tarantella [It.]

A folk dance of southern Italy that takes its name from the town of Taranto (not, as if often said, from the tarantula or from a dance to cure its bite). It is in a rapid, accelerating 6/8 with shifts between major and minor. The tarantella was taken up by various composers of the 19th century (Chopin, Liszt, Heller, Weber), often as a piece with continuous eight notes (or eight-note triplets in simple meters) and of some technical difficulty.