Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Courante
Courante was a court dance popular in Europe from about 1600 to 1800. In a stylized form, its music was usually the second of the dances of the Baroque suite. It was danced by couples using small springing or gliding steps. The musical form had two types: the Italian corrente was in fast triple metre, with quick running figures in a texture of accompanied melody; the slower French courante was contrapuntal in style, with shifts between 3|2 and 6|4 metre, typically with an upbeat measure like the allemande. For example, the courante of Bach's second solo violin partita (BWV 1004, written around 1720 in Cöthen; see e.g. [1]), in 3|4 time, alternates measures in all or mostly triplets with bars of dotted notes, a few bars combining the two figures.
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