Durkin, Rachael. "The Dancing-Master's Toolkit: a Summary of the Pochette of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries and its Role in Society."

Durkin, Rachael. "The Dancing-Master's Toolkit: a Summary of the Pochette of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries and its Role in Society." The Galpin Society Journal 70 (March 2017): 65-79, 225.


Abstract:
Held in significant numbers in both general and specialist collections, the dancing-master's pochette or kit is a largely overlooked curiosity. With specimens surviving from the seventeenth century through to the early twentieth in a variety of shapes and sizes, ranging from the plain to the flamboyant, this perhaps seemingly insignificant 'quirk' of musical instrument making tells us much about the importance of music and the society which the instrument was built to serve. A small and portable instrument used as an accompaniment for dance lessons, the pochette formed the principal element of the dancing-master's toolkit, contributing to the foundation and development of a European polite society, while largely avoiding mainstream involvement in classical music making. This article explores the pochette of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the society for which it played a pivotal role, and its importance to the dancing-master and his prosperity.