The gigue ( , ) or giga () is a lively baroque dance originating from the English jig. It was imported into France in the mid-17th centuryBellingham, Jane
"gigue."
''The Oxford Companion to Music''. Ed. Alison Latham. Oxford Music Online. 6 July 2008 and usually appears at the end of a suite. The gigue was probably never a court dance, but it was danced by nobility on social occasions and several court composers wrote gigues.Louis Horst, ''Pre-Classic Dance Forms'', (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Book Company, 1987), 54–60. A gigue is usually in or in one of its compound metre derivatives, such as , , or , although there are some gigues written in other metres, as for example the gigue from

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Help:IPA/Standard German, �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety ...

's first ''French Suite'' (BWV 812), which is written in and has a distinctive strutting "dotted" rhythm. Gigues often have a

contrapuntal In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous Part (music), musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and Pitch contour, melodic contour. The term ...

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. Gigue dance pattern 2

Etymology

An early Italian dance called the ''giga'' probably derives its name from a small accompanying stringed instrument called the

giga Giga- ( or ) is a metric prefix, unit prefix in the metric system denoting a factor of a Long and short scales, short-scale billion or long-scale milliard (109 or 1,000,000,000). It has the symbol G. ''Giga-'' is derived from the Ancient Greek, ...

. Historians, such as Charles Read Baskerville, claim that use of the word in relation to dancing took place in England prior to such usage on the Continent. ''Giga'' probably has a separate etymology.

Cultural references

Jonathan Littell's novel '' The Kindly Ones'' is structured in different parts, each one of these named after a

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

dance, the last part being called ''Gigue''.

Etymology

Cultural references

See also

References

Further reading