saraband

[ sar-uh-band ]

/ ˈsær əˌbænd /

a slow, stately Spanish dance, especially of the 17th and 18th centuries, in triple meter, derived from a vigorous castanet dance.

a piece of music for or using the rhythm of this dance, usually forming one of the movements in the classical suite and following the courante.

Origin of saraband

1610–20; < French sarabande < Spanish zarabanda, perhaps < Arabic sarband a kind of dance < Persian

sapwood, saqqara, sar, sar., sara, saraband, sarabande, saracen, saragat, saragossa, sarah

Composers sometimes employ the Sarabande rhythm for its inherent beauty, or for dramatic purposes without indication of the fact.

Music: An Art and a Language |Walter Raymond Spalding
But in 1856 the Sarabande du Cardinal, a delightful little comedy in one act, met with favor at the Gymnase.

Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XXVI., December, 1880. |Various
The adagio is a sarabande, and the last movement has the characteristics of the gigue.

Critical & Historical Essays |Edward MacDowell
The card-players watched the sarabande through the dusty atmosphere by the uneven light of the smoking lamps.

Autumn Glory |Ren Bazin

The Sarabande was also in triple time, but its movement was slow and stately.

How to Listen to Music, 7th ed. |Henry Edward Krehbiel

sarabande

/ (ˈsærəˌbænd) /

a decorous 17th-century courtly dance

music a piece of music composed for or in the rhythm of this dance, in slow triple time, often incorporated into the classical suite

C17: from French, from Spanish zarabanda, of uncertain origin