A cibell, alternatively spelled ''cebell'', is a
gavotte
The gavotte (also gavot, gavote, or gavotta) is a French dance, taking its name from a folk dance of the Gavot, the people of the Pays de Gap region of Dauphiné in the southeast of France, where the dance originated, according to one source. Ac ...
-like
musical piece in
duple metre, predominantly heard in
Baroque music. It is named after the chorus praising the goddess
Cybele
Cybele ( ; Phrygian: ''Matar Kubileya/Kubeleya'' "Kubileya/Kubeleya Mother", perhaps "Mountain Mother"; Lydian ''Kuvava''; el, Κυβέλη ''Kybele'', ''Kybebe'', ''Kybelis'') is an Anatolian mother goddess; she may have a possible foreru ...
in
Jean Baptiste Lully's ''
Atys''. Later cibells have been written either for voice
[Thurston Dart: The Cibell, 1952, Societé Belge de Musicologie, p. 1] or a variety of instruments, such as the
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standar ...
or
harpsichord
A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a ...
.
A typical example is
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell (, rare: September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer.
Purcell's style of Baroque music was uniquely English, although it incorporated Italian and French elements. Generally considered among the greatest En ...
's ''Cibell for trumpet, strings and basso continuo in C major'' (Z 678).
References
{{Reflist
Musical forms
Baroque music