What is a baroque dance suite?

A characteristic baroque form was the dance suite. Suites are ordered sets of instrumental or orchestral pieces usually performed in a concert setting. (Some dance suites by Bach are called partitas, although this term is also used for other collections of musical pieces).

Which baroque genre normally consists of a suite of dances?

The dance suite was one of the main musical forms of the Baroque era, and are generally called suites, but some dance suites are also called partitas and overtures.

What is a suite in dance?

A suite, in Western classical music and jazz, 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.

What is a baroque oratorio?

oratorio. is a large scale dramatic genre originating in the baroque, based on a text of religious or serious characters, performed by solo voices, chorus, and orchestra, similar to opera but without costumes, scenery or acting.

Is Gavotte a baroque dance?

The gavotte became popular in the court of Louis XIV where Jean-Baptiste Lully was the leading court composer. Subsequently many composers of the Baroque period incorporated the dance as one of many optional additions to the standard instrumental suite of the era.

What is a baroque gigue?

gigue (also Eng. jig, It. giga): a fast dance in duple meter and binary form. In the baroque suite and other compositions, the gigue often served as the final movement. As an independent instrumental composition, the character of the gigue varied widely, but typically retained its fast tempo.

What are the characteristics of a baroque dance suite?

A Baroque Suite is a collection of baroque dances often preceded by a prelude. All pieces share the same key and are organized with contrasting tempo and time signatures. Other names for the suite are partita and sonata.

What made baroque dance so special?

At the Académie Royale de Danse, where professional dancers, both male and female, were trained. The most distinctive features of the new style were the complex use of arms raised in opposition to the foot, the turnout of legs and feet and a rise to mark the beginning of the step.

Is oratorio a baroque?

In the late baroque oratorios increasingly became “sacred opera”. In Germany the middle baroque oratorios moved from the early-baroque Historia style Christmas and Resurrection settings of Heinrich Schütz, to the Passions of J. S. Bach, oratorio-passions such as Der Tod Jesu set by Telemann and Carl Heinrich Graun.

What are the four principal dances of Baroque suite?

A Typical Baroque Dance Suite Allemande (moderate speed) Courante (lively French dance in triple meter) Sarabande (Spanish dance; slow, triple meter) Gigue (upbeat, English translation is “jig”)

What is the Baroque suite?

The Baroque suite refers to a set of musical dances combined together in a group during the Baroque period, between approximately 1600 and 1750 in Europe. Typically, four pieces were combined to create the suite, though any number of dances could be used.

What is Dance Suite in music?

See Article History. Alternative Title: dance suite. Suite, in music, a group of self-contained instrumental movements of varying character, usually in the same key. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the period of its greatest importance, the suite consisted principally of dance movements.