The tradition & historical record
2 min read · 2 sourcesThe sarabande (from Spanish: zarabanda) is a dance in triple metre, or the music written for such a dance. 1
History
The Sarabande evolved from a Spanish dance with Arab influences, danced by a lively double line of couples with castanets. A dance called zarabanda is first mentioned in 1539 in Central America in the poem Vida y tiempo de Maricastaña, written in Panama by Fernando de Guzmán Mejía. In 1596, Alonso López, "el Pinciano", traces its origins even to the cult of Dionysus. The dance seems to have been especially popular in the 16th and 17th centuries, initially in Spain and in the Spanish colonies. The Jesuit priest Juan de Mariana thought it indecent, describing it in his Tratato contra los juegos públicos (Treatise Against Public Amusements, 1609) as "a dance and song so loose in its words and so ugly in its motions that it is enough to excite bad emotions in even very decent people". A character in an entremés by Cervantes alluded to the dance's notoriety by saying that hell was its "birthplace and breeding place" (in Spanish: origen y principio). It was banned in Spain in 1583 but was nevertheless still performed and frequently cited in literature of the period (for instance, by Lope de Vega). It spread to Italy in the 17th century, and to France, where it became a slow court dance. The sarabande was used throughout much of classical music, especially in the baroque era: for example, the music of French baroque composer Jean-Marie Leclair (born 1697): Sonata for 2 violins in D major Op.12 no.3; and Buxtehude's Trio Sonata in E minor Op.1/7 BuxWV 258, an extraordinary work with this sarabande style, most likely influencing later baroque composers such as Handel and Bach, who also have notable works using the same theme. Baroque musicians of the 18th century wrote suites of dance music in binary form that typically included a sarabande as the third of four movements. 1
The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Sarabande”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. 1
sarabande is music genre and type of dance, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. 2
The source record links this tradition to 21 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. 2