French Suites are suites composed in a style that for one or more reasons is considered French. Generally it refers to compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. There are seven of Bach's suites originally composed for harpsichord (or a similar keyboard instrument) that received the epithet "French": In music, a suite is an organized set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed at a single sitting. ... The 1748 Haussmann portrait of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach (21 March 1685–28 July 1750) was a German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra and solo instruments drew together almost all of the strands of the baroque style and brought it to its ultimate... Harpsichord in Flemish style; for more info, click the image. ...

• The six suites BWV 812-817, which are normally intended when speaking about "the" French Suites by Bach;
• The Overture in French style, BWV 831, which Bach published as second part of Clavier-Übung II.
• There are two additional suites, one in A minor (bwv818), the other in Eb Major (bwv819), linked to the familiar six in some manuscripts. These suites both contain fine music, but are unnaccountably neglected.

Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (Bach Works Catalogue) is the numbering system used to identify musical works by Johann Sebastian Bach. ... See List of compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach for the complete list of Bach compositions - the present list only lists those compositions by Bach that were printed during his lifetime: since some of these editions got a bit scattered over the BWV catalogue, this list is only intended to provide...

The six French Suites

These six suites for keyboard were composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1722: In music, a suite is an organized set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed at a single sitting. ... A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played with a musical keyboard. ... The 1748 Haussmann portrait of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach (21 March 1685–28 July 1750) was a German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra and solo instruments drew together almost all of the strands of the baroque style and brought it to its ultimate...

• 1st suite in d minor, BWV 812

Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Menuet I, Menuet II, Gigue

• 2nd suite in c minor, BWV 813

Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Air, Menuet, Gigue (additional movements, in BWV 813a: Menuet - Trio)

• 3rd suite in b minor, BWV 814

Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Menuet, Trio, Anglaise, Gigue

• 4th suite in E flat major, BWV 815

Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gavotte, Air (additional movements, in BWV 815a: Praeludium. Gavotte I, Gavotte II, Menuet)

• 5th suite in G major, BWV 816

Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gavotte, Bourrée, Loure, Gigue

• 6th suite in E major, BWV 817

Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gavotte, Polonaise, Bourrée, Menuet, Gigue

An allemande (also spelled allemanda, almain, or alman) (from French German) is a type of dance popular in Baroque music, and a standard element of a suite, generally the first or second movement. ... A dance from the Baroque era and of French origin. ... In music, the sarabande (It. ... A minuet, sometimes spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two persons, usually in 3/4 time. ... The gigue or giga is a lively baroque dance in a compound metre such as 6/8, 9/8 or 12/16. ... Air is a name for the mixture of gases present in the Earths atmosphere. ... The garrotte is a French folk dance which takes prisoners from the penis heads in the cock loving clan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!It is in 4/4 or 2/2 time and is of moderate tempo. ... In music, the prelude is a musical form, a short dance/movement or an introductory idea to a larger work. ... The bourree was a dance common in Auvergne and Biscay in Spain in the 17th century, danced in quick double time, somewhat resembling the gavotte. ... Typical rhythm of a Polonaise The polonaise (Polish: polonez, chodzony; Italian: polacca) is a rather slow dance of Polish origin, in 3/4 time. ...

Quotations

Philipp Spitta (in his book "Johann Sebastian Bach, His work and influence on the music of Germany, 1685–1750"; vol.II pp.159–161, Fuller-Maitland translation originally published in 1889)

"The French Suites are, as has been said, contained for the most part in Anna Magdalena's first book, and almost fill it. The name "French" was given to them later, without the master's concurrence, on account of the meagre form of their component sections, which, even in external dimensions, adhere as closely as possible to the type on which they are founded. In this respect they offer a conspicuous contrast to the broad symphonic forms of the later partitas and the English Suites, as the are called. Beyond this there is no idea of imitating or carrying out any specially French characteristics; none such are to be discerned anywhere in Bach, nor could they be possible except in his very earliest work. It would be more natural to detect a certain affinity with the Suites of Georg Böhm, who, no doubt, for his part, was strongly influenced by French art; but this affinity even is only one of feeling. The arrangement of the French Suites is always that which has already been fully described — Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Giga, are the essential sections; between the last two pieces intermezzi are introduced. Not one of them has a prelude; there would seem to have been one originally to the fourth, which was afterwards cut out for the sake of uniformity. The whole work does not give the impression of being a collection made or determined by accident; on the contrary, it is arranged with artistic intelligence — a whole cast in one mould. As in the Inventions and the Sinfonias, we here too find a considerable number of "Paralipomena" which prove the care with which the master selected the best. No less than three complete suites exist besides these, and identical with them as to the character of the details and the whole arrangement. They are in A minor, E flat major, and E minor, and are so admirable that only something of very superior beauty could have a right to displace them."

Categories: Stub | Manuscripts ... Partita was originally the name for a single instrumental piece of music (16th and 17th centuries), but Johann Kuhnau and later German composers (notably Johann Sebastian Bach) used it for collections of musical pieces, as a synonym for suite. ... The famous organist Georg Böhm (September 2, 1661 - May 18, 1733) was born in Hohenkirchen, Thuringia Germany. ... In music, an invention is a short composition (usually for a keyboard instrument) with two or three part counterpoint. ... In music, a sinfonia can be one of three things: 1) In the very late Renaissance and early Baroque, a sinfonia was an alternate name for a canzona, fantasia or ricercar. ...

External links

French suites in Mutopia Project (free sheet music)

Overture in French style

In the second of his printed publications for the keyboard (published in 1739) Bach aimed at contrasting a work in "Italian" style (the Italian Concerto) with a work in "French" style, a suite, which for the occasion he called Overture nach Französicher Art ("Ouverture according to French taste/style/genre"). The term "Overture" refers to the fact that this suite starts with an Ouverture movement, unlike the six other French suites mentioned above (apart from the "a" version of BWV 815 that starts with a "prelude"). See List of compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach for the complete list of Bach compositions - the present list only lists those compositions by Bach that were printed during his lifetime: since some of these editions got a bit scattered over the BWV catalogue, this list is only intended to provide... The Italian Concerto (properly entitled Concerto in the Italian Style), BWV 971, is a three-movement concerto for harpsichord (without accompaniment) composed by J.S. Bach in 1735. ...

The movements of the French suite BWV 831 are:

Ouvertüre, Courante, Gavotte I + II (da capo), Passepied I + II (da capo), Sarabande, Bourrée I + II (da capo), Gigue, Echo.

The style of this work refers to composers like Couperin (a particular favourite of Bach) that had published compositions in this suite format. Such suites had been composed as well for solo instruments as for orchestral settings. Bach's composition, though a work for solo harpsichord, employs a fuller sound than was customary for the French composers he referred to. The paspy (French: passepied - passing feet) is a 17th and 18th century dance that originated in Brittany. ... Echo may refer to: Echo (mythology), a nymph from Greek mythology. ... François Couperin (born Paris November 10, 1668 – September 12, 1733 in Paris) was an esteemed French composer in the Baroque style. ...

The French Overture has not so far become as popular as its Italian counterpart in the Clavierübung II. Nevertheless it is a masterpiece of keyboard music, particularly the melancholy Sarabande. (Jonathan Lim)