Bergamask


Bergamask, bergomask, bergamesca, or bergamasca, is a dance and associated melody and chord progression.

Reputation

It was considered a clumsy rustic dance copied from the natives of Bergamo, reputed, according to the Encyclopædia 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.

Chord progression

The basic chord progression is I-IV-V-I:
│⎸ I IV V I I IV V I :⎹⎸
I IV V I I IV V I ⎹│

Bergomask is the title of the second of the Two Pieces for Piano by John Ireland.