Courante

The courante, corrente, coranto and corant are just some of the names given to a family of triple metre dances from the late Renaissance and the Baroque era. Modern usage will sometimes use the different spellings to distinguish types of courante (Italian spelling for the Italian dance, etc.), but in the original sources spellings were inconsistent. Courante literally means running.

In the later Renaissance the dance was done with fast running and jumping steps, as described by Thoinot Arbeau. These steps are sometimes thought to be broken up by hops between the steps, but this is perhaps not supported by Arbeau's confusing and contradictory instructions, which described each "saut" as resulting in the completion of a new foot placement.

During its most common usage, in the Baroque period, the courante came in two varieties: French and Italian. The French type had many cross-accents and was a moderately fast dance, in contrast to the allemande that preceded it. The Italian courante was faster, more free-flowing and running, however, it is not clear whether this is significantly different from the French Renaissance courante described by Arbeau. In a Baroque dance suite, an Italian or French courante typically comes between the allemande and the sarabande, making it the second or third movement.

Coranto is also a term used to describe early attempts at newspapers. Beginning around the 14th century, a system developed where letters of news and philosophical discussion would be sent to a central collecting point to be bundled and sent around to the various correspondents. The banking house of Fugger had an organized system of collecting and routing these letters, which often could be seen by outsiders. This system would not die until the 18th century. The term newspaper was not coined till 1670. Prior to this a welter terms were used to describe this item including: paper, newsbook, pamphlet, broadsheet, and, of course, coranto.

See also