Spagnoletta
A Spanish Renaissance dance.
What it means
The Spagnoletta — Italian for “little Spanish dance” — is a dance of the late Renaissance and early Baroque, transmitted in Italian dance books and instrumental collections of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Despite the name, the Spanish origin is not established. The name can point to an actual origin, but equally to a fashion of the time of naming dances after countries whose character was attributed to them. Scholarship is not agreed on this point.
Musically the Spagnoletta often rests on a fixed harmonic framework or a recurring melody over which variations were made. It usually stands in triple time and has a moderate, graceful character. Such framework models were widespread in the instrumental music of the period and served as a basis for variation and improvisation.
In the notation
Spagnolettas survive in lute, guitar, and keyboard music as well as in ensemble collections of the period, often in tablature. Modern editions transcribe them into today's notation. The variations over the basic framework are often written out.
Musical use
The Spagnoletta was widespread in Italy around 1600 and appears in dance books with step descriptions. Like other dances of this period, it also became the basis of instrumental variations no longer intended for dancing. Today it belongs to the repertoire of early-music ensembles.
The Spagnoletta is a dance of the late Renaissance, transmitted in Italian and English sources. It rests on a fixed harmonic scheme, similar to the folia or the romanesca. Over this model, sequences of variations arose for lute, guitar, and keyboard instruments, for instance in English virginal books. Giles Farnaby wrote variations on the Spagnoletta in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book.
Performance practice
Inform yourself about the source situation and about which parts of an edition are added. Keep the tempo graceful and dance-like. Use the opportunity for variation at repetitions of the basic framework, as was usual in the practice of the period. And choose the scoring with the transmitted instruments in view.