What is "bergamask"

Bergamask, bergomask, bergamesca, or bergamasca (from the town of Bergamo in Northern Italy), is a dance and associated melody and chord progression. It was considered a clumsy rustic dance (cf. Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 360) copied from the natives of Bergamo, reputed (according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition) to be very awkward in their manners.

The dance is associated with clowns or buffoonery, as is the area of Bergamo, it having lent its dialect to the Italian buffoons.

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Bergomask is the title of the second of the Two Pieces for Piano (1925) by John Ireland (18791972).