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Suite (music)

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 to comprise up to five dances, sometimes with a prelude, by the early 17th century. The separate movements were often thematically and tonally linked.[1] The term can also be used to refer to similar forms in other musical traditions, such as the Turkish fasıl and the Arab nuubaat.

For other uses of "Suite" in music, see Suite (disambiguation) § Arts and entertainment.

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,[2] often presenting extracts from a ballet (Nutcracker Suite), the incidental music to a play (L'Arlésienne, Masquerade), opera, film (Lieutenant Kije Suite) or video game (Motoaki Takenouchi's 1994 suite to the Shining series),[3] or entirely original movements (Holberg Suite, The Planets).

: 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 4
4 characterized by uniform movement in sixteenth notes, a mostly homophonic texture, even rhythms, and a generally restrained mood.

Allemande

or Corrente: A courante is a highly structured French dance in 3
2 time featuring polyphonic textures, characteristic hemiola effects implying 6
4 especially in its formulaic cadences, and bursts of motion over a moderate underlying pulse. The Corrente is an Italian version in quick 3
4 or 3
8, generally in two parts with a simpler harmonic structure, more uniform note values, more virtuosic character, and freer form than its French counterpart.

Courante

: A slow, stately dance in 3
4 time, infrequently in 3
2. The original Spanish dance (inherited through Mexico) was very lively and quick, and famously controversial owing to its perceived lascivious character. However, by the time of its inclusion in the suite via France, it had been totally reimagined as a sedate centerpiece. The Sarabande tends toward harmonic richness and lyrical melody.

Sarabande

: The gigue or 'jig' originates in Britain and Ireland, and is a fast dance, almost always in compound time and/or triple meter, with 6
8 and 12
8 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 6
8 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.

Gigue

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


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


Between the Sarabande and Gigue, the following Galanteries may be included.

List of musical medleys