Gigue

The gigue or giga is a lively baroque dance.  "Gigue" (pronounce "jeeg") is the French word, and "giga" (pronounce "jee-ga") is the Italian word.  The English word is "jig" and in England this refers to a folk dance.

The gigue was one of the movements in a series of dance movements called suites written by Baroque composers. The Baroque suite normally had an Allemande, a Courante, a Sarabande and a Gigue to finish with.  Sometimes there were one or two other movements as well.

The gigue usually has a compound metre such as 6/8, 6/4, 9/8 or 12/16.   They often have a contrapuntal texture and each phrase is usually four bars long.  Like all the dances in the Baroque suite, the gigue is in binary form.  The second half will usually start with the main tune in inversion (upside down).

Category:Dances
Category:Musical forms