Saltarello

The saltarello is a musical dance form originally from Italy. The first mention of it is in Add MS 29987, a fourteenth-century manuscript probably of Tuscan origin, now in the British Library. It was played in a fast triple meter and is named for its peculiar leaping step, after the Italian verb saltare ("to jump"). This characteristic is also the basis of the German name Hoppertanz or Hupfertanz ("hopping dance"); other names include the French pas de Brabant and the Spanish alta or alta danza.