courante

17th-century French court dance. Initially fast in tempo, with an emphasis on mime, it later became codified in a much slower and graver form. It was a favourite dance of Louis XIV. The music for the dance formed one of the standard movements of a baroque suite. The Italian courante, or ‘corrente’, is in quick triple time (3/8 or 3/4), with continuous ‘running’ figures in the melody. The French courante is in a more moderate triple time (3/2) or compound duple time (6/4), and often exploits the rhythmic disruption of changing from one metre to the other. J S Bach used this variety in the courantes of his famous French Suites (c. 1722).