Meaning & use
Pavan
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A slow, stately processional dance popular in the courts of 16th-century Europe.
See it in a sentence
The musicians opened the banquet with a solemn pavan.
Composers of the Renaissance often paired a pavan with a livelier galliard.
A note on using this word
Also spelled 'pavane'; its origins are debated, possibly linked to Padua, Italy, or to the stately gait of a peacock ('pavo' in Latin).
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