Sarabande

Classical Academy | Composers

The sarabande is a dance in triple time - in music, it has a distinctive rhythmic feel that corresponds with the dragging steps in the dance itself. Frist popular amongst Spanish colonies returning from Central America, the style was taken up enthusiastically in the Baroque era. By standard convention, the Baroque suite typically included a sarabande as one of its movements.

 

Although it fell out of favour for a few centuries, this wonderful dance was revived in the 18th and 19th centuries by composers such as Debussy and Satie. Handel's Suite in D Minor, included in this fantastic selection of sarabandes from across the centuries, featured prominently in the film Barry Lyndon, while the sarabande from Johann Bach's Cello Suite No. 5 inspired Ingmar Bergman's last film Sarabande (2003).