{{Short description|Italian folk dance}} The '''passamezzo''' (plural: ''passamezzi'' or ''passamezzos'') is an Italian folk dance of the 16th and early 17th centuries.

Many pieces named "passamezzo" follow one of two chord progressions that came to be named after the dance, passamezzo antico and passamezzo moderno.<ref name="Grove"/> The chord progression would be repeated numerous times in succession while the dance was being performed.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Passamezzo |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000021027 |access-date=2022-09-12 |website=Grove Music Online |language=en |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.21027}}</ref>

According to Renaissance practices, the passamezzo dance is often followed by other dances in a triple time, such as the saltarello, gagliarda or paduana.<ref name=":0" />

==Name== There are many variant spellings. In Italian or international usage, the name is also rendered as ''pass'e mez(z)o'', ''passo e mezzo'', and ''passomez(z)o''. In early English usage, the names frequently incorporated the word measure in a folk etymology, giving such renderings as ''passemeasure'', ''passingmeasure'', ''passy-measures'' or ''passemeasure(s) pavan'', particularly to designate the ''passamezzo antico'' progression. Passamezzi following the ''passamezzo moderno'' progression are designated "quadro pavan" or "quadran(t) pavan."<ref name="Grove">{{Cite Grove |last=Gerbino |first=Giuseppe |last2=Silbiger |first2=Alexander |title=Passamezzo|name-list-style=amp}}</ref>

== Influence == French printed collections of passamezzo antico settings emerged in the 1550s, edited by Claude Gervaise for Attaingnant and Jean d’Estrée for du Chemin. Catherine de’ Medici’s fondness for dancing encouraged the Franco-Italian musical exchange, as well as to promote a French counterpart to the Florentine Intermedii.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Cunningham |first=Caroline M. |date=1980 |title=Ensemble Dances in Early Sixteenth-Century Italy: Relationships with 'Villotte' and Franco-Flemish 'Danceries' |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20532227 |journal=Musica Disciplina |volume=34 |pages=165–167 |JSTOR=20532227}}</ref>

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [http://imslp.org/index.php?title=Category:Passamezzos Passamezzos] at IMSLP

Category:Renaissance dance Category:Italian dances Category:Dance forms in classical music

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