Historical SourcePublic Domain
Lettres sur la Danse, et sur les Ballets (Jean-Georges Noverre, Lyon: Aime Delaroche, 1760)
Publisher: Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), maitre des ballets de Son Altesse Serenissime Monseigneur le Duc de Wurtemberg, & ci-devant des Theatres de Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Londres, &c. Lyon: Aime Delaroche, Imprimeur-Libraire du Gouvernement & de la Ville, aux Halles de la Grenette, 1760, avec Approbation et Privilege du Roi (registered Paris 21 Decembre 1759). Dedicated 'A Son Altesse Serenissime, Monseigneur Charles, Duc regnant de Wurtemberg & Tech, Prince de Montbeliard' - the Duke of Wurtemberg who retained Noverre as his ballet-master after Noverre's Paris, Lyon, Marseille, and London engagements. BnF Gallica scan. Source: DATA/LIBRARY_OF_DANCE/ABBYY TXT/1760-Noverre-Lettres_(BNF).txt. HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE: THE FOUNDATIONAL TREATISE ON THE BALLET D'ACTION (ballet-en-action / narrative reform ballet). Structured as a series of letters on the theory, aesthetics, and reform of dance, Noverre's treatise displaced the pure-divertissement / danse-entree / ballet-serieux tradition of the earlier 18c (Feuillet, Pecour, Rameau, Taubert) and established the dramatic narrative ballet as the dominant theatrical-dance form of the late 18c and 19c. Letter I establishes the analogy between ballet, poetry, and painting: 'Un Ballet est un tableau, la Scene est la toile; les mouvements mechaniques des figurants sont les couleurs, leur phisionomie... le pinceau, l'ensemble et la vivacite des Scenes, le choix de la Musique, la decoration et le costume en font le coloris; enfin, le Compositeur est le Peintre.' Letter II introduces the Compositeur's obligation to 'faire revivre l'Art du Geste et de la Pantomime, si connu dans le siecle d'Auguste' - linking Noverre's reform to the ancient Roman pantomime tradition of Pilades and Bathillus (Augustan Rome, 22 BCE; see existing canonical H-REN-BRA-F0224 'Pantomime of Pilades and Bathillus' from Gallini 1762). Subsequent letters treat the subjects of ballet composition (dramatic unity, character, costume, scenery, music), the reform of the opera-ballet abuses (mask, rigid symmetry, mechanical-figurant choreography), and prescriptions for the training of the modern ballet-master. Has_Step_Detail = No: theoretical / aesthetic treatise; does not notate individual figures with step tables. Companion publications: Noverre's 1760 *Principes de Theorie pour le Commerce de la Marchandise* (named in the joint Privilege). Subsequent editions of the Lettres appeared in 1766 (Stuttgart), 1783 (London), and 1803 (St. Petersburg, Russian translation by Didelot's circle), with substantial revisions and additions.Year: 1760Family: noverreCatalog: local
Dance manual/reference by Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), maitre des ballets de Son Altesse Serenissime Monseigneur le Duc de Wurtemberg, & ci-devant des Theatres de Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Londres, &c. Lyon: Aime Delaroche, Imprimeur-Libraire du Gouvernement & de la Ville, aux Halles de la Grenette, 1760, avec Approbation et Privilege du Roi (registered Paris 21 Decembre 1759). Dedicated 'A Son Altesse Serenissime, Monseigneur Charles, Duc regnant de Wurtemberg & Tech, Prince de Montbeliard' - the Duke of Wurtemberg who retained Noverre as his ballet-master after Noverre's Paris, Lyon, Marseille, and London engagements. BnF Gallica scan. Source: DATA/LIBRARY_OF_DANCE/ABBYY TXT/1760-Noverre-Lettres_(BNF).txt. HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE: THE FOUNDATIONAL TREATISE ON THE BALLET D'ACTION (ballet-en-action / narrative reform ballet). Structured as a series of letters on the theory, aesthetics, and reform of dance, Noverre's treatise displaced the pure-divertissement / danse-entree / ballet-serieux tradition of the earlier 18c (Feuillet, Pecour, Rameau, Taubert) and established the dramatic narrative ballet as the dominant theatrical-dance form of the late 18c and 19c. Letter I establishes the analogy between ballet, poetry, and painting: 'Un Ballet est un tableau, la Scene est la toile; les mouvements mechaniques des figurants sont les couleurs, leur phisionomie... le pinceau, l'ensemble et la vivacite des Scenes, le choix de la Musique, la decoration et le costume en font le coloris; enfin, le Compositeur est le Peintre.' Letter II introduces the Compositeur's obligation to 'faire revivre l'Art du Geste et de la Pantomime, si connu dans le siecle d'Auguste' - linking Noverre's reform to the ancient Roman pantomime tradition of Pilades and Bathillus (Augustan Rome, 22 BCE; see existing canonical H-REN-BRA-F0224 'Pantomime of Pilades and Bathillus' from Gallini 1762). Subsequent letters treat the subjects of ballet composition (dramatic unity, character, costume, scenery, music), the reform of the opera-ballet abuses (mask, rigid symmetry, mechanical-figurant choreography), and prescriptions for the training of the modern ballet-master. Has_Step_Detail = No: theoretical / aesthetic treatise; does not notate individual figures with step tables. Companion publications: Noverre's 1760 *Principes de Theorie pour le Commerce de la Marchandise* (named in the joint Privilege). Subsequent editions of the Lettres appeared in 1766 (Stuttgart), 1783 (London), and 1803 (St. Petersburg, Russian translation by Didelot's circle), with substantial revisions and additions. (1760). Imported from local collection.