Postcard Arles Farandole Provençale arena Idéale edition

Sepia-toned postcard with a photographic view of a Provençal farandole being danced in the Roman arena of Arles, below the image two staves of musical notation reproducing the accompanying melody in six-eight time. The card bears the caption Arles - Une Farandole Provençale aux arènes and was published by Edition Artistique Idéale, from a photograph by F. Beau in Avignon-Monclar. The reverse shows the undivided back format with a single address line, and the card is unused. The card is in good condition.

The farandole is a traditional Provençal group dance in six-eight time in which dancers, alternating men and women, hold hands and follow a leader in serpentine patterns, arches or the characteristic cacalaus, the snail-shell spiral. Arles and Avignon are the two historical centres of the Provençal farandole; the so-called pas de farandole d'Arles is an established term in the regional choreographic vocabulary. The musical accompaniment traditionally comes from the tambourinaire, who simultaneously plays the galoubet, a three-hole pipe, and the tambourin drum. Composers such as Bizet, Gounod and Tchaikovsky have incorporated the farandole in their work. The card by F. Beau probably dates from between 1910 and 1925 and captures a moment when the tradition, celebrated around the fiftieth anniversary of Mistral's Mireille in 1909, was experiencing a new flowering in Arles.