Siciliana
A slow 6/8 or 12/8 dance with a pastoral sway
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A siciliana is a slow dance in 6/8 or 12/8, with dotted rhythms and a pastoral sway. It appears in Baroque opera, oratorio and instrumental music, often for pastoral, lamenting or serene scenes.
It differs from the tarantella: the tarantella is a fast 6/8, the siciliana a slow, soft 6/8; both divide the beat in three, but the body is completely different. The usual mistake is to treat it as a fast dance — the point is sway, not run.
Read deeper → pastorale
Sources
- 西西里舞曲的节奏与田园性格，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Siciliana"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.