One of the most popular of Baroque instrumental dances and a standard movement, along with the allemande, courante and gigue, of the suite. It originated during the 16th century as a sung dance in Latin America and Spain. It came to Italy early in the 17th century as part of the repertory of the Spanish five-course guitar. During the first half of the century various instrumental types developed in France and Italy, at first based on harmonic schemes, later on characteristics of rhythm and tempo. A fast and a slow type finally emerged, the former preferred in Italy, England and Spain, the latter in France and Germany.
The French spelling ‘sarabande’ was also used in Germany and sometimes in England; there, however, ‘saraband’ was often preferred. The Italian usage is ‘sarabanda’, the Spanish ‘zarabanda’.
1. Early development to c1640.
RICHARD HUDSON (1, 2 (i, iii)), MEREDITH ELLIS LITTLE (2 (ii))
The earliest literary references to the zarabanda come from Latin America, the name first appearing in a poem by Fernando Guzmán Mexía in a manuscript from Panama dated 1539, according to B.J. Gallardo (Ensayo de una biblioteca española de libros raros y curiosos, Madrid, 1888–9, iv, 1528). A zarabanda text by Pedro de Trejo was performed in 1569 in Mexico and Diego Durán mentioned the dance in his Historia de las Indias de Nueva-España (1579). The zarabanda was banned in Spain in 1583 for its extraordinary obscenity, but literary references to it continued throughout the early 17th century in the works of such writers as Cervantes and Lope de Vega. From about 1580 to 1610 it seems to have been the most popular of the wild and energetic Spanish bailes, superseded finally by the chacona (see Chaconne), with which it is frequently mentioned. The dance was accompanied by the guitar, castanets and possibly other percussion instruments, and by a text with refrain.
Most surviving examples of the early zarabanda occur in Italian tablatures for the Spanish guitar, beginning in 1606 with Girolamo Montesardo's Nuova inventione d'intavolatura. Ex.1 shows a reconstruction of the musical scheme that would usually have been repeated for each line of the text, alternating with and without an anacrusis. The top staff shows the melodic framework, which could be varied, and the lower staff (from one of Montesardo's guitar examples) represents major triads to be strummed, the stems showing the direction in which the hand is to move. The refrain text comes from an example in Luis de Briçeño's Metodo mui facilissimo (Paris, 1626). The I–IV–I–V harmonic progression was a constant feature of the early zarabanda and can be found also in the later guitar books of Benedetto Sanseverino (see ex.2), G.A. Colonna (1620), Fabrizio Costanzo (1627), G.P. Foscarini (1629) and Antonio Carbonchi (1640 and 1643), as well as in the guitar works of Spanish composers as late as Lucas Ruiz de Ribayaz in 1677. Although the dance seems to have been performed without a text in Italy, the musical scheme of the zarabanda was sometimes indicated for the singing of poetry (in I-Fr 2774, 2793, 2804, 2849 and 2951).
Although ostinato repetition of the single phrase of ex.1 was most usual in Italy, a two-phrase structure occasionally occurred. In Briçeño's two examples entitled La çaravanda española muy façil, the first line of the refrain has a harmonic pattern like that of ex.1, but in the second line the IV chord in the first bar is replaced by V. The same structure appears in pieces by Gaspar Sanz (1674) and Ruiz de Ribayaz (1677), but a different two-phrase plan occurs in the Aria di saravanda in varie partite for lute by Piccinini (1623). Its opening phrase is similar to that shown in ex.1, but without the hemiola rhythm; the second phrase begins on a minor submediant chord and bears little resemblance to ex.1.
In Italy and Spain both the single phrases of ex.1 and longer double-phrase structures beginning like ex.1 were often called zarabanda spagnola to distinguish them from different types that were developing elsewhere. In France the sarabande usually had no text. Its musical structure, like that of most French Baroque dances, was freely sectional, with two (or sometimes more) repeated sections of varying length. The sarabande appeared early in the 17th century in the ballet de cour, as seen in Praetorius's Terpsichore (1612). He included examples for each of two types of sarabande, a courrant sarabande, made up of repeated sections, and a non-sectional sarabande, which sometimes begins with the pattern shown in ex.1. Ex.3 shows one of the latter, with its metre, barring and note values altered to facilitate comparison with ex.1.
About 1620 a new type of sarabande called the zarabanda francese appeared in Spanish and Italian guitar books as well as in the Bentivoglio lutebook of 1615 (US-SFsc). The name seems to refer to a non-texted dance with a sectional structure. A zarabanda francese by G.A. Colonna (1637) has a harmonic scheme identical to that of ex.3, but its second section (beginning in the fifth bar) is marked for repetition. Briçeño's Metodo mui facilissimo includes an untexted çaravanda françesa y buena in addition to texted Spanish examples. Antonio Carbonchi, in 1643, entitled single phrases like ex.1 serabanda spagnuola and sectional pieces serabanda franzese. Unlike the original Spanish type the Italian zarabanda francese could be in either mode. Those in the major tended at first to begin with a phrase like ex.1; those in the minor were often based on the chordal scheme later associated with the Folia (chords in brackets indicate those that were sometimes added; upper- or lower-case Roman numerals indicate major or minor triads): i–V–i–(VI)–VII–III–(VI–VII–III)–VII–i–V–(i). Three or five of the opening chords (i–V–i or i–V–i–VII–III) could appear in the first phrase, and the entire scheme could occur either once (with the first half ending on III) or twice (cadencing on V and i). After 1650, however, the zarabanda francese seldom displayed any particular harmonic scheme.
During the 1630s rhythm began to become a distinguishing feature of the dance. The sarabandes of François de Chancy, Jacques de Belleville, T. Chevallier and Bouvier contained in Pierre Ballard's Tablature de luth de differens autheurs (Paris, 1631) emphasize the rhythm shown in ex.4a. Mersenne (Harmonie universelle, 1636) printed two sarabandes, one by ‘Mr. Martin’ that uses the rhythm of ex.4a, and another that begins like ex.4b. The latter rhythm occurs in a sarabande for trumpet and continuo (1638) by Girolamo Fantini (ex.5 shows the opening statement, which is followed by two variations). He notated it in 3/8, presumably to indicate a faster tempo than in his saltarellos or gagliarde, which he wrote in 3/2, or some of his correntes in 3/4 or 6/4. The same rhythm appeared in later Italian guitar sarabandas (incorporating by this time single notes as well as chords), starting with those by Francesco Corbetta in 1639. G.M. Bononcini (Arie, correnti, sarabande, gighe, & allemande, 1671) used the rhythm of ex.4a in a piece for violin and continuo called Sarabanda in stil francese (ex.6a), and the rhythm of ex.4b in a Sarabanda (ex.6b). The first was notated in 3/4, the second in 6/4, suggesting that the rhythm of ex.4a, preferred in France, implied a slower tempo with three substantial beats per bar, while that of ex.4b, more common in Italy, implied a faster tempo and a compound metre with one accent for each triple group.
Thus there seems to have been a preference, particularly strong among French lute and harpsichord composers, for an increasingly slow and deliberate kind of sarabande, in which (as in French versions of the allemande and the courante) the idiomatic and contrapuntal possibilities of those instruments might be most fully exploited.
Italian sarabandas occurred mainly in solo music for guitar and in continuo chamber music. Most sarabandas for guitar from 1640 to 1692 used the rhythm of ex.4b, notably the earlier ones of G.P. Foscarini (c1640), Antonio Carbonchi, A.M. Bartolotti (1640), Domenico Pellegrini (1650) and G.B. Granata (1651). Corbetta included some sarabandas that began with the rhythm of ex.4a, others that used that of ex.4b, in his Varii capricii per la ghittara spagnuola (1643). In La guitarre royalle, dedicated by Corbetta in 1671 to Charles II of England, two sarabandes with dotted second beats were notated in 3/2 rather than the usual 3/4 metre; one of them, Sarabande de tombeau de Madame, has both French and Italian texts. Such titles as Saravanda alla francese (Carbonchi, 1640) and Sarabanda francese per B mole (Granata, 1646) continued to refer in guitar books simply to the sectional sarabanda as distinct from the original dance music as shown in ex.1. The guitar sarabanda was joined with other dances beginning in A.M. Bartolotti’s book (1640), in which it is six times preceded by an allemanda and two correntes. Corbetta’s Varii capricii has allemanda–corrente–sarabanda groups; G.B. Granata (Nuova scielta di capricci armonici, 1651) and Ludovico Roncalli (1692) preceded this group with a preludio or toccata and sometimes added other dances as well. Ricci, a conservative composer who in 1677 still indicated only strummed chords, wrote that ‘in the correnti, sarabande and ciacconne one is to play fast’.
In Italian ensemble music tempos are more explicitly marked. The preferred faster type, often characterized by the rhythm of ex.4b, was indicated by the marking ‘allegro’ or ‘presto’ in works of P.C.C. Albergati (1682), Domenico Gabrielli (1684), Torelli (1686), Salvatore Mazzella (1689), Giorgio Buoni (1693), and G.B. Brevi (1693). B.G. Laurenti (1691) and T.A. Vitali (1701) marked their sarabandas ‘largo’, Vivaldi wrote a Sarabanda andante, and Corelli used vivace, adagio and largo tempo markings for sarabandas (see HAM, no.253, for the latter). Dances are usually grouped together in these sources, opening with an allemanda or balletto (preceded sometimes by an introductory movement), followed by a corrente or giga or both, and concluding with a sarabanda. Italian sarabandas usually have two repeated sections of variable length, and show a special concern with the tonal and melodic design of each. Buoni in 1693, for example, sometimes repeated the opening melody at the end of the second section, creating a rounded binary form.
The saraband was mentioned in England as early as 1616 in plays by Ben Jonson. Numerous examples began to appear around the mid-17th century, often as the concluding movement in a suite; they include works by William Lawes, John Jenkins, Matthew Locke, Charles Coleman, Simon Ives (i), Mace, Blow, Purcell, Croft and others. Mace described sarabands as being of the ‘shortest triple-time’ (Musick's Monument, London, 1676/R, p.129), which corresponds with Ricci's suggestion for the tempo of Italian sarabandas. The slower French type, however, also became popular in England and was perhaps introduced by the Italian guitarist Corbetta, who was in France by 1656 and in England by 1662. One of his sarabands played a prominent role in a scandalous adventure and was so popular that all the guitarists at the English court were playing it (Anthony Hamilton's memoirs of Count Gramont). An English keyboard manuscript from the late Baroque period (F-Pc Rés.1186bis) included some sarabandes entitled ‘slow sar.’. Tomlinson (The Art of Dancing, London, 1735/R, i) showed a saraband in 3/4 marked ‘slow’ (see illustration) and one in 3/2 marked ‘very slow’ (pl.6). Grassineau's dictionary of 1740 describes the motions of the saraband as slow and serious.
Sarabandes are not numerous in Spanish sources. Gaspar Sanz and Lucas Ruiz de Ribayaz continued the guitar tradition, with the title zarabanda francese probably having the same meaning it had for Italian guitar composers. French influence is seen in a keyboard piece, Zarabanda francesa despacio, in Martín y Coll's collection (E-Mn 1357); similarly, Santiago de Murcia (1714) labelled a guitar composition Zarabanda despacio.
Most French and German sarabandes of the mid- and late Baroque appear as one of the dances in suites for a solo instrument such as keyboard or lute, and in continuo chamber suites for violin or other instruments. They are characterized by an intense, serious affect, though a few are tender and gracious, and are set in slow triple metre with a strong sense of balance based on four-bar phrases. A bipartite structure (AABB) is most common, though variations and rondeau form may also be found, often with ornamented reprises or doubles. Frequently a petite reprise occurs at the end, an exact or slightly varied repetition of the last four bars of the piece. The syncopated rhythm of ex.4a may appear in any bar and is often used for dramatic effect (ex.7). A few sarabandes have an anacrusis, though most do not.
French composers wrote solo sarabandes for lute (Ennemond and Denis Gaultier; Jacques Gallot (ii)), clavecin (Pinel, René Mesangeau, Chambonnières, Louis Couperin, Lebègue, D'Anglebert, Louis Marchand, François Couperin, Rameau), viol (Marais) and guitar (Visée, François Campion). Sarabandes appeared frequently in French ballets and operas (by, for example, Lully, Lalande, Collasse, Lacoste, Campra, Destouches and Rameau). Surviving choreographic sources in publications dating from 1700 include 27 pieces to be performed by one or two dancers, with orchestral accompaniment for theatrical performance, and with a small ensemble for social dancing (Little and Marsh). Ecorcheville's Vingt suites d'orchestre du XVIIe siècle français (Paris, 1906/R), an early source of instrumental suites to accompany dancing, contains numerous sarabandes. French composers (Brossard, L'Affilard and Bacilly, for example) also set sarabandes as vocal airs. Sarabandes sometimes merged with other similar dance types, such as the canary (Sarabande en canarie, in F-Pn Vm65), chaconne, passacaille and folia or folies d'Espagne. One German dance treatise described the folia tune as ‘the most famous of all sarabande melodies’ (Gottfried Taubert, Rechtschaffener Tanzmeister, Leipzig, 1717).
J.S. Bach composed more sarabandes than any other dance type. His 39 surviving sarabandes are all virtuoso pieces in suites for a solo instrument (keyboard, cello, flute, violin or lute) except for the one in the Orchestral Suite in B minorbwv1067. They display a rich variety of techniques and styles, including variations or written-out doubles (bwv808, 811 and 1002), elaborate, dramatic italianate flourishes (bwv806, 828 and 1007), entrée grave style (bwv829 and 1010) and even strict canon at the 12th (bwv1067). Sarabandes sometimes occur, though untitled, in other works, such as his chorale prelude An Wasserflüssen Babylon (bwv653), the aria to the Goldberg Variations (bwv988) and the final chorus of the St Matthew Passion (bwv244). Other composers of solo sarabandes include J.E. Kindermann, J.C. Kerll, Froberger (ed. in GMB, no.205), J.C. Pezel, Buxtehude, Hieronymus Gradenthaler, Jakob Scheiffelhut, R.I. Mayr, J.J. Walther (ed. in GMB, no.239), Böhm, Pachelbel (ed. in HAM, no.250), Kuhnau, Reincken, J.C. Bach, Telemann and Handel. Sarabandes for orchestra or small ensemble are found in works by G. Muffat, J.C.F. Fischer and Erlebach.
Auber included a sarabande in his opera Les diamants de la couronne (1841). In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the form gained in popularity, appearing in instrumental works by Debussy (Pour le piano, Images, i: ‘Hommage à Rameau’), Satie (Trois sarabandes), Busoni (Sarabande und Cortège op.51), Saint-Saëns, Reynaldo Hahn, Albert Roussel, Germaine Tailleferre, Henry Brant (Two Sarabandes for Keyboard, 1931), and Tippett (a section entitled ‘in the style of a sarabande’ in The Mask of Time, fifth movement, 1980–82, and in the opera New Year, Act 3, scene ii, 1986–8).
MGG1(R. Stevenson)
MGG2(R. Gstrein)
R. Stevenson: ‘The First Dated Mention of the Sarabande’, JAMS, v (1952), 29–31
D. Devoto: ‘La folle sarabande’, RdM, xlv–xlvi (1960), 3–43, 145–80; see also RdM, xlvii (1961), 113
R. Stevenson: ‘The Sarabande, a Dance of American Descent’, Inter-American Music Bulletin, no.30 (1962), 1–13
R. Stevenson: ‘The Mexican Origins of the Sarabande’, Inter-American Music Bulletin, no.33 (1963), 7 only
R. Stevenson: ‘Communication’, JAMS, xvi (1963), 110–12
D. Devoto: ‘Encore sur “la sarabande”’, RdM, l (1964), 175–207
D. Devoto: ‘¿Qué es la zarabanda?’, Boletín interamericano de música no.45 (1965), 8–16; no.51 (1966), 3–16
D. Devoto: ‘De la zarabanda à la sarabande’, RMFC, vi (1966), 27–72
K.H. Taubert: Höfische Tänze (Mainz, 1968)
R.A. Hudson: ‘The Zarabanda and Zarabanda Francese in Italian Guitar Music of the Early 17th Century’, MD, xxiv (1970), 125–49
R.A. Hudson: The Folia, the Saraband, the Passacaglia, and the Chaconne, ii: The Saraband, MSD, xxxv (Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 1982)
M. Little and N. Jenne: Dance and the Music of J.S. Bach (Bloomington, IN, 1991) 92–113, 207–8, 218–19
M. Little and C. Marsh: La Danse Noble: an Inventory of Dances and Sources (Williamstown, MA, 1992)
P. Ranum: ‘Do French Dance Songs Obey the Rules of Rhetoric?’, Fluting and Dancing: Articles and Reminiscences for Betty Bang Mather, ed. D. Lasocki (New York, 1992), 104–30
P. Ranum: ‘Audible Rhetoric and Mute Rhetoric: the 17th Century French Sarabande’, EMc, xiv (1986), 22–39
B.B. Mather: Dance Rhythms of the French Baroque: a Handbook for Performance (Bloomington, IN, 1987)
A. Whittall: ‘Resisting Tonality: Tippett, Beethoven and the Sarabande’, MAn, ix (1990), 267–86
W. Hilton: Dance and Music of Court and Theater (Stuyvesant, NY, 1997)
R. Gstrein: ‘Zarabanda/Sarabande’ (1992), HMT
R. Gstrein: ‘Die Courante-Sarabande: ein Beitrag zur Erforschung der Frühgeschichte der Sarabande’, Tanz und Musik im ausgehenden 17. und 18. Jahrhundert: Blankenburg, Harz, 1991, 66–72
R. Gstrein: Die Sarabande: Tanzgattung und musikalischer Topos (Innsbruck, 1997)