Monferrina

Monferrina is a lively Italian folk dance in ⁶
₈ time named after the place of its origin, Montferrat, in the Italian region of Piedmont. It has spread from Piedmont throughout Northern Italy, in Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and even into Switzerland. It also became popular in late 18th-century England as a country dance, under the names monfrina, monfreda, and manfredina, being included in Wheatstone's Country Dances for 1810.¹ In Piedmont, it is usually accompanied by singing and it is danced by several couples.²

The dance goes under several different names: monferrina di Friuli, manfréṅna bulgnaiṡa, monfrénna mudnésa, giardiniera (or jardinière) and baragazzina.²³

Execution and background

The dance starts with two circular promenades by couples arm-in-arm using a lively march step. The individual couples then join both hands for a cross-step with bent knees. The dance often contains bows and mimed teasing and coaxing.²⁴

Curt Sachs takes the two part structure of the dance, a procession followed by a couple figure, as indicative of its antiquity along with other Italian folk dances of this type such as the trescone, giga and bergamesco.⁵

Notes

Don Michael Randel, ed. (1986). "Monferrina". New Harvard Dictionary of Music. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-61525-5. This Wheatstone (1768–1823), also named Charles, was an uncle of Charles Wheatstone. "The Dances of Charles Wheatstone & Augustus Voigt" by Paul Cooper, RegencyDances.org
Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro (1931). Costumi, musica, danze e feste popolari italiane (in Italian). Rome: Edizione O.N.D.
Ungarelli, Gaspare (1894). Le vecchie danze italiane ancora in uso nella provincia bolognese (in Italian). Rome: Arnaldo Forni. pp. 64, 67, 71.
Galanti, Bianca M. (1950). Dances of Italy. New York: Chanticleer Press. p. 7–8. ISBN 9781258984496. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
Sachs, Curt (1963). World History of the Dance. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 278. ISBN 0-393-00209-8. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

External links

Example from Smithsonian recording

[1] Don Michael Randel, ed. (1986). "Monferrina". New Harvard Dictionary of Music. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-61525-5. This Wheatstone (1768–1823), also named Charles, was an uncle of Charles Wheatstone. "The Dances of Charles Wheatstone & Augustus Voigt" by Paul Cooper, RegencyDances.org

[ond-2] Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro (1931). Costumi, musica, danze e feste popolari italiane (in Italian). Rome: Edizione O.N.D.

[3] Ungarelli, Gaspare (1894). Le vecchie danze italiane ancora in uso nella provincia bolognese (in Italian). Rome: Arnaldo Forni. pp. 64, 67, 71.

[4] Galanti, Bianca M. (1950). Dances of Italy. New York: Chanticleer Press. p. 7–8. ISBN 9781258984496. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

[5] Sachs, Curt (1963). World History of the Dance. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 278. ISBN 0-393-00209-8. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

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