The Baroque Suite

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The Dance suite was a characteristic baroque form and a  widely used genre in the Baroque.  By definition suites are ordered sets of instrumental or orchestral pieces usually performed in a concert setting. (Some dance suites by Bach are called partitas, but this term also refers for other collections of musical pieces). The dance suite  typically consists of four movements (described below), plus an overture at the beginning.

Transition: Dance Music became the framework of instrumental music. The focus changed from  the actual dance to the music itself.  In the Renaissance and early Baroque, composers wrote collections of short dance pieces for actual dancing at court. But over time  people  focused on the music written for the dances rather than on the dance for which the music was written.

Note the similar 20th century transition of dance music to concert performance in the account below:  

By the late Baroque, the suite was used primarily as a concert piece They were especially favored by composers of keyboard music.

As you read this page, pay attention to the order of the pieces and the fact that each dance had its own character. Individual dances had their own meter, tempo, and style. Though Baroque composers generally followed the pattern of dances listed below when they composed suites  they did not hesitate, especially by the late Baroque, to depart from the normal order or even insert movements that had nothing to do with dances.

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Concert, c. 1630, by Mattia Preti

Movements of the Baroque Suite

Overture

The baroque suite often began with a French overture (“Ouverture” in French), which was followed by a succession of dances. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overture    As a musical form the French overture first appears in the court ballet and operatic overtures of Jean-Baptiste Lully,  Italian born composer who was in the Court of Louis XIV in  the Palace of Versailles  France. The French Overture in an elaborated  two-section form called is found in the French ballets as early as 1640. Note the  slow “dotted rhythm”  introduction  followed by a fast fugal  section at 0:56. Listen for the imitation.

The overture would  then  frequently  be followed by a series of individual   dance like  movements before the curtain rose for the ballet dance. Listen to this example of a French  Overture by  Lully. Note the dotted rhythm of in the first section. A

Allemande

Here is a video  of two  people in 18th Century dress dancing the Allemande, often the first dance of an instrumental suite.

This dance  was very popular in duple meter with its origins in the German Renaissance era. Tempo is moderate.   Note the grace of this and other dances of this time.

Listen to this  Allemande  by Bach for harpsichord. Note the  long  unwinding expressive melodies  extended by sequences.  Bach being a late baroque composer  has taken this dance  into a purely instrumental style.   It has the same m movement title (Allemande) and some similar styles  but no longer is the actual dance.

Courante

The second dance is the courante, a lively, French dance in triple meter. The Italian version is called the corrente

Listen to this Courante  from  Suite in D minor  by Locke. Notice how the style of this piece differs from   the  previous allemande.

Sarabande

The sarabande, a Spanish dance, is the third of the four basic dances, and is one of the slowest of the baroque dances. It is also in triple meter.  There is an emphasis on the second beat, which creates the characteristic “halting” or iambic rhythm of the sarabande.

 Sarabande from Bach Cello Suite No 1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cello_Suites_(Bach)  These suites for unaccompanied cello are remarkable in that they achieve the effect of  contrapuntal and polyphonic music yet performed in a single musical line. This is one movement (Saraband) typical of a Baroque musical suite in which each movement is based around a baroque dance style.  (This performance  is especially fine though some background noise does detract). Note the expressive almost  romantic style.

Following is the Allemande form Bach Cello suite No 1

Gigue

The gigue is a lively baroque dance in compound meter.  It is typically the concluding movement of an instrumental suite –  the fourth of its basic dance types.This meter is compound meter (6/8 meter) in which the six beats in the measure  are grouped in two groups of three beats. With this subdivision the meter would  be felt in twos. The gigue is easily recognized by its rhythmic feel. It  gigue originated in the British Isles. Its counterpart in folk music is the jig.\

Note this example of a  Gigue   by Giardino Armonico.  You can count the meter 123 456. Note that while being a livlerier dance there is still an element of gentility and  grace.

Optional Movements

These four dance types (allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue) make up the majority of seventeenth-century suites; later suites interpolate one or more additional dances between the sarabande and gigue:

• Gavotte – The gavotte can be identified by a variety of features; it is in 4/4 time and always starts on the third beat of the bar, although this may sound like the first beat in some cases, as the first and third beats are the strong beats in quadruple time. The gavotte is played at a moderate tempo, although in some cases it may be played faster.
• Bourrée – The bourrée is similar to the gavotte as it is in 2/2 time although it starts on the second half of the last beat of the bar, creating a different feel to the dance. The bourrée is commonly played at a moderate tempo, although for some composers, such as Handel, it can be taken at a much faster tempo.
• Minuet – The minuet is perhaps the best-known of the baroque dances in triple meter. It can start on any beat of the bar. In some suites there may be a Minuet I and II, played in succession, with the Minuet I repeated.
• Passepied – The passepied is a fast dance in binary form and triple meter that originated as a court dance in Brittany.Examples can be found in later suites such as those of Bach and Handel.
• Rigaudon – The rigaudon is a lively French dance in duple meter, similar to the bourrée, but rhythmically simpler. It originated as a family of closely related southern-French folk dances, traditionally associated with the provinces of Vavarais, Languedoc, Dauphiné, and Provence.

Orchestra suites – Other Features
Entrée (ballet) – Sometimes an entrée is composed as part of a suite; but there it is purely instrumental music and no dance is performed. It is an introduction, a march-like piece played during the entrance of a dancing group, or played before a ballet. Usually in 4/4 time. It is related to the Italian “intrada.”

• Basso continuo – a kind of continuous accompaniment notated with a new music notation system, figured bass, usually for a sustaining bass instrument and a keyboard instrument.
• The concerto and concerto grosso
• Monody – an outgrowth of song
• Homophony – music with one melodic voice and rhythmically similar accompaniment (this and monody are contrasted with the typical Renaissance texture, polyphony)
• Dramatic musical forms like opera, dramma per musica
• Combined instrumental-vocal forms, such as the oratorio and cantata
• New instrumental techniques, like tremolo and pizzicato
• The da capo aria “enjoyed sureness”
• The ritornello aria – repeated short instrumental interruptions of vocal passages
• The concertato style – contrast in sound between groups of instruments
• Extensive ornamentation

Bach Orchestral suite Number 1
Here is a complete orchestral suite.

The Instrumentation is Oboe I/II, bassoon, violin I/II, viola, basso coninuo. The movements and their timed locations in the video file are indicated below with notes.

1. Ouverture  –  Note the slow tempo of the first part  followed here by a fugal section. in much faster tempo  The final section slows – though more moving than the first section. This is a typical french over style overture of this time in which the  sections are slow – fast- slow).
   The dotted rhythmic figures are in the higher voices Fugal sections begins at 2:01 Note the subject melody of this fugal sections which repeats in imitation throughout.  The overture ends at 5:55.  Meter is duple
   2. Courante  – This movement is in a slow triple but has a lot of motion with the moving notes . Note the sequences here (same melody fragment repeated at higher pitch levels).
   3. Gavotte I begins  at 8:01 in duple meter This movement also has repeated sections. It ends at 10:42.
   4.  Forlane  begins at  10:44 in triple meter Meter is  in six but you might also feel it in a slower 2 (two groups of three)
   5. Menuet I,II begins at  11:56 in triple meter.  You can feel the style of the minuet dance in this movement. The  movement is in ABA form You should be able to pick out the sections. A sections repeats at  12:08.   B section begins at 12:21 and repeats at 12:45.Minuet II
   begins at 13:08 with the A section which repeats at 13:21. B section begins at 13:33 and repeats at 13:59. Minuet I returns at 14:25 wth the A sections and the B section  appears at 14:496 Bourrée I/II (Bourrée I begins at 15:02 with section A which repeats. Section B begins at 15:23.  Bouree II begins at 15:58 with oboes and bassoons. Note the   minor mode. Bouree I returns at in the major mode at 16:57.7. Passepied I/II  in triple meter  ends at  17:24
   6. Passepied II begins at 18:18.  Passe[pied i returns at 19:15 to end the work.4)

Handel Water Music

A fitting finale to this topic of the suite section is the very popular and familiar  Water Music suite by Handel. This work is very long and you may not have time to hear all of it though it is wonderful listening.  Here are a few interesting sections you might check

The Overture begins the work with the traditional dotted (embellished)  rhythm introduction but it is ending at  1:20. followed by a fugal section.

Listen to the Allemande below by  Rameau performed on the clavecin

	Nouvelles Suites de pièces de clavecin – Suite en la mineur Gavotte et six doubles (6:47) I. Allemande (3:54)
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