Bourrée

, early 20th century The bourrée ( , ; ; also in England, borry or bore) is a dance of French origin and the words and music that accompany it. The bourrée resembles the gavotte in that it is in double time and often has a dactylic rhythm. However, it is somewhat quicker, and its phrase starts with a quarter-bar anacrusis or "pick-up", whereas a gavotte has a half-bar anacrusis. In the Baroque era, after the Academie de Dance was established by Louis XIV in 1661¹, the French court adapted the bourrée, like many such dances, for the purposes of concert dance. In this way it gave its name to a ballet step characteristic of the dance, a rapid movement of the feet while en pointe or demi-pointe, and so to the sequence of steps called . The bourrée became an optional movement in the classical suite of dances, and J. S. Bach, Handel and Chopin wrote bourrées, not necessarily intending them to be danced.

, early 20th century]] The bourrée ( , ; ; also in England, borry or bore) is a dance of French origin and the words and music that accompany it. The bourrée resembles the gavotte in that it is in double time and often has a dactylic rhythm. However, it is somewhat quicker, and its phrase starts with a quarter-bar anacrusis or "pick-up", whereas a gavotte has a half-bar anacrusis. In the Baroque era, after the Academie de Dance was established by Louis XIV in 1661, the French court adapted the bourrée, like many such dances, for the purposes of concert dance. In this way it gave its name to a ballet step characteristic of the dance, a rapid movement of the feet while en pointe or demi-pointe, and so to the sequence of steps called . The bourrée became an optional movement in the classical suite of dances, and J. S. Bach, Handel and Chopin wrote bourrées, not necessarily intending them to be danced.

In popular music

The bourrée has been used by a number of pop and rock music bands, particularly Bach's E minor Bourrée for the lute. In 1969 both Bakerloo and Jethro Tull released versions of this, the former as a single, "Drivin' Bachwards", on Harvest Records (HAR 5004) in July and on their self-titled debut album (Harvest SHVL 762) the following December, the latter on their August album Stand Up. Paul McCartney also stated that the Beatles had known the tune for a long time and that it had inspired his song Blackbird. Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin often played the opening section of Bourrée in E minor as part of the solo of a live performance of Heartbreaker, and he has also described the acoustic guitar and recorder intro to Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven as "a poor man's bourrée". Tenacious D play a short rendering in "Rock Your Socks" on their eponymous album and in "Classico" on their second album. Rock guitarist Blues Saraceno plays a jazz version in the beginning and end of the track "Bouree" on his third album, Hairpick. Other adapted bourrées include: The instrumental "Evil Eye" from Yngwie Malmsteen's album Rising Force begins with bourrée by Johann Krieger The intro to the song "Totentanz" on thrash metal band Coroner's album R.I.P. is a bourrée composed by Robert de Visée The Fifth Estate's "Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead" has a central section consisting of the bourrée by Michael Praetorius from Terpsichore The Family Stand's 2010 album In 1000 Years has a jazz version of bourrée in E minor Armin van Buuren's 2022 song "Pas de Bouree" from his Feel Again album series was loosely based on the dance The bourrée from George Frederic Handel's Water Music was used as the theme song for the PBS cooking show The Frugal Gourmet

See also

Country dance Polska Branle Video - Royal Opera House Ballet glossary - Pas de bourrée and pas couru demonstrated Video - Ballet pas de bourrée explained Video - Jazz pas de bourrée explained Video - Baroque pas de deux - "La Bourée d`Achille", from Achille et Polixène by P. Colasse (1649 - 1709), danced by Baltic Baroque Video - "Bourrée et menuet d'Achille" Video - French clog dance, line formation in double time Video - French partner dance in triple time Video - French square formation for two couples in triple time Para saber más de borrèias y escuchar fragmentos (in French and Occitan) Algunas partituras de borrèia (in Occitan) Bourrées under CreativeCommons licence on BalLibre.org Karsten Evers and Ulrike Frydrych: Französische Volkstänze, Band III Bourées, Eiterfeld, 1987. Download: Dance descriptions (in German) sheet music and audios

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