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{{Short description|Type of baroque dance}}
{{For-multi|the type of shield strap|guige|the fictional character|Giegue}}
[[File:Gigue dance pattern 1.png|thumb|right|250px|Gigue [[rhythm]].<ref name="Blatter">Blatter, Alfred (2007). ''Revisiting Music Theory: A Guide to the Practice'', p. 28. {{ISBN|0-415-97440-2}}.</ref>]]

The '''gigue''' ({{IPAc-en|ʒ|iː|g}} {{respell|ZHEEG}}, {{IPA|fr|ʒiɡ|lang}}) or '''giga''' ({{IPA|it|ˈd͡ʒiːɡa|lang}}) is a lively [[baroque dance]] originating from the English [[jig]]. It was imported into France in the mid-17th century<ref>Bellingham, Jane, [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t114/e2876 "gigue."] ''The Oxford Companion to Music''. Ed. Alison Latham. Oxford Music Online. 6 July 2008 {{subscription required}}</ref> and usually appears at the end of a suite. 

The gigue was probably never a court dance, but it was danced by nobility on social occasions and several court composers wrote gigues.<ref name=horst>Louis Horst, ''Pre-Classic Dance Forms'', (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Book Company, 1987), 54–60.</ref> A gigue, like other Baroque dances, consists of two sections.

A gigue is usually in {{music|time|3|8}} or in one of its [[compound metre]] derivatives, such as {{music|time|6|8}}, {{music|time|6|4}}, {{music|time|9|8}} or {{music|time|12|8}}, although there are some gigues written in other metres, as for example the gigue from [[Johann Sebastian Bach]]'s first [[French Suites (Bach)|''French Suite'']] (BWV 812), which is written in {{music|time|2|2}} and has a distinctive strutting [[Dotted rhythm|"dotted" rhythm]]. 

Gigues often have a [[counterpoint|contrapuntal]] texture as well as often having accents on the third beats in the bar, making the gigue a lively folk dance.

In early French theatre, it was customary to end a play's performance with a gigue, complete with music and dancing.<ref name=horst/>

[[File:Gigue dance pattern 2.png|thumb|right|250px|Another gigue rhythm.<ref name="Blatter" />]]

==Etymology==
An early Italian dance called the ''giga'' probably derives its name from a small accompanying stringed instrument called the [[Giga (instrument)|giga]]. Historians, such as Charles Read Baskerville, claim that use of the word in relation to dancing took place in England prior to such usage on the Continent. ''Giga'' probably has a separate etymology.<ref name=horst />

==Pachelbel's Canon and Gigue==

[[Pachelbel's Canon]] by the German [[Baroque music|Baroque]] composer [[Johann Pachelbel]] was originally paired with a gigue under the title ''Canon and Gigue for 3 violins and basso continuo''. Both [[movement (music)|movements]] are in the [[key (music)|key]] of [[D major]]. 

The gigue is set in {{music|time|12|8}} time and consists of 2 equal sections of 10 bars each. Unlike the canon, the gigue neither has a repeating bass voice nor a set chord progression. The gigue exhibits [[fugue|fugal writing]], with each section introducing a brief melodic statement which is then imitated in the other voices.

==In popular culture==
[[Jonathan Littell]]'s 2006 novel ''[[The Kindly Ones (Littell novel)|The Kindly Ones]]'' is structured in different parts, each one of these named after a [[Baroque music|Baroque]] dance, the last part being called ''Gigue''.

==See also==
* [[Jig]] (folk dance)
* [[Loure]] (slow gigue)

== References ==
'''Notes'''
{{reflist}}

'''Further reading'''
* Simone Voyer, ''La Gigue'', Québec: GID, 2003 {{ISBN|2-922668-31-2}} {{in lang|fr}}

{{Baroque dance}}

{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Baroque dance]]
[[Category:European dances]]
[[Category:Baroque music]]
[[Category:Dance forms in classical music]]