Bourrée
The bourrée is a fast dance from the Auvergne in France. It is in duple time, usually alla breve, and begins with an upbeat of one quarter note. In the Baroque suite it is an additional movement between the sarabande and the gigue.
- Time signature
- duple time, usually alla breve (2/2)
- Upbeat
- one quarter note
- Tempo
- fast, somewhat faster than the gavotte
- In the suite
- additional movement between sarabande and gigue
- Origin
- Auvergne, France
A dance from the Auvergne
The bourrée comes from the Auvergne in France, where it is still danced as a folk dance today. In Baroque music it became a movement of the instrumental suite. There it is not one of the fixed movements but an additional one that can stand between the sarabande and the gigue. A well-known example is the Bourrée in E minor from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Lute Suite BWV 996; Handel’s “Water Music” also contains a bourrée.
Duple time, short upbeat
The bourrée is in duple time, usually alla breve, and has a fast tempo. Its hallmark is the upbeat: it takes up only one quarter note, that is, a quarter of the bar. The gavotte, with which the bourrée is often compared, begins with an upbeat of half a bar; the bourrée is also somewhat faster.
Upbeat of one quarter note
Our own example in A minor: the upbeat (highlighted) is a single quarter note. You count two half-note beats per bar; the upbeat falls on “2 and”. The last bar is shorter by this quarter note, so that upbeat and final bar together make one full bar.
For comparison: the half-bar upbeat of the gavotte
Our own example: in the gavotte the upbeat takes up half a bar, here two quarter notes (highlighted). It begins on “2”, one quarter note earlier than in the bourrée.
| Dance | Upbeat | Start, counted in half notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bourrée | one quarter note (a quarter of the bar) | “2 and” |
| Gavotte | two quarter notes (half a bar) | “2” |
In alla breve you count two half-note beats per bar (see Alla breve). Counting in eighth or quarter notes helps when practising, but when you play up to tempo you feel only two beats.
Common mistakes
- Starting the upbeat too early: The bourrée begins one quarter note before beat one, not half a bar before it like the gavotte.
- Filling up the final bar: In the example the last bar is shorter by the quarter note of the upbeat; together they make one full bar.
- Playing in four beats: In fast alla breve only the two half notes carry the stress.
Continue on Maikstrings
Related terms
GavotteUpbeatAlla breveSuiteSarabandeGigueMinuetDanceBaroqueTwo-four time
Editor: Maik Krohm · reviewed on 4 October 2026
← Back to the glossary