The Courtly Consort Suite in German-Speaking Europe, 1650–1706

Dance music at the courts of seventeenth-century Germany is a genre that is still largely unknown. Dr Michael Robertson sets out to redress the balance and study the ensemble dance suites that were played at the German courts between the end of the Thirty Years War and the early years of the eighteenth century. The book examines the dissemination of dance music, the influence of Jean-Baptiste Lully, instrumentation and performance practice, and the differences between the French and Italian styles. It also studies the courtly suites before the advent of Lullism and the differences between the suites of court composers and town musicians.