae," which mean "delay," possibly related to the repeated structure of the musical form.