Richibi’s Weblog

             August Macke

              __________

if a sonata is a piece of music with 

more than one segment, and a 

suite is also a piece of music with 

more than one segment, what’s 

the difference, you’ll ask, not 

unreasonably  

a sonata speaks for itself, as itself, 

is itself, whereas a suite, also in 

several sections, describes 

something else, something not 

itself, but a place, or an action, it’s

a tale, not an autobiography

this has some implications, the 

sonata will consequently be more 

expansive, displaying not only 

emotional impact, but also 

technical wizardry, will beat its 

chest, in other words, whether in 

agony or in bombast, whereas a 

suite, while not excluding  

necessarily those aspects, will 

usually be more demure, objective, 

snap its suspenders less 

a suite also has more movements 

than the sonata’s usual three or 

four, consider the difference 

between, in art, a triptych, for

instance, and a collage, they’re

in either case artworks, but with

different intentions

does any of this matter, to the

aficionado it does, if you want to

buy a home, you could be looking

for a duplex instead of a condo, if

you’re listening to music, you

might  prefer chamber pieces to

large orchestras, suites to sonatas

Robert Scumann’s “Kinderszenen“,

or “Scenes from Childhood“,

though not yet identified, in 1838,

as a suite, since the term hadn’t

been used that way yet, is

nevertheless not any different

in kind from Debussy’s later

“Children’s Corner“, 1908, so  

that the label fits, however

retroactively  

you could say the same of Beethoven’s 

“Pastorale” Symphony, for instance,

it’s also, however retroactively, a suite

but here’s Schumann’s Second Piano 

Sonata, to compare with his

“Kinderszenen“, to get back to my

original subject, the difference

between a suite an a sonata

listen

R ! chard