Correspondence: To the Editors of ‘Music & Letters’

The Carole

I wish to reply to Timothy McGee’s review (Music & Letters, 93 (2012), 399–401) of my book The Carole: A Study of a Medieval Dance, as it entirely misrepresents what I wrote. The following are just a few examples. I do not, in fact, overlook the manuscript Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Pluteo, 29.1 (cited p. l72 n. 33 in my book) but the Latin rondeau is not relevant to the carole. I do not admit ‘that the word carole in the primary sources refers to a number of things’, but point out that others have varying views of the dance. I do not state conclusions before I discuss them. I do not say that the carole and the tresche had no instrumental accompaniment, but that this was characteristic of lower-status performances. I do not say that ‘the tresche could include both round and line’. I do not imply that artists did not know that the carole was a round dance, but suggest that in most cases they did not choose or were unable to do so. I do not state or imply that only one short song was sung for a carole. I do not base my statements on the carole and the tresche on very little evidence. I do not state that the Italian form, carola, is found in sources ‘including Dante and Boccaccio’ but that they are the only writers in the fourteenth century to use the Italian form of the word. Finally, the fresco Gli effetti del buon governo is by the famous Sienese artist Ambrogio Lorenzetti and not by Martini.