The Pavane is a slow processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century. The pavane, the earliest-known music for which was published in Venice by Ottaviano Petrucci, in Joan Ambrosio Dalza’s Intabolatura de lauto libro quarto in 1508, is a sedate and dignified couple dance, similar to the 15th-century basse danse. The music which accompanied it appears originally to have been fast or moderately fast but, like many other dances, became slower over time.
The word pavane is most probably derived from Italian [danza] padovana, meaning “[dance] typical of Padua” (similar to Bergamask, “dance from Bergamo”); pavan is an old Northern Italian form for the modern Italian adjective padovano (= from Padua). This origin is consistent with the equivalent form, Paduana. An alternative explanation is that it derives from the Spanish pavón meaning peacock. Although the dance is often associated with Spain, it was “almost certainly of Italian origin”.
The decorous sweep of the pavane suited the new more sober Spanish-influenced courtly manners of 16th-century Italy. It appears in dance manuals in England, France, and Italy. The pavane’s popularity was from roughly 1530 to 1676, though, as a dance, it was already dying out by the late 16th century. As a musical form, the pavane survived long after the dance itself was abandoned, and well into the Baroque period, when it finally gave way to the allemande/courante sequence.
Slow duple metre (22 or 44) by the late 16th century, though there is evidence that it was still a fast dance as late as the mid-16th century, and there are also examples of triple-time pavans from Spain, Italy, and England. Two strains of eight, twelve, or sixteen bars each. Accent generally comes on the third beat with a secondary accent on the 1st beat though some pavanes place the accent on the first beat with the secondary accent falling on the third.
In Thoinot Arbeau’ s French dance manual, it is generally a dance for many couples in procession, with the dancers sometimes throwing in ornamentation (divisions) of the steps. The Dictionnaire de Trevoux describes the dance as being a “grave kind of dance, borrowed from the Spaniards, wherein the performers make a kind of wheel or tail before each other, like that of a peacock, whence the name.” It was usually used by regents to open grand ceremonies and to display their royal attire. Before dancing, the performers saluted the King and Queen whilst circling the room. The steps were called advancing and retreating. Retreating gentlemen would lead their ladies by the hand and, after curtsies and steps, the gentlemen would regain their places. Next, a lone gentleman advanced and went en se pavanant (strutting like a peacock) to salute the lady opposite him. After taking backward steps, he would return to his place, bowing to his lady.
