allemande

An allemande is a German-origin dance that became a standard instrumental movement in the Baroque suite. The term derives from the French allemande, meaning German, reflecting its origins in German-speaking regions. In Renaissance and early Baroque dance culture, allemande referred to a stately, duple-danced piece performed in pairs, often with a flowing, even tempo. By the 17th and 18th centuries, the allemande had been adopted by French, Italian, and English composers and integrated into the instrumental suite as one of its principal movements.

In Baroque practice the allemande is usually written in common time (4/4) or sometimes in 4/2, with a moderate tempo. It typically features a continuous, flowing figure in the upper voices over a steady bass, and a musical structure that is commonly in binary form (A–B). Many examples begin with a short upbeat or anacrusis and proceed through balanced phrases of four or eight bars.

In the standard Baroque suite, the Allemande appears near the beginning, commonly followed by a Courante, Sarabande, and Gigue, though order and inclusion vary by composer. Notable composers who wrote allemandes include Johann Sebastian Bach, whose Partitas and English Suites contain numerous allemandes; Handel; and French writers such as Couperin and Rameau, who treated the movement within the French clavecin and orchestral repertoires.

Today, the allemande persists as a term for a specific dance-inspired movement in historical keyboard and ensemble repertoire, as well as a reference to its stylistic gait in modern arrangements.