Gigue

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The gigue or giga is a lively baroque dance, usually in a compound metre such as 6/8, 6/4, 9/8 or 12/16. It is rare for one to be written in a simple metre such as 3/8, but some do exist. They often have a contrapuntal texture.

As a musical form, gigues frequently occur as movements in binary form in larger works such as concertos and sonatas. It was the most common final movement in a baroque suite.

Writers during the baroque era distinguised French and Italian gigues, and occasionally the gigue anglaise. The Italian and French forms seem to have derived from the British jig which was danced at least as far back as the 15th century and is a common ancestor of modern folk dance jigs.

See also

• Jig (folk dance)
• Loure (slow gigue)