The title of this melodious Elizabethan dance suggests that originally it may have been a song. But if so, at some point the song was pressed into galliard form, a a b b c c:

Played in our recording by an early violin ensemble, “Daphne” is mainly homophonic. The meter is kept very clear, and the distinct quality of the phrases ending a, b, and c makes it easy for the dancers to remember the place in the dance step sequence. The first violin improvises ornaments at the second playing — an instrumental practice as old as the estampie (see page 51) and as new as jazz (page 386).