Suite (music) - WikiHQ

thumb|260x260px|[[Gavotte from J.S. Bach's French Suite No. 5]]

A suite, in Western classical music, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes; and grew in scope so that by the early 17th century it comprised up to five dances, sometimes with a prelude. The separate movements were often thematically and tonally linked. The term can also be used to refer to similar forms in other musical traditions, such as the Turkish fasıl and the Arab nuubaat.

In the Baroque era, the suite was an important musical form, also known as Suite de danses, Ordre (the term favored by François Couperin), Partita, or Ouverture (after the theatrical "overture" which often included a series of dances) as with the orchestral suites of Christoph Graupner, Telemann and J.S. Bach.

During the 18th century, the suite fell out of favour as a cyclical form, giving way to the symphony, sonata and concerto. It was revived in the later 19th century, but in a different form, or entirely original movements (Holberg Suite, The Planets).

History

Estienne du Tertre published suyttes de bransles in 1557, giving the first general use of the term "suite" 'suyttes' in music, although the usual form of the time was as pairs of dances. The first recognizable suite is Peuerl's Newe Padouan, Intrada, Dantz, and Galliarda of 1611, in which the four dances of the title appear repeatedly in ten suites. The Banchetto musicale by Johann Schein (1617) contains 20 sequences of five different dances. The first four-movement suite credited to a named composer, Sandley's Suite, was published in 1663.

Baroque era

The Baroque suite consisted of allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue, in that order, and developed during the 17th century in France, the gigue appearing later than the others. Johann Jakob Froberger is usually credited with establishing the classical suite through his compositions in this form, which were widely published and copied, although this was largely due to his publishers standardizing the order; Froberger's original manuscripts have many different orderings of the movements, e.g. the gigue preceding the sarabande. The publisher's standardized order was, however, highly influential especially on the works of Bach.

Many later suites included other movements placed between sarabande and gigue. These optional movements were known as galanteries: common examples are the minuet, gavotte, passepied, and bourrée. Often there would be two contrasting galanteries with the same name, e.g. Minuet I and II, to be played alternativement, meaning that the first dance is played again after the second (but without the internal repeats), thus I, II, I. etc.).

Another example of a suite in the 20th-century would come from the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. Their 1970 album Atom Heart Mother included the epic 23-minute-long suite of the same name on the first side of the record.

Dance suite

The dance suite was a collection of dance music popular in the Baroque era. It consists of the following movements in this order:

thumb|Allemande.

Allemande: Allemande literally translates from French as "German", but by the time of its canonization in the suite it was thoroughly French, and was archaic as an actual dance by the 17th century. It is a moderate dance with a meter of characterized by uniform movement in sixteenth notes, a mostly homophonic texture, even rhythms, and a generally restrained mood.
Courante or Corrente: A courante is a French word meaning "to run." In the French style, it is a rapid, highly structured dance written in compound meter featuring broken contrapuntal textures, characteristic hemiola effects implying especially in its formulaic cadences, and bursts of motion over a moderate underlying pulse. The Italian style, which is sometimes spelled and recognized as Corrente, is in triple meter and is less complex, with a simpler harmonic structure, more uniform note values, more virtuosic character, and freer form than its French counterpart.
Sarabande: A Sarabande is a slow, stately dance in triple meter, infrequently in . The Sarabande was originally a Spanish dance (inherited through Mexico) and was very lively and quick, but famously controversial owing to its perceived lascivious character. However, by the time of its inclusion in the suite via France around 1600, it had been totally reimagined as a sedate centerpiece. The Sarabande tends toward harmonic richness and lyrical melody.
Gigue: The gigue or 'jig' originates in Britain and Ireland, and is a fast dance, almost always in compound time and/or triple meter, with and most common. However, the Gigue permits by far the most variation among the standard dances, with prominent examples in practically every time signature. The French gigue is characterized by a distinct jaunty dotted rhythm in and invariably written in two-part counterpoint, whereas the Italian (sometimes ‘Giga’) is a more varied and virtuosic format with running small notes in acrobatic passages. The Italian style largely superseded the French by the early-mid 18th century, at which point German composers had established it as a showpiece for not only technical virtuosity but also contrapuntal complexity, with some of JS Bach's gigues nearly qualifying as proper fugues.

A suite may be introduced by a movement such as the following.

Prelude
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 time. It is related to the Italian 'intrada'.
Overture

Bach's Suites

Although J. S. Bach is not credited with the invention of the suite, he was still highly involved in its development. Bach's keyboard suites were some of the least complicated of his early pieces. During Bach's time, the suite was a new form with somewhat unstable terminology, which is one reason some of Bach's works were referred to as "suites" and "partitas" interchangeably. Another word that tends to be used synonymously is the French word "ouvertures," meaning "overture with a suite," specifically a suite in orchestral style. However, the English word "overture" simply refers to the opening movement of a work.