gigue

views updated May 21 2018

gigue, giga (Fr., It.). Jig.
1. A lively rustic Eng., Scot., and Irish dance type (see jig), usually in compound duple or triple time, with the characteristic rhythm etc. Eng. virginalists were first to use the gigue, which was introduced to the Continent by Froberger, 1657, though the term had appeared in 1648 in a lute piece by Ebner. Pieces in gigue style were absorbed into the suite as the customary closing movts.: in Bach's gigues the 2 halves of binary form often opened in something like fugal style, the subject of the first half being often inverted as that of the 2nd half. (Occasionally Bach applied the term ‘gigue’ loosely to a piece in simple duple or quadruple time.)

2. Medieval name for str. instr.