THE BAROQUE SUITE / OLD SUITE / BACH SUITE

A Baroque Suite is a collection of baroque dances often preceded by a prelude. They same key
is used on all pieces but they are organized with contrasting tempo and time signatures. Other
names for the suite are partita and sonata. They are all in binary form.

The Allemande is believed to be of German origin. Sometimes called almain it was originally in
duple time with a moderate tempo but evolves toa quadruple time with a faster tempo. It is very
often used as the first dance in the Baroque suite sometimes preceded by a prelude. It usually
starts with an upbeat of one or three semiquavers, and is full of semiquaver movement.

A Courante often follows the allemande in Baroque suites. Courante in French or corrente in
Italian means running. The dance has a fast tempo and uses 3/2 or 6/4 time signatures. This
courante is written in 3/4. A particular characteristic is the use of a hemiola at cadence point/

The Sarabande is a slow and expressive dance that commonly follows the courante. It has
ternary meter and its origin is either Latin America, Spain or the north of Africa. A particular
characteristic is the accent on the second beat.

The Gigue is of English origin commonly used as final piece of a suite. Meters include 3/8, 6/8,
9/8 o 12/8 with a fast tempo. Also called jig (English) or giga (Italian).

Other dances can be included between the third and fourth dances: Menuet, Passacaglia, Bourrée,
Gavotte, Passepied, Musette. These could also occur in pairs, termed ‘double’ (French) making the
form now a compound ternary form.
The air is a dance of English origin. The word is related to aria.
Menuet: Dance of French origin in triple time

Bach wrote three sets of keyboard suites referred to as the 6 English Suites (which are all preceded
by a Prelude), the 6 French Suites (the easiest) and the 6 German Partitas.
Handel has ‘Eight Great suites’ of which many of the movements are based on traditional Baroque
dance styles, but only in the Suite No. 4 does he adhere to the typical structure of allemande,
courante, sarabande and gigue.
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