I have a very cool piano teacher. Not only does she know about playing music, she also knows about the history of music, why composers wrote the way they did, and a ton of other stuff.
Technically, a Tarantella is a fast song written in 6/8 time. However, there is a more interesting story behind this particular type of song, and the other day my teacher told it to me.
If you literally translate the word Tarantella from its original Italian, it means tarantula. In Italy, many years ago, if a person was bitten by a tarantula, he knew just what to do. He would call up his friendly local witch doctor, or whatnot, and this doctor would wildly dance over the bitten person to a song in 6/8 time. Supposedly, this would cure the bitten person, and save them from imminent death.
So, did this little trick work? You bet your britches it did.
See, tarantula bites are not fatal. The bite might hurt like crazy for a while, but eventually, it will heal.
Not knowing this, the people back then kept dancing their little dance, and thinking it worked marvelously.
Or so the story goes. Searching the internet, I’ve seen a couple of different explanations as to the origins of the dance. However, I think this one is an awfully good one.
Now that you know the story behind, perhaps you’ll be interested in listening to a few actual Tarantella songs. I found a couple of good YouTube videos. I don’t know how to actually inset them in to my post, so you’ll have to click the links.
Here’s a Tarantella written by Liszt. It’s quite long, but at least watch the first few minutes. It’s very cool.
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