A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Pavan

by William Barclay Squire

PAVAN, PAVANE, or PAVIN, a slow and solemn dance, very popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. The name, derived from 'Padovana,'^[1] points to an Italian origin, although it is generally said to have come from Spain, owing to its popularity in that country. The Spanish Pavan, however, was a variation of the original dance. According to some authorities, the name is derived from the the Latin pavo, owing to the fancied resemblance to a peacock's tail caused by the robes and cloaks worn by the dancers, as they swept out in the stately figures of the dance. Several good descriptions of the Pavan have come down to us. Rabelais^[2] tells us that it was one of the 180 dances performed at the court of the Queen of Lanternois on the visit of Pantagruel and his companions; Tabourot, in his 'Orchésographie,' says that in his time, Pavans were still popular, although not as much danced as formerly.^[3] At state balls the dancers wore their long robes, caps, and swords, and the music was performed by sackbuts and oboes. In masquerades, Pavans were played as processional music, and were similarly used at weddings and religious ceremonies. Like all early dances, the Pavan was originally sung as well as danced, and Tabourot gives the following example for 4 voices, accompanied throughout by the drum or one note

.

*The treble sings D, the alto F.

Sir John Davies, in his 'Orchestra' (1596) has the following curious verses, in which the motions of the sun and the moon are compared to dancers of Pavans and Galliards:

'For that braue Sunne the Father of the Day,
Doth loue this Earth, the Mother of the Night;
And like a reuellour in rich array,
Doth daunce his galliard in his lemman's sight,
Both back, and forth, and sidewaies, passing light.'

'Who doth not see the measures of the Moone,
Which thirteene times she dannceth euery yeare?
And ends her pauine thirteene times as soone
As doth her brother.'

There are numerous specimens extant of Pavans by instrumental composers of the 16th and 17th centuries, and in almost every case the Pavan is followed by a Galliard, the two thus anticipating the Saraband and Gigue of the later Suite. Thus Morley ('Introduction,' Part 3) after speaking of Fantaisies, says, 'The next in grauity and goodnes vnto this is called a pauane, a kind of staide musicke, ordained for grau dauncing, and most commonlie made of thr straines, whereof euerie straine is plaid or sung twice, a straine they make to containe 8, 12, or 16 semibreues as they list, yet fewer then eight I haue not seene in any pauan.… After euery pauan we vsually set a galliard.' And Butler ('Principles of Music,' 1636), speaking of the Doric mode, has the following: 'Of this sort are Pavins, invented for a slow and soft kind of Dancing, altogether in duple Proportion. Unto which are framed Galliards for more quick and nimble motion, always in triple proportion, and therefore the triple is oft called Galliard-time and the duple, Pavin-time.' Amongst the best known of these forerunners of the Suite, we may mention John Dowland's 'Lachrymae or Seauen Teares, figured in seauen passionate Pauans with diuers other Pauans, Galliards, and Almands' (1605); and Johann Ghro's 30 Pavans and Galliards 'nach teutscher art gesetzet' (1604).

The Spanish Pavan, a variety of the original dance which came from Spain (where it was called the Grand Dance), was of a more elaborate character than the original. Judging from the frequent occurrence of its air in the early English Lute and Virginal Books, it must have become very popular in England.^[4] The following is the tune which Tabourot gives for it: it is not the same as that which is found in the English books.

[App. p.745 "For another description of the dance see Bishop Earle's 'Microcosmographie,' ed. by Bliss (Nares's Glossary).]

[ W. B. S. ]

1. In the Cambridge University Library is a MS. volume of airs and dances (in Lute Tablature) by Dowland and Holborne in which there occurs a 'Padovana de la Milanessa.'
2. Pantagruel, Bk. v, published 1562.
3. Bésard, in the Preface to his 'Thesaurus Harmonious Divini Laurencini Romani' (Cologne, 1608), after praising the sweetness and elegancy of the English music of his day, makes particular mention ol the Pavans, adding that the word 'Pavana' is nothing else than the Italian 'Paduana.' He also mentions that the French often call their Passomezzos, Pavans.
4. In Starter's 'Friesche Lust Hof' (1634), it is called 'Engelsche indraeyende Dans Londesteyn.'