Europe: 18th century France

galoubet and tambourin playing for dancing

under construction

French and English court culture were intertwined until 1804 when Napoleon crowned himself. So in the 18th century, when it became fashionable for French aristocrats and the nobility to glorify the 'simple' peasant lifestyle, the vogue also spread to England. Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, lead the way playing at being a rustic peasant dressed in costly clothes. As a result many village and shepherd instruments, including the pipe and tabor, were played and danced to in highly stylised fashion in the most grandiose palaces of France and England.

18th century dance   The 'tambourin' is a Provençal dance, so named because the music imitates the drum usually as a repetitive not-very-melodic figure in the bass. The writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau described this dance as “a kind of dance much in style today in the French theatre,” adding that it must be lively and well accented, and “swinging.”  … The tambourin was popular throughout the 18th century.   ballet Ballet developed as Court entertainment at this time. So a pipe and tabor player was sometimes depicted as the accompanist in paintings such as ' La Camargo Dancing' c1730 by Nicholas Lancret (1690-1743), and his similar painting here. Ballet became an essential part of eighteenth-century French opera; the formula required that each act had to include an elaborate divertissement which included a ballet. Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764) worked at Court in the 1740's and composed many operas and musical dramas. 1732 painting by Lancret, France 'Mlle Camargo Dancing' another version player from Hermitage copy 1750 painting by Pesne Marianne Cochois with male dancer   Victorian copy print   1840-1900 painted paper fan, France (after Lancret) painted on a fan 1760 Liverpool tile [item 29] print woven tapestry woven tapestry 1763 Court ballet at Versailles "The Village Wedding" or "Flemish May" ; close-up from another copy
upper classes dance 1745 orchestra playing for public celebrations of marriages of Monseigneur le Dauphin, City Hall, Paris 1745 player in orchestra 1751 orchestra in the temporary hall constructed on the Place Dauphine for the celebrations of the marriage of Louis Dauphin in 1745 1751 player in orchestra 1745 orchestra playing for the ball at Hôtel de Ville in Paris in honour of the marriage of the Dauphin 1769' 'Fashionable Dances close-up of taborer (from a different print) painting ‘The Country Dance and The Tea Party in the Garden’ 1774 a high society ball, by Duclos, Paris close-up of player   middle classes dance Smollet, having visited Nice wrote in 1766: "they assemble after service, men and women, in their best apparel, and dance to the musick of fiddles, and pipe and tabor, or rather pipe and drum. There are hucksters' stands, with pedlary ware and knick-knacks for presents." 'Travels Through France and Italy' by Tobias George Smollet (1721-1771, Scottish poet and author. 1745 Fêtes publiques données par la ville de Paris, a l'occasion du mariage de monseigneur le dauphin , in ‘La Salle Du Carousel’
1759 The Saint-Cloud festival, that takes place every year in the Bas-Parc, Paris 1760 The Saint-Cloud festival 1760 The Saint-Cloud festival: the band playing for dancing [top centre of image] part of the band 1761 outdoor dance at Auteuil, Paris 1778 tapestry of a wedding [dancing to pipe and tabor in left background enlargement of player and dancers etching, playing for dancing in the coutryside close-uip of galoubet/tambourin player
working classes dance
“If the peasants in the neighbourhood of any chapel dedicated to a saint, whose day  is to be celebrated, have a mind to make a festin, in other  words, a fair, they apply to the commandant of Nice for a  license, which costs them about a French crown. This being  obtained, they assemble after service, men and women, in their  best apparel, and dance to the musick of fiddles, and pipe and  tabor, or rather pipe and drum. c 1766 'Travels Through France And Italy' by Tobias Smollett book 4
1720-1754 etching, Paris 1730 cartouche design (detail) public dance - the band 1756 dancing in a tavern garden 1792 fabric depicting the Fall of the Bastille 14th July 1789 Jouy-en-Josas 1790 Pipe and tabor player for two male youth dancers. Toile, red, on linen: probably a quilt fragment. Record also here
1789 painting of a wedding by Desourtis [detail] close-up of child player   1785 players at 'Village Wedding' by Descourtis [detail]
folk dance
In 'Dardanus' (1739) Jean-Philippe Rameau wrote character-pieces based on Provençal folk dance accompanied by pipe and tabor. The bass part simulates a drum by sharply accentuating the rhythm and by the repetition of a single note, while an upper voice imitates the pipe with a fast-moving melody.
1777 'The Dancers', Corpus Christi ceremonies, Aix 'Explication des cérémonies de la Fête-Dieu d'Aix en Provence' by Gaspard Gregoire (copyright Musée Granet/CPA. Aix-en-Provence, France. Cliché Bernard Terlay
1777 ' Dashing Horses'
1777 'The Dancers'
1777 'The Queen of Sheba'
allegorical figures dancing
source
'cat dance'
automota
Throughout Europe in the 18th century there was also a craze for animated objects. Jacques de Vaucanson exhibited three mechanical statues, one of which was a galoubet player. These automota were shown four times daily at the Opera House, Haymarket, in London in 1742. The exhibition leaflet stated: "a life-sized man dressed like a provencal shepherd who could play 20 different tunes on the flute of Provence (also called a galoubet) with one hand and on the tambourin with the other hand with all the precision and perfection of a skilful musician". Vaucanson said: "A curious discovery about the building of this automaton is that the galoubet is one of the most tiring instrumentsfor the chest because muscles must sometimes make an effort equivalent to 56 pounds"
two images of the working pipe and tabor player made by Vaucanson in1738 and exhibited in London

I saw this fan in a London textiles fair in about 2003. It had hand-made lace on ivory sticks. There were two other images painted on the fan (not of the pipe and tabor), but the person who took this photograph for me did not take a picture of the whole leaf.