the dances of the baroque suite
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- what do the dances of the baroque suites have in common?
- they're all in the same key
- what's the dances of a standard baroque suite?
- allemande, courante or corrente, sarabande, optional dances, gigue
- allemande
- a dance in moderate 4/4 time of german origin, with a short upbeat, often using short running figures that are passed thru a semi-contrapuntal texture
- courante
- french dance in a moderate 3/2 or 6/4 time, with frequent shifting from one of these to the other (hemiola). The texture is free counterpoint, with a shifting melody
- corrente
- italian dance in quick triple meter, with continuous running figures, and homophonic texture
- sarabande
- a dance in slow triple meter and dignified in style, often with an accented or long tone on the second beat. it probably originated in latin america and moved to spain as a wild dance, but when it arrived in france and england, its style became calm and dignified
- what are the optional dances?
- minuet, bouree, gavotte, passepeid, polonaise, anglaise, loure, or air
- minuet
- a french country dance in 3/4 meter
- bouree
- a french dance, usu in quick duple meter with a single upbeat
- gavotte
- a french dance in moderate duple meter, with an upbeat of two quarter notes, and with phrases usu begiinning and ending in the middle of the measure
- passepied
- a spirited dance in quick 3/8 or 6/8 meter, possibly originating in brittany
- polonaise
- a polish dance of stately and festive character in moderate triple meter. It often contains measures with a short repeated rythmic motive
- anglaise
- a dance in fast duple meter derived from the english country dance
- loure
- from the 16th and 17th century term for bagpipe, this dance is in moderate 6/4 time, with dotted rhythms and heavy downbeats
- air
- a song, rather than a dance, with melodic characteristics
- gigue
- originate from the english jigs, the french gigue is in compound duple meter (6/8) for example), contains dotted rythms and large intervales (6ths/7ths) and has fugal texture. the Italian Giga is quicker, non-fugal, and has running passages over a harmonic bass. These are less common in Baroque suites than the French gigue