44: Baroque Dance Suites-- a primer

A number of dance styles, mostly from France, but one from Spain, were very popular in the Baroque era, but almost all fell out of use as soon as it ended. These styles were often grouped together into collections.

Johann Sebastian Bach was a particularly prolific writer of these collections, including:

1.       BWV 806 through 811 for solo harpsichord or solo clavichord

2.       BWV 812 through 816 for solo harpsichord or solo clavichord

3.       BWV 825 through 830 for solo harpsichord or solo clavichord

4.       BWV 1001 through 1006 for solo violin

5.       BWV 1007 through 1012 for solo cello

The last two collections—the six sonatas and partitas for my own violin, and the six cello suites—are such monumental works that each of BWV 1001 through 1012 will get its own article, if not multiple articles for each, in the future. Every serious, long-time cellist has studied BWV1007-12, and every serious, longtime violinist (myself included, as a high-school graduation gift from my wonderful teacher and friend of almost 20 years, Laura Davidson) has studied BWV1001-06. (The first time I heard any of BWV 1001-06 was actually when Laura herself played the opening Adagio at one of our studio recitals many years ago.)

The general structure of these “suites” of dances was the following:

1.       A prelude as a sort of… “appetizer” for the suite to get the ear used to the key and character of the suite

2.       An allemande, a slow, lyrical dance whose name is the French word for “German”

3.       A courante, almost always the fastest movement of the collection, whose title literally means “running”

4.       A sarabande, the Spanish, slow, sometimes sensual, sometimes mournful dance

5.       A minuet, bourree, or a gavotte—in any case, a French court dance

6.       A gigue, a French dance closely related to the Irish “jig” with a very distinctive rhythmic figure

I’m getting well ahead of myself here, but it’s so monumental that I’ll mention it now: BWV 1004 is the only one to include a particular form called a “Chaconne” (or “Ciaconna” if you prefer the Italian). I mention it now, with so much time before I actually get to talking about it—it will definitely get its own article when the time comes because there is just so much to say about it—because it is quite possibly the single greatest solo work ever written for my instrument. There’s a surprise hidden in the Chaconne that shows just how masterful Bach is, and you’ll either have to wait until the Chaconne article comes out or listen to it yourself and try to decipher the puzzle to figure out the secret.

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