Pavane, (probably from Italian padovana, “Paduan”), majestic processional dance of the 16th and 17th century European aristocracy. Until about 1650 the pavane opened ceremonial balls and was used as a display of elegant dress. Adapted from the basse danse, an earlier court dance, the pavane presumably travelled from Italy to France and England by way of Spain; in southern Spain it was performed in churches on solemn occasions.
The pavane’s basic movement, to music in 2/2 or 4/4 time, consisted of forward and backward steps; the dancers rose onto the balls of their feet and swayed from side to side. A column of couples circled the ballroom, and the dancers occasionally sang. By about 1600, livelier steps like the fleuret (a brief lift of each foot before a step) made the dance less pompous. The pavane was customarily followed by its afterdance, the vigorous galliard. The passamezzo was a livelier Italian contemporary of the pavane.
The pavane, the earliest-known music for which was published in Venice by Ottaviano Petrucci, in Jaon Ambrosio Dalza’s Intabolatura de lauto libro quarto in 1508, is a sedate and dignified couple dance. The music which accompanied it appears originally to have been fast or moderately fast but, like many other dances, became slower over time.
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.
The paired dances, pavane and galliard, were a forerunner of the instrumental dance suites of the 17th century, and pavanes appear in a few early suites—e.g., the padouanas in some suites of Johann Hermann Schein. Later composers occasionally used the pavane as an instrumental piece; e.g., Fauré (Pavane for Orchestra) and Ravel (Pavane for a Dead Princess).
