Early baroque-style Galliard.

Hello! this is a short but lovely Galliard i made for string ensamble, 2 recorders, 2 cornettos and continuo. I hope you guys enjoy!

Hello @L.S Barros!

Indeed, a lovely Galliard, and thus, another example for your „personal style“!

Since we have no score, I can only express my „subjective“ impressions which arose by listening.

I learned, that a Galliard is a Renaissance dance in a faster tempo in 3/4 (or 6/4) time with typical steps (and even leaps, jumps, hops etc.).

My only concern is that, given the contrapuntal approach, the emphasis on these steps sometimes sounds a bit too much like “block chords.” Perhaps, there could be more motion beneath that „steps“ in the continuo (i.e. on the harpsichord), in that way as it appears starting at around the middle of the piece performed by the cornettos and the recorders. And, by the way, could (Renaissance) cornettos even play that fast?

On 8/24/2026 at 3:26 PM, Wieland Handke said:

Hello @L.S Barros!

Indeed, a lovely Galliard, and thus, another example for your „personal style“!

Since we have no score, I can only express my „subjective“ impressions which arose by listening.

I learned, that a Galliard is a Renaissance dance in a faster tempo in 3/4 (or 6/4) time with typical steps (and even leaps, jumps, hops etc.).

My only concern is that, given the contrapuntal approach, the emphasis on these steps sometimes sounds a bit too much like “block chords.” Perhaps, there could be more motion beneath that „steps“ in the continuo (i.e. on the harpsichord), in that way as it appears starting at around the middle of the piece performed by the cornettos and the recorders. And, by the way, could (Renaissance) cornettos even play that fast?

Thanks for the feedback!

The reason why it's blocky it's because i'm using the galliard rythm very strictly, wich is: quarter note, quarter note, quarter note, dotted quarter note, eight note, quarter note (In my time signature 3/1 i use breves instead of quarternotes). And actually a lot of galliards from that time (Specially Italians!) had a very homophonic approach, but i do agree i could have added a bit more motion.

About the cornettos, yes! They can play that fast! In fact, for quite some time, about 100 or 150 years, cornettos were considered the most virtoso of instruments, so much so many famous musicians of that time considered "Virtuosos" were Cornettists, they can play much much faster than what i used here by the way.

By the way the cornettos don't have ornaments in the notation, i only added them for exporting, because the diminutions are supposed to be improvised by the player.