Furiant

What it means

The furiant is a fast Bohemian folk dance of a fiery, proud character. Its most important feature is a rhythmic alternation: within triple time the accents are displaced so that two bars can be gathered into three groups of two. The impression arises as if the dance alternated between triple and duple time.

This change of emphasis is called hemiola in music theory. It also occurs in other forms but shapes the furiant so strongly that it counts as its distinguishing mark. The name is associated with the word for a proud, swaggering person.

The furiant is to be distinguished from the polka, the other well-known Bohemian dance: the polka is in 2/4 time and is an even hopping dance, the furiant is characterized by the displacement of the metre.

In the notation

The furiant is usually notated in 3/4 time. The hemiolas appear through accents, ties, or beamings that set the duple rhythm against the notated triple metre. In some arrangements the time signature expressly alternates between duple and triple time.

Musical use

As a folk dance the furiant comes from Bohemia. In the nineteenth century it was taken over into art music by Czech composers and appears in symphonies, chamber music, and dance collections, often in the place of a scherzo. There it became an expression of national character.

The furiant is a fast Bohemian dance that is characterized by constant alternation between duple and triple emphasis within triple time. Dvořák and Smetana used it often, for instance as the scherzo in symphonies and chamber music. The hemiola is the central rhythmic means of the dance. Dvořák uses it, for instance, in his Sixth Symphony.

Performance practice

Bring out the change of emphasis distinctly — it is the essence of the dance. Practise the hemiolas at first slowly and count the groups of two aloud in doing so. Keep the tempo taut and the character fiery. And take care that the notated triple metre remains perceptible in the background, for only the contrast makes the effect.