What is Gigue in music?
1. A fast, erotic dance of the 1500s of Mexico and Spain. 2. A stately court dance of the 1600s and 1700s, in slow triple time. 3. The music for either of these dances. [French sarabande, from Spanish zarabanda .]
a slow, stately Spanish dance, especially of the 17th and 18th centuries, in triple meter, derived from a vigorous castanet dance. a piece of music for or using the rhythm of this dance, usually forming one of the movements in the classical suite and following the courante. Words nearby saraband. Origin of saraband.
It often has a contrapuntal texture as well as often having accents on the third beats in the bar, making the gigue a lively folk dance. In early French theatre, it was customary to end a play’s performance with a gigue, complete with music and dancing. A gigue, like other Baroque dances, consists of two sections.
Spain
A sarabande is a dance that originated in Central America back in the sixteenth century. It became popular in the Spanish colonies before making its way to Europe. At first, it was regarded as being rather scandalous, even being banned in Spain for its obscenity.
sarabande, originally, a dance considered disreputable in 16th-century Spain, and, later, a slow, stately dance that was popular in France.
Definition of ‘gigue’ 1. a piece of music, usually in six-eight time and often fugal, incorporated into the classical suite. 2. a formal couple dance of the 16th and 17th centuries, derived from the jig. Collins English Dictionary.
“Gigue” is the French word for jig, a lively dance in triple time. However, the jig originally began as folk dance in Ireland, Scotland and northern England. It spread from the British Isles to France and Germany during the Baroque era in which Telemann lived.
The sarabande was used throughout much of classical music, especially in baroque era. The music of French baroque composer Jean-Marie LeClair’s works born 1697, for example: Sonata for 2 violins, viola de gamba, and harpsichord in E minor; Dietrich Buxtehude’s Op.
Like the other dance movements in the suite, the Sarabande was in Binary form. The sarabande seems to have come from Central America where it was known as “zarabanda”. Although it was mainly used in the Baroque Period, composers in the 20th Century such as Debussy, Satie, Howells and Britten sometimes wrote Sarabandes.
saraband. / (ˈsærəˌbænd) / noun. a decorous 17th-century courtly dance. music a piece of music composed for or in the rhythm of this dance, in slow triple time, often incorporated into the classical suite.
The French gigue was a lively dance often in 6/4 or 6/8 time, while the Italian giga was faster and set in 12/8 time. As a musical form the gigue was often used in the stylized dance suite as the last movement.
