gigue

American  

[zheeg] / ʒig /

noun

1. Dance. jig.

2. Music. a dance movement often forming the conclusion of the classical suite.

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gigue British  

/ ʒiːɡ /

noun

1. a piece of music, usually in six-eight time and often fugal, incorporated into the classical suite

2. a formal couple dance of the 16th and 17th centuries, derived from the jig

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Etymology

Origin of gigue

1675–85; < French, probably < English jig ²

Example Sentences

In the last movement, a gigue, Bach’s unsettled meters can across as downright Stravinsky-an.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 10, 2021

He exploited time signatures and forms; for “Night Music,” he wrote a waltz, two sarabandes, two mazurkas, a polonaise, an étude and a gigue — nearly an entire score written in permutations of triple time.

From New York Times • Nov. 26, 2021

In his score Tchaikovsky arranges four different pieces of Mozart; on Tuesday only Daniel Ulbricht, dancing the gigue, showed any Mozartian wit.

From New York Times • Jan. 16, 2013

Mr. Renz accomplished that feat, in one case, by fitting a sacred text to a gigue that originally accompanied a drinking song.

From New York Times • Dec. 26, 2011

The first movement consisted of an allemande; then came a courante; then a minuet; then a sarabande; and last of all a gigue; all in the same key.

From Critical and Historical Essays Lectures delivered at Columbia University by Baltzell, W. J. (Winton James)