Tarantilla ( Italian. Tarantella ) - Italian folk dance accompanied by guitar , tambourine (aka tambourine ) and castanets (in Sicily ), the musical size is 6/8 , 3/8 . There are many legends associated with the history of tarantella. Starting from the 15th century, for two centuries, tarantella was considered the only cure for "tarantism" - insanity caused, as was believed, by a tarantula bite (the name of the spider is tarantula , as well as dance, produced from the name of the southern Italian city of Taranto ). “This is obviously the origin of convulsive and other medieval epidemics, known as St. Dances. Witt and sv. John, a folk dance in Italy called the tarantella ” [1] .
Tarantella | |
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![]() Anton Romako . Dancing tarantella | |


In this connection, in the 16th century, special orchestras traveled around Italy, to the game of which patients with tarantism danced. Tarantella music was usually improvised; it is characterized by a long-lasting development of a melody with large extensions and cadast additions. Tarantell was often based on a single motive or rhythmic figure (in early models - and in a bipartite meter), repeated repetitions of which had a bewitching, “hypnotic” effect on listeners and dancers.
The tarantella's choreography was ecstatic - a selfless dance could last for several hours; musical accompaniment of the dance was performed by a flute, castanets, a tambourine and some other percussion instruments, sometimes with the participation of a voice.
On the ballet scene, the tarantella became popular thanks to Casimir Gide 's ballet Tarantula ( 1839 ), which was staged at the Paris Opera specifically for Fanny Elsler . In 1964 , the masterly to the music of the tarantella Gottschalk was set by choreographer George Balanchine .
See also
- Tarantella Napoletana
Notes
- ↑ Vladimir Bekhterev , “Alone with the murderer. About experimental psychological research of criminals ”, Moscow, Algorithm, 2017, - p. 121