The Dance Suite

            Early 16th century dance tunes, whether designed for the well-born or for commoners, usually appeared in pairs of two contrasting parts or movements. The first part of the pair  was a relatively slow and stately dance, usually in duple meter; the second was a lively dance in triple meter and had a strong melodic similarity to the first. This pair of melodically related dances was common to all countries of western Europe and was the germ out of which the 17th century dance suite grew.
           1. These suites were usually  for keyboard or lute and only later in instrumental ensemble works.
           2. Arrangements of dance music into suites were among the very first musical works to be printed.
           3. The dances alternated between duple and triple  meters in a variety of tempi and mood.
           4. In France, in the 17th century, especially in suites written for the lute, the typical order of movements was
              allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue, but throughout the continent the number and order varied greatly.
           5. As the century progressed the suites began to become more stylized, loosing a large degree of their 'folk'
              quality. This was particularly true of the New French Suite.
           6. Each of the movements exhibited the combination of a harmonically three-part form within a formally two-          

               part form; in general the diagram

                          II: tonic - dominant :II: dominant-tonic :II                                                                                           
                              A -----I------------B----------IA---

              was characteristic.  All the dances took on more rhythmic diversity and motivic manipulation - a treatment which
              the old dances could not bear and retain their 'characteristic rhythmic '  personality.
           7.In those countries where the suite was dominant, namely, France and Germany, no collective name for the
              set of dances was available.
          8. In Italy the term partita had been in use as early as 1603. In Italy,  Tarquinio Merula had introduced the term
             Sonata da camera  in 1637.
          9. Not until just before 1700 was the term 'suite' adopted in France - the term ordre  and  ouverture, referring to
              the predominant position of the suite's first movement, came into general use as collective names for the dance
              suite as well.  (SO, as if things weren't muddy enough suite = ordre = ouverture -  all clear?)

SONATA DA CAMERA

            The most influential type of first movement added to the head of a 17th century Dance Suite was the early   
one movement Sonata (resembling a sectional canzone with clear internal cadences). The German composer,
Johann Rosenmuller (1620-1684), may be singled out for being more consistent in the type of introductory movement
he employed, for introducing the German form of the Dance Suite to Italy and for attaching to the transplanted suite a functional term,  Sonata da camera (chamber sonata).  At first glance the first movements look like canzoni  as the distinctions between the two was not well understood in the early 17th century. These slow, chordal 'sonata' first movements may have provided the violinist with a harmonic background upon which to improvise. Another
German composer who influenced the development of the Sonata da Camera from the the Dance Suite was Johann Kusser (1660-1727). Kusser used a  two-part form: a slow section of large dimensions built on a dotted rhythmic figure was followed by a fugal allegro that often ended with a few measure of slow tempo. That these were modeled on the French Overture introduced by Lully (1632-88) is quite clear. The 34 Sonate da Cameras by Arcangelo Corelli are,
like his  sonate da chiesa, among the most successful compositions of the late seventeenth century in Italy. The
12 sonatas of Opus 4 are typical of all of Corelli's sonate da camera. They are in general short: one has two
movements, eight have three, and three have four. There are in each of the sonatas a prelude and one, two or three of the following dances: allemande, courante, sarabande, gavotte, and gigue in particular order. In Corelli's sonatas da chiesa and da camera, the first movements are always the most important. They exhibit the greatest changes from one period to another. They best show the prevailing trend of forthcoming changes, and they carry the style elements of the 17th century most directly to the 18th century sonata-form.
             In the early 18th century the differences between the church and chamber sonatas began to influence each
other mutually, to take on characteristics  one from the other. Soon the formal distinction between the two types disappeared and we can speak of one combined form - the trio sonata.

 

07/25/04  CMS