The passamezzo (plural: ''passamezzi'' or ''passamezzos'') is an Italian

folk dance A folk dance is a dance that reflects the life of the people of a certain country or region. Not all ethnic dances are folk dances. For example, Ritual, ritual dances or dances of ritual origin are not considered to be folk dances. Ritual dances ...

of the 16th and early 17th centuries. Many pieces named "passamezzo" follow one of two chord progressions that came to be named after the dance,

passamezzo antico The passamezzo antico is a ground bass or chord progression that was popular during the Italian Renaissance and known throughout Europe in the 16th century.Peter van der Merwe (musicologist), van der Merwe, Peter. 1989. ''Origins of the Popular S ...

and

passamezzo moderno The passamezzo moderno ("modern half step"; also quadran, quadrant, or quadro pavan), or Gregory Walker was "one of the most popular harmonic formulae in the Renaissance period, divid nginto two complementary strains thus:" For example, in C m ...

. The chord progression would be repeated numerous times in succession while the dance was being performed. According to Renaissance practices, the passamezzo dance is often followed by other dances in a triple time, such as the

saltarello The ''saltarello'' is a musical dance originally from Italy. The first mention of it is in Add MS 29987, a late-fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century manuscript of Tuscany, Tuscan origin, now in the British Library. It was usually played in a f ...

gagliarda The ''galliard'' (; ; ) was a form of Renaissance dance and music popular all over Europe in the 16th century. It is mentioned in dance manuals from England, Portugal, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy. Dance form The ''galliard'' is not an i ...

or paduana.

Name

There are many variant spellings. In Italian or international usage, the name is also rendered as ''pass'e mez(z)o'', ''passo e mezzo'', and ''passomez(z)o''. In early English usage, the names frequently incorporated the word measure in a

folk etymology Folk etymology – also known as (generative) popular etymology, analogical reformation, (morphological) reanalysis and etymological reinterpretation – is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a mo ...

, giving such renderings as ''passemeasure'', ''passingmeasure'', ''passy-measures'' or ''passemeasure(s) pavan'', particularly to designate the ''passamezzo antico'' progression. Passamezzi following the ''passamezzo moderno'' progression are designated "quadro pavan" or "quadran(t) pavan."

Influence

French printed collections of passamezzo antico settings emerged in the 1550s, edited by Claude Gervaise for Attaingnant and Jean d’Estrée for du Chemin.

Catherine de’ Medici Catherine de' Medici (, ; , ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Italian Republic of Florence, Florentine noblewoman of the Medici family and Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to Henry II of France, King Henry II. Sh ...

’s fondness for dancing encouraged the Franco-Italian musical exchange, as well as to promote a French counterpart to the Florentine Intermedii.

Notes

External links

Passamezzos
at

IMSLP The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library after publisher Ottaviano Petrucci, is a subscription-based digital library of public domain, public-domain sheet music, music scores. The project use ...

Renaissance dance Italian dances Dance forms in classical music {{Europe-dance-stub