Characteristische Englische Taenze, mit zugehoerigen Touren und einer Unterweisung in den nothwendigsten Regeln des englischen Tanzes (D. Friedrich Wilhelm Weis; Abhandlung von Johann Christian Bleszmann. Luebeck: Christian Jrmscher und Compagnie, 1777)

Dance manual/reference by D. Friedrich Wilhelm Weis (composer and physician, 'Goettingen, im September 1776' signature at end of preface) / Johann Christian Bleszmann (Assistent am koeniglichen Universitaets-tanzmeister zu Goettingen, author of the 'Abhandlung zur Unterweisung in den nothwendigsten Regeln des englischen Tanzes'). Printed Luebeck: Christian Jrmscher und Compagnie, 1777. Source: DATA/LIBRARY_OF_DANCE/ABBYY TXT/1777-Weis-Characteristische_(Innsbruck).txt (38.8KB OCR, ULB Innsbruck scan, German Fraktur text with substantial OCR noise). STRUCTURE: (i) Weis-Vorrede explaining the purpose of the collection — 12 characteristic English country-dance melodies 'sowohl zum Vergnuegen als vorzueglich fuer Tanzmeister zur Unterweisung'; sets out 10 'nothwendige' points: the melodies lead on first violin, use a string-quartet/second-violin-and-violoncello harmony, are suited for small-chamber or large-ball Besetzung, use blown instruments (Blas-Instrumente) to intensify character, are throughout sangbar and singable; (ii) Bleszmann-Abhandlung — a formal pedagogy of the English country-dance in 10+ paragraphs: (Section I) Allgemeine Begriffe von dem Wesentlichen des englischen Tanzes — establishes that the eigentliche Taenzer (vis-a-vis principals) and Figuranten (corps-de-ballet) are distinguished only by function; (Section II) Allgemeine Hauptregeln — enumerates the Doppelpas (for 4-time / schlechter Tact music) and Tripelpas (for 3/8 Tripel-tact music), establishes the geometry of the two parallel Reihen, prescribes Tact/Tempo (musik 'nie geschwinder nehmen als... die gute koerperliche Anstand und gefaellige Haltung jedes PaS und jeder Figur' allows), warns against the 'wilde Spruenge und Schwenkungen' tendency of unpracticed beginners; (Section III) Von der Zeichnung englischer Taenze ueberhaupt — introduces the figure-diagram notation: each Tour is drawn in a Viereck (square abschnitt) representing the ballroom, with Ziffern for persons (black lines for men's paths, grey lines for women's paths), Punkte for standing-positions, Chaine-lines, Rond-circles, Moulinet-crosses, and so on; (iii) 12 numbered Taenze — each Tanz notated by formation-diagram plus prose Tour descriptions. Tour vocabulary in the OCR-extractable Taenze Nr. 2, 3, 4, and 24 includes: Trio en Moulinet rechts / Trioll en Moulinet links (3-person crossed-arm moulinet); Chaine (Anglaise); Petite chaine nouvelle en haut; Rond rechts / links (4-person rond); Recule en haut / en bas (retreating up/down); Grand Rond; Passage en bas (passing down); Walse herauf (waltz ascending within the country-dance — Tanz Nr. 3 Tour 5, EARLY PUBLISHED GERMAN ATTESTATION of the Walzer-Einlage inside an English country-dance); Allemande; Changement de Colonne; Kleiner Rond. HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE: the principal German-language treatise on the English country-dance from the late 1770s, parallel to LOC-1777-ANGLOISES (Vienne-BNE, Bohemian author) and LOC-1777-MANNHEIM (BNF Gallica, Palatinate-court) — completing the trans-European 1777 Contredanse-pedagogy triangle Vienne / Mannheim / Luebeck-Goettingen. The Bleszmann treatise is among the first German-language formal codifications of the Doppelpas / Tripelpas distinction as the two fundamental step-rhythms of the English country-dance, and the Walse-Einlage in Tanz Nr. 3 is a rare published-notation precedent for the waltz inside a country-dance — a full 18 years before the Clarchies 1795 Paris 'Waltzer' recueils (LOC-1795-CLARCHIES, H-GAB-VW-F0260) and 22 years before Wolf's 1799 first dedicated-waltz treatise. The 12 Tänze are the principal English-country-dance repertory transmission from mid-to-late-18c Lower-Saxon (Goettingen-Luebeck Hanseatic) courts. Has_Step_Detail = Partial — per-Tour formation-narrative with explicit Ziffern-diagram references, but no step-level foot-position/CBM/rise-and-fall tables. (1777). Imported from local collection.