English Suite No 3 in G Minor – Bach
“Suite Fibonacci“ (2003)
________
before I say much more about his Cello
Suites, let me point out that Bach has
some French Suites, some English
Suites, on top of similarly structured
Partitas and Toccatas, the French have
their tout de suites, and hotels have,
nowadays, their so named luxury
apartments
musical suites are sets of dance pieces,
by the early 18th Century much stylized,
with an introductory prélude, an allemande,
followed by a courante, which is to say, folk
dances, the first German, the next French,
then a sarabande, Spanish, followed by a
couple of galanteries, court dances,
minuets, gavottes, bourrées, then a final
English gigue
all of the markings are in French, which
leads me to believe that all of these
dances must’ve originated at the court
of Louis XlVth, the Sun King, 1638 to
1715
but the suggestion is that Europe was
becoming an integrated community
all of these dances were eclipsed by
the Classical Period, of Haydn and
Mozart, apart from the minuet, which
more or less defined, nevertheless,
that new era
the minuet will die out by the time of
Beethoven, you’ll note, to be replaced
by the waltz, which had been
considered much too racy until
transformed by Chopin into a work
of ethereal art
the Strausses, father and son, gave it,
only a little later, celebratory potency,
but that’s another story
here’s Bach’s English Suite, the 3rd,
for context, the French ones are a
little too salty, as it were, they do not
quite conform to prescribed suite
notions, however might their
propositions have been, ahem,
sweet
meanwhile, enjoy this one
R ! chard
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