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Notes on the Baroque Suite The principal areas I will cover in this brief discussion of the Baroque Suite are (a) its significance in the history of instrumental music and its origin as stylized dance music, (b) its overall structure and the structure and other characteristics of the individual movements, and (c) some historical and musical facts pertaining to the Suite in C Major for Unaccompanied Violoncello by J. S. Bach. I. Dance Music and the Baroque Suite In the broadest musical sense of the term, a “suite” is a multi-movement group of instrumental pieces, in forms smaller than the movements of a sonata.
The Baroque Suite If you have been to many guitar recitals or heard many guitar recordings the chances are you have been exposed to the baroque suite. You may even have had the chance to wonder what it is, why there are some pieces that seem to be called the same in each one, and why there are other groups of pieces that sound pretty similar but are not called "suites". What's going on? This article looks at the Baroque Suite from the historical point of view, defines it, analyses its components and discusses its relevance to the classical guitar. Firstly the historical question.
The Dance Suite - The Baroque Suite, Suites The suite is a type of instrumental dance music that emerged during the Renaissance and was further developed during the Baroque Period. It consists of several movements or short pieces in the same key and functions as dance music or dinner music during social gatherings. Dance music was very popular during the 16th and 17th century and composers were often asked to play such pieces during social functions. As a result, musicians began collecting dance pieces in the same key; these pieces became known collectively as "suites." By the time of JS Bach, suites were composed of four main movements: allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue.
Baroque music Baroque music forms a major portion of the "classical music" canon, being widely studied, performed, and listened to. Composers of the Baroque era include Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti, Domenico Scarlatti, Antonio Vivaldi, Henry Purcell, Georg Philipp Telemann, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Arcangelo Corelli, Tomaso Albinoni, François Couperin, Denis Gaultier, Claudio Monteverdi, Heinrich Schütz, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Jan Dismas Zelenka, and Johann Pachelbel. The Baroque period saw the creation of tonality. During the period, composers and performers used more elaborate musical ornamentation, made changes in musical notation, and developed new instrumental playing techniques. Baroque music expanded the size, range, and complexity of instrumental performance, and also established opera, cantata, oratorio, concerto, and sonata as musical genres.
The Baroque Baroque Period: 1600-1750 Baroque : -Indicates a particular style in the arts. _Baroque means: -elaborately ornamental -Flamboyant