Tarantella
A fast southern Italian 6/8 dance that keeps speeding up
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A tarantella is a fast 6/8 dance from southern Italy, dense in rhythm and constantly accelerating; legend links it to dancing as a cure for a tarantula bite. It often serves as a concert finale, using speed and repetition to build frenzy.
It shares 6/8 with the siciliana but has the opposite character: one slow and swaying, the other fast and spinning. The usual mistake is "the faster the more authentic" — the acceleration needs levels; starting at the limit loses the dance's elasticity.
Read deeper → siciliana
Sources
- 塔兰泰拉的节奏、传说与演奏传统，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Tarantella"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.