Courante

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Courante

The courante, corrente, coranto and corant are just some of the names given to a family of triple metre

Triple metre

Triple metre is a musical metre characterized by a primary division of 3 beats to the bar, usually indicated by 3 or 9 in the upper figure of the time signature, with 3/4 and 9/8 being the most common examples....
dances from the late Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
and the Baroque era

Baroque

In the the arts, the Baroque was a Western cultural Epoch , starting roughly at the beginning of the 17th century in Rome, Italy. It was exemplified by drama and grandeur in Baroque sculpture, Baroque painting, literature, Baroque dance, and Baroque music....
. Modern usage will sometimes use the different spellings to distinguish types of courante (Italian spelling for the Italian dance, etc.), but in the original sources spellings were inconsistent. (Note, however, that in the Partitas of the Clavierübung, Bach did use the different spellings courante and corrente to differentiate between the French and Italian styles, respectively.)

Courante literally means running, and in the later Renaissance the courante was danced with fast running and jumping steps, as described by Thoinot Arbeau

Thoinot Arbeau

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Encyclopedia

The courante, corrente, coranto and corant are just some of the names given to a family of triple metre

Triple metre

Renaissance

Baroque

Thoinot Arbeau

Thoinot Arbeau is the anagrammatic pen name of French cleric Jehan Tabourot . Tabourot is most famous for his Orch?sographie, a study of late sixteenth-century French Renaissance social dance....
. These steps are sometimes thought to be broken up by hops between the steps, but this is not necessarily supported by Arbeau's confusing and contradictory instructions, which described each "saut" as resulting in the completion of a new foot placement.

In Der Vollkommene Capellmeister (Hamburg, 1739), Johann Mattheson wrote that, "The motion of a courante is chiefly characterized by the passion or mood of sweet expectation. For there is something heartfelt, something longing and also gratifying, in this melody: clearly music on which hopes are built."

The courante was most commonly used in the baroque

Baroque

In the the arts, the Baroque was a Western cultural Epoch , starting roughly at the beginning of the 17th century in Rome, Italy. It was exemplified by drama and grandeur in Baroque sculpture, Baroque painting, literature, Baroque dance, and Baroque music....
period. During this period, there were two types of courante: French and Italian. The French type had many cross-accents and was a moderately fast dance, in contrast to the allemande that preceded it. The Italian courante was faster, more free-flowing and running, however, it is not clear whether this is significantly different from the French Renaissance courante that Arbeau describes. In a Baroque dance suite, an Italian or French courante typically comes between the allemande

Allemande

An allemande is one of the most popular instrumental dance forms in Baroque music, and a standard element of a suite. Originally, the allemande formed the first movement of the suite, before the courante, but, later, it was often preceded by an introductory movement, such as a Prelude ....
and the sarabande

Sarabande

In music, the sarabande is a dance in triple metre. The second and third beats of each measure are often tied, giving the dance a distinctive rhythm of crotchets and minims in alternation....
, making it the second or third movement

Movement (music)

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession....
. The French type is usually notated in 3/2 or 6/4, occasionally alternating between the two meters, and is typically performed at a fairly moderate tempo; the Italian type, on the other hand, is a significantly faster dance. In the Musicalisches Lexicon (Leipzig, 1732), Johann Gottfried Walther wrote that the rhythm of the courante is "absolutely the most serious one can find."

Courante

See also