Bransle de Poitou by Adrian Le Roy

Bransle de Poitou comes to us from Adrian Le Roy, a multi-instrumental French composer 16th century. Le Roy has an interesting history as a publisher with his cousin Robert Ballard. Together, they established a virtual monopoly in publishing in their region of France. It lasted well beyond their deaths into the 19th century. You can read more about his history on Wikipedia.

Publications of Bransle de Poitou

This piece originally appeared in a book titled, Tiers Livre de Tablature de Luth, published in 1552. My copy comes from the Royal Conservatory Guitar Series 3rd Edition. However, the song still appears in the current Bridges Preparatory Guitar Series.

About The Piece

This piece falls in the Royal Conservatory level of Preparatory (Introductory in 2004). The key signature indicates C major. However, the piece is modal from the period and focuses on the Mixolydian G without a dominant chord. This is a nice change for beginning students who normally only play in a modern major key. The 6/8 time offers other rhythmic benefits to the student as well.

I play it with free strokes but many beginners might find playing with rest strokes more appealing. The fingers and thumb play separately throughout with a chord played with i-m-a simultaneously on the final beat of the piece.

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Chadwick Becks

I have two degrees in guitar performance and was privileged to study under Aaron Shearer, Tom Kikta, David Skantar, Ken Karsh, Tim Bedner, and currently Christopher Berg. Outside my editorial work on this blog, I teach full-time across many genres including classical, jazz, blues, rock, funk, and metal.