Gigue
Fast dance at the end of the suite, usually in 6/8 time.
What it means
The gigue is a fast dance in compound time, usually in 6/8, occasionally in 12/8 or 3/8 time. In the Baroque suite it as a rule forms the closing movement and ends the sequence of dances with lively, often virtuoso motion.
The dance goes back to the English and Irish jig, a quick folk dance, and was taken over into French and Italian art music in the seventeenth century. Different forms developed in the process. The French gigue is often dotted and contrapuntal in layout, the Italian giga quicker, more even, and more homophonic.
A frequent feature is the imitative beginning: the voices enter one after another with the subject, and in the second part the subject is often worked out in inversion.
In the notation
The gigue is usually in 6/8 time, recognizable by the beaming in groups of three. It is divided into two repeated parts, of which the first modulates to a related key and the second leads back to the home key. Dotted figures and quick runs are frequent.
Musical use
As the closing movement of the suite, the gigue is omnipresent in the keyboard, lute, orchestral, and chamber music of the Baroque. It belongs to the fixed core dances of the suite, alongside allemande, courante, and sarabande. In solo works for string instruments too it stands at the end.
Johann Mattheson distinguished in 1739 in his Vollkommener Capellmeister several kinds, among them the English gigue and the Italian giga. One distinguishes the French gigue with dotted rhythms and often fugal layout from the Italian giga with even chains of eighth notes. In the Baroque suite it usually forms the closing movement. In Bach the second part is often an inversion of the first. French gigues are often in 6/4 or 3/8 time with dotted figures, Italian gigas usually in 12/8 time.
Performance practice
Count in groups of three and keep the tempo lively but controlled. With imitative gigues, bring out the subject entries distinctly. Play dotted figures sharply. And note the repeats — in Baroque practice the repeat was often ornamented.