Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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SUITE SUITE '-74I
antithesis to thesmooth motion ofthe AUemande.
In the original dance it is said that this characteristic
was chiefly coniined to the last bars
of each half, but in mature suite movements
it was elaborately worked into the body of the
movement with very curious effect. The
quality is shown as early as Kuhnau, but more
frequently in Couperin's Suites, from whom it is
said Bach adopted it. The following example
from
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Couperin's third Suite is characteristic :
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It is possible that Bach adopted this form as
affording opportunities for rhythmic experiments
; he certainly carried it to great lengths,
such as giving the right hand a passage in
3-2 and the left in 6-4 :—
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but the result is not on the whole very successful.
In most cases the French Courantes are
the least interesting movement of his Suites,
and as contrasts to the AUemande do not compare
favourably with the Italian Courante. As
an element of contrast the crossing of the time
is rather theoretical than real, and the necessity
of keeping the time moderate in order to make
it intelligible brings the strong beats and the
average quickness of the shortest notes, as well
as the fuU spread of the bar, too near to those
of the AUemande ; and in the general effect of
the Suite these externals teU more strongly than
the abstract restlessness of crossing rhythms.
It is possible, however, that the French Courante
has one advantage over the Italian : that inasmuch
as the latter has more stability in itself,
it calls less for a succeeding movement, and
presents less perfectly the aspect of a link in
the chain than of a movement which might as
well stand alone. There is a slight touch of
uneasiness about the French Courante which, as
a step towards theSarabande, is very appropriate.
In this latter movement, which is of Spanish
or possibly Moorish origin, rhythmic principle
is very pronounced, and at the same time simple.
Its external aspect is chiefly the strong emphasis
on the second beat of a bar of three in slow time,
as is clearly illustrated in Handel's Sarabande
in theG minor Suite, in his 'Lasciach'iopianga,'
and in the Sarabande of Bach's F major Suite
Anglaise. This is an obvious source of contrast
with both the preceding members of the suite,
since in both AUemande and Courante there is
no pronounced and persistent rhythm, and the
pace, though not necessarily quick, scarcely
ever comes within the range of motion or style
characteristic of definitely slow movements;
There is also a further and equally important
element of contrast. The first two numbers are
characterised in a considerable proportion of
instances by a similar free motion of parts.
The process of carrying on the figures is sometimes
knit by a kind of free imitation, but,
however desirable it may be theoretically to
regard them so,^ they cannot fairly be described
as movements of imitation. The process is
rather that of free figuration of two or three
parts, giving in general a contrapuntal effect to
the whole. In the Sarabande the peculiar
rhythmic character puts both systematic imitation
and regular contrapuntal motion equally
out of the question. Consequently as a rule
a more decidedly harmonic style obtains ; the
chords are fuller, and move more simultaneously
as blocks of harmony. The character of the
finest examples is necessarily very pliable, and
varies between free melody with simple accompanying
harmony, such as those in Bach's Suites
Anglaises in F and D minor, Handel's Suites in
G minor and E minor ; examples in which the
prominent melodic features are distributed successively
without regularity between the parts,
as in those in the Suites Anglaises in G minor
and A minor, the Suite Franjaise in B minor, the
Partita in Bi>, and several of Couperin's ; and a
few examples in which a figure or characteristic
mode of motion is made to prevail almost
throughout, as in the Suite Fran5aise in El>. .
The general effect of the sarabandes is noble and
serious, and the music is more concentrated tliau
in any other member of the group of movements.
It is thus in various respects the central point -
of the suite :—in position ; in musical interest<
and unique quality ; and in the fact, as observed
and curiously commented on by Nottebohm,
that the preceding movements generally tend to
the solidity and the succeeding movements to
lightness and gaiety. The order is in this
respect somewhat similar to that of average
sonatas, and seems to be the art-exposition of
the same ideas of form from the point of view
of the musical sense, though differently carried
out as far as the actual manner and material of
the movements are concerned.
In the most concise examples of the Suite the
Sarabande is followed by the final Gigne ; but
it is so common with all the most notable
writers of suites to interpolate other movementsj