Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🕺 A lively dance 💃 Lively or spirited
galliard

galliard

1 9.9
An old lively dance from the Renaissance or the music for that dance
  • noun
  • /ˈɡæliˌɑrd/
  • Archaic
: galliard
  • A consort played a galliard in another room.

Examples

  • The Brass will perform Samuel Scheidt's "Galliard Battaglia."

    Academic text (1996)

  • If I had to have such a simple ground, a mere drone, then let me have a lively treble over it, a galliard or a pavane, as in Elizabethan lute duets.

    Academic text (1994)

  • At the festival, dancers delighted the audience with a vibrant galliard that showcased their joy and skill.

  • The musicians played a spirited galliard that filled the hall with the lively sounds of the Renaissance.

  • During the wedding, the couple surprised their guests with a traditional galliard that had everyone clapping along.

Synonyms

tarantella
vsgalliard
3 8.9

A fast lively Italian dance and the music for it

is a Renaissance courtly dance rather than an Italian folk dance
gavotte
vsgalliard
  • Archaic
2 9.9

A lively French dance or music for it from the 1600s and 1700s

is earlier and belongs to the Renaissance period rather than later French styles
courante
vsgalliard
  • Archaic
1 9.9

A lively court dance from the 1500s and 1600s in three-beat time

is an earlier Renaissance dance without those specific courtly movements
gigue
vsgalliard
  • Specialized
1 9.9

A lively dance or musical piece in a fast three-beat rhythm

is from the earlier Renaissance period and not mainly triple time

Surface Forms

galliard singular
galliards plural

Etymology

Galliard was the name of a lively dance from the Renaissance and comes from the old French gaillard, meaning 'lively' or 'bold'. The dance had quick steps and jumps, which is why a galliard means a lively dance or the music that goes with it.