One of the mysteries of the English language finally explained.
1A rapid whirling dance originating in southern Italy.
- ‘The American artist celebrated his eighty-first birthday at Villa Narcissus, his home on the island of Capri, by dancing the tarantella.’
- ‘Perhaps the most commonly recognized folk dance, the tarantella, for example, is Neapolitan, with little diffusion elsewhere in the peninsula.’
- ‘Finland has no distinctive folk dance - no highland fling, morris dance or tarantella.’
- ‘She does so by asking him to help her rehearse the dance - the tarantella - that she must perform the following evening.’
- ‘The score has also been slightly rearranged - the ballet opens with a tableau set to Renaissance lute music, while the third-act tarantella is moved into the first act.’
- 1.1 A piece of music written in fast 6/8 time in the style of the tarantella.
- ‘The book contains a variety of styles, including sonata, tarantella and waltz, allowing students and teachers to explore the wide range of technical, musical and ensemble challenges in this literature.’
- ‘By the 19th century, however, musicians made more money out of tarantellas by their popularity as compositions.’
- ‘The third alteration becomes an A-minor tarantella.’
- ‘This collection of Italian waltzes, polkas, mazurkas and tarantellas for solo violin is an excellent teaching tool for double stops, scales, arpeggios and style.’
- ‘The finale is a headlong, moto perpetuo tarantella in additive rhythms, the marimba's breakneck acceleration echoed by the quartet: the unisono final phrase for the quintet was breathtaking.’
Late 18th century: Italian, from the name of the seaport Taranto. The dance was thought to be a cure for tarantism, the victim dancing the tarantella until exhausted. See also tarantula.
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