Pastorale

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For Beethoven's Pastoral symphony, see: Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven).

Pastorale refers to something of a pastoral nature in music, whether in form or in mood.

In baroque music, a pastorale is a movement of a melody in 3rds over a drone bass, recalling the traditional Christmas playing of pifferari in Italy. Common examples include the last movement of Corelli's Christmas Concerto (op.6 no.8), the Pifa movement in Handel's Messiah and the first movements of Bach's Pastorella (BWV 590) for organ. Scarlatti wrote some examples in his keyboard sonatas, and many other baroque composers, particularly French, used this technique.