Beauchamp, superintendent of the ballet and director of the Académie Royale de Danse codified the five positions based on the foundations set down by Thoinot Arbeau in his 1588 Orchesographie.
, including examples by Italian dance master and composer Fabritio Caroso and French cleric Thoinot Arbeau.
Examples of the Picardy third can be found throughout the works of J.S. Bach and his contemporaries, as well as earlier composers such as Thoinot Arbeau and John Blow.
Arbeau's "Orchésographie" was used as the basis for Igor Stravinsky's final ballet, Agon, and Peter Warlock's Capriol Suite.