Sarabande

Description

for Wind Orchestra

Op. 7

by Alberto Secondo Gallo

The sarabande, as is known, is a dance in ternary time of oriental origin, which appeared in Spain and then spread throughout Europe towards the end of the 16th century. The main features of this musical form are the slow and solemn pace and the peculiar dotted rhythm, with the longest note on the second beat. Normally the sarabande is one of the four standard dances that make up the baroque instrumental suite, together with allemande, courante and gigue.

This Sarabande for wind orchestra, instead, is an independent piece in a single movement, developed in the form of a theme with variations. The work, as a matter of fact, opens with an original theme of sixteen bars, which is followed by five variations characterized by a different orchestration, and concludes with the recapitulation of the first melody. Theme and variations are set in an arc structure (A-B-C-D-C1-B1-A1), in which the various sections recur in reverse order, putting themselves symmetrically around the central variation.