Dictionary of Music - Birding America

408 submediantsition or section. A subject is longer than a FIGURE(or motif), which is the shortest possible musicalidea, consisting of as few as two or three notes. Thesubject usually first appears near the beginning of apiece or section, and is made to stand out fromother melodic parts of the work, mainly in the wayit is treated. It may be repeated a number of times,or portions of it may be developed in one way oranother (see DEVELOPMENT). In a FUGUE, whichnormally has one subject, the subject is first statedin the main voice-part and then is repeated inthe other voice-parts. In SONATA FORM, there areusually two subjects, often of contrasting nature,which are treated in a particular way. An importantuse of a subject is in the form known as THEMEAND VARIATIONS, consisting of a subject (usuallyfairly long) that is varied in a number of ways. InSERIAL MUSIC the subject may be the tone row, orseries.submediant (sub mē′dē ənt). Also, superdominant.The sixth degree of the diatonic scale, that is,the sixth note in any major or minor scale (seeSCALE DEGREES). In the key of C major the submediantis A, in the key of D major it is B, in the keyof A minor it is F, etc. In analyzing the harmonyof a composition, the Roman numeral VI is usedto indicate the submediant or a chord built on it.—submediant chord A chord built on the submediant.The most important submediant chord is thesubmediant triad, the major triad whose root isthe submediant (in the key of C major, A–C–E).suboctave couplersubtonicSee under COUPLER.Another name for LEADING TONE.suite (swēt). 1 During the baroque period(1600–1750), a form of instrumental music that consistedof a series of movements (sections), most ofthem based on dances and all in the same key. Themovements, ranging from four to twelve or more,were stylized dances, that is, they were not actuallyperformed by dancers.The suite grew out of the custom of pairingtogether dances in the lute and keyboard music of thesixteenth century, such as the pavane and galliard, orthe passamezzo and saltarello. In time more danceforms were linked in this way, and they were treatedin a more unified fashion. Eventually a fairly standardorder was established. This sequence, whichwas introduced in the mid-seventeenth century byJohann Jakob Froberger (1616–1667), alternatedslow and fast dances and consisted of at least fourmovements: ALLEMANDE (slow), COURANTE (fast),SARABAND (slow), and GIGUE (fast). Sometimes anintroduction, called a prelude, preceded the allemande.Between the saraband and gigue, it becamecustomary to include other dances, which wereoptional (a matter of choice) and numbered from oneto as many as four. Most of the optional movementswere French dances, such as the minuet, pavane, galliard,bourrée, rigaudon, loure, anglaise, branle, passacaglia,passepied, gavotte, polonaise, saltarello(originally Italian), and air (also called ayre or aria;this was a song type rather than a dance type; seeAIR, def. 3).A basic feature of the suite is that the dancemovements nearly always are in binary (two-part)form, that is each consists of two sections, each ofwhich is performed twice. Sometimes a movementwas followed by a variation on it, called a double.In general the description above applies to thesuites of Bach, which are called either suite or partita(his six French Suites, six English Suites, and sixPartitas, all for harpsichord or clavichord) and toHandel’s seventeen harpsichord suites. Most suchsuites were written for a single instrument, usually akeyboard instrument (harpsichord or clavichord) butoccasionally lute or violin (Bach wrote three suitesfor solo violin). In addition, Bach wrote four suitesof a different kind, which he called overture andwhich today are generally known as orchestralsuites. These were modeled on an instrumental formoften used by Lully and other French composers toopen an opera or ballet; it consisted of an introductionplus a series of dances, nearly always French inorigin and in no particular order. Other Germancomposers who wrote orchestral suites were Muffatand Telemann. Handel’s Royal Fireworks Music isof a similar nature.French composers also wrote suites for individualinstruments, chiefly the harpsichord; these areusually called ordres, and the best were written by