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In music, the sarabande (It., sarabanda) is a slow dance in triple metre with the distinctive feature that beats 2 and 3 of the measure are often tied, giving a distinctive rhythm of quarter and half notes in alternation. The half notes are said to have corresponded with dragging steps in the dance.

The sarabande is first mentioned in Central America: in 1539, a dance called a zarabanda is mentioned in a poem written in Panama by Fernando Guzmán Mexía.^[1] Apparently the dance became popular in the Spanish colonies before moving back across the Atlantic to Spain. While it was banned in Spain in 1583 for its obscenity, it was frequently cited in literature of the period (for instance in works by Cervantes and Lope de Vega).

Later, it became a traditional movement of the suite during the baroque period, for instance in the Bach Cello suites. The baroque sarabande is commonly a slow triple rather than the much faster Spanish original, consistent with the courtly European interpretations of many Latin dances. The sarabande form was revived in the 20th Century by composers such as Debussy, Satie and, in a different style, Vaughan Williams (in Job) and Benjamin Britten (in the Simple Symphony).

Perhaps the most famous sarabande is the anonymous La folie espagnole whose melody appears in pieces by dozens of composers from the time of Monteverdi and Corelli through the present day.

Stanley Kubrick, as well as Brian De Palma, prominently featured a sarabande by George Frideric Handel in the soundtrack to their films Barry Lyndon and Redacted respectively. ^[2]

The sarabande inspired the title of Ingmar Bergman's last film Saraband (2003). In all of Bach's cello suites there is a sarabande, and the film uses the sarabande from his fifth suite. Bergman had used this piece previously in Cries and Whispers (1971). ^[3]

1. ^ Richard Hudson: "Sarabande", New Grove Online (subscription access). Retrieved on 2006-11-13.
2. ^ Reel Chill: Cinematic Chillout Album. Retrieved on 2006-02-11.
3. ^ Ingmar Bergman Saraband - Sources of inspiration

• The Sarabande