A furiant is a rapid and fiery

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

in alternating 2/4 and 3/4

time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

, with frequently shifting accents; or, in "art music", in 3/4 time "with strong accents forming pairs of beats". The stylised form of the dance was often used by

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

composers such as

Antonín Dvořák Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8September 18411May 1904) was a Czech composer. He frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia, following the Romantic-era nationalist example of his predec ...

in the first and eighth dances from his '' Slavonic Dances'', Piano Quintet Op. 81 and 6th Symphony; in his '' Czech Suite'', fifth movement; in his Terzetto for Two Violins and Viola, third movement; and by

Bedřich Smetana Bedřich Smetana ( ; ; 2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his people's aspirations to a cultural and political "revival". He has been regarded ...

in ''

The Bartered Bride ''The Bartered Bride'' (, ''The Sold Bride'') is a comic opera in three acts by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, to a libretto by Karel Sabina. The work is generally regarded as a major contribution towards the development of Czech music. It ...

'' and in his second volume for piano of Czech Dances (''České tance 2''), published in 1879 (Op. 21). It was also used by Brahms in the middle section of the second movement of his Sextet No. 2 in G Major. The use of the furiant by central European composers closely parallels their use of the dumka, a dance which often precedes the furiant.

Notes

References

Vrkočová, Ludmila: ''Slovníček základních hudebních pojmů''. 2005. {{Authority control 19th century in music Dance forms in classical music European folk dances