Usually attached to the spirited skipping dance known as a "saltarello," the trotto is a Medieval dance that occurred in many European countries. A particularly lively and fascinating trotto, often performed by instrumental groups dedicated to authentic historical reconstruction, comes to us from fourteenth-century England, preserved in a manuscript in the British Museum (Add. 29987).

In modern notation, the time signature for this piece is given as 6/8, and the tune is joyfully infused with the triple meter swing of the type of music that depicts horse riding and the fox hunt ("trotto" is Italian for the verb "to trot"). The melody is in a pure Aeolian (minor) mode, usually played here on the tonic of C.

The piece opens with a springing, back-and-forth motion between the notes of a perfect fifth (C to G). The melody then rolls in even eighths for two measures, only to break apart in further syncopation ending on the supertonic (D). The six-measure melody repeats, cadencing on the tonic in a second ending variant.

The B section adds fleeting sixteenths which further enliven the rolling eighth figures. The two sections are asymmetrical: the A section is six measures long, and the B section unfolds in nine (as 7 + 2) measures. The B section ends on the back-and-forth motion of the C to G fifth, acting both as a cadence and an anticipation of the melody, tricking the ear in a delightful way.

The A section is recapitulated exactly, and is followed by a variant (B1) on the B section. The notes roll back and forth scalewise from a high C down to a G, and continue to obsess on this figure until ending on the same cadence-anticipation interval as before.

The A section is then repeated once more (rondo-like), and ends suddenly on the upbeat (B flat to C on beats 4 and 5).

The dancers must have had a wonderful time keeping up with all the asymmetrical rhythmical surprises and turn-arounds producing a feeling of floating "over the beat."

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