88: Sarabandes

 The Sarabande is another form traditionally included in suites, but this time, it comes not from France as most others have, but from Moorish Spain (possibly from the Spanish colonial presence in the Americas, that went back to Europe by the Columbian Exchange, even). As I mentioned in a previous post, I, in a very real way, owe a lot to Mendelssohn for his revival of Bach. That, too, precipitated a rise in interest in even earlier music, including what was certainly the first dance I ever heard after I was born—this is the second track on one of the classical CDs the maternity ward gave my parents (as was typical in US hospitals around the time I was born), and I still listen to the collection to this day, 25 years later. 

The actual act of dancing the Sarabande (“Carabanda” or “Zarabanda” in older Spanish—“Sarabande” is what you get when you put that name through French) was supposedly so full of immodest, overt sexual innuendo that the authorities of the Inquisition banned it. 

These dances, always in 3, tend to be very slow and lyrical—Yo-Yo Ma has said on various occasions that he thinks the Sarabande from the G major suite is one of the few pieces that is perfect for both weddings and funerals—and harmonically rich, but without much complexity in the counterpoint. They almost never begin anywhere other than the first beat of the bar, and they tend to end with the final resolution coming on the last beat of the bar in a so-called “feminine” ending (as opposed to, e.g., a dotted half note begun on beat 1 of the bar and lasting through the entire 3 beats of the bar, which would be a “masculine” ending since the first beat is stronger than the others). 

Here are some examples:

1. My first one, about which I know nothing else since it’s anonymous and not on IMSLP or anywhere else, as far as I’ve been able to tell, so I’ve only ever found it on that CD, and on this identical recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyfGeGwzIWY&list=RDHyfGeGwzIWY&start_radio=1

2. From the G major cello suite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_r2pzqN6Mg&list=RDb_r2pzqN6Mg&start_radio=1

3. From the D minor suite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB-Z4_cDjaQ&list=RDPB-Z4_cDjaQ&start_radio=1

4. From the D major suite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6DMLLilQMk&list=RDY6DMLLilQMk&start_radio=1 


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