pavane

plural pavanes · alternative pavan · alternative paven · alternative pavian · alternative pavin · alternative pavonne

1. entertainmentA musical style characteristic of the 16th and 17th centuries.

   And he tasted in the language of memory ambered wines, dying fallings of sweet airs, the proud pavan […]

   1916, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC

   1 more example

   […] if the men should not agree what to play, but one would have a grave Pavane, another a nimbler Galliard, a third some frisking toy or Iigg, and then all of them should be wilful, none yield to his fellow, but every one scrape on his own tune as loud as he could: what a hideous hateful noise may you imagine would such a mess of Musick be?

   1656, Robert Sanderson, Twenty Sermons, London: Henry Seile, Sermon 13, p. 267

2. danceA moderately slow, courtly processional dance in duple time/meter.

   From the wings I heard and watched the pavane of tragedy move steadily toward its climax.

   1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 33, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Bantam, published 1971, pages 218–219

   4 more examples

   Why then be merry; be merry, or I’le be Out of humour, and then who shall dance the Pavan With Ossorio?

   1664, Thomas Porter, The Carnival, London: Henry Herringman, act II, scene 1, page 25

   The pavane† was quite popular at the time when Tabouret wrote his treatise, and he ventured the opinion that it would never cease to be so. It is not many years since an attempt was made in Paris to revive the dance, but it must be confessed that the modern adaption did not seem to bear any particularly striking resemblance to the original movement.

   1899, Edward Scott, Dancing in All Ages, London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., page 128

   Some day, when the Wateaus of the future are painting the court ladies who again dance pavanes in sunlit glades, wearing wigs and crinoline, such data will amuse.

   1917, Emily Burbank, Woman as Decoration

   […] sweet to us it is to behold delightful dancing, be it the stately splendour of the Pavane which progresseth as large clouds at sun-down that pass by in splendour; or the graceful Allemande; or the Fandango, which goeth by degrees from languorous beauty to the swiftness and passion of Bacchanals dancing on the high lawns under a summer moon that hangeth in the pine trees; or the joyous maze of the Galliard; or the Gigue, dear to the Foliots.

   1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 33

   Synonyms: Paduan

present singular third person pavanes · participle present pavaning · participle past pavaned · past pavaned · alternative pavan · alternative paven · alternative pavian · alternative pavin · alternative pavonne

1. intransitiverareTo dance the pavane.