Piano Literature : Dance Music

Lecture I : Introduction

Early French Clavecinist - refined the dances and added optional ones

Louis Couperin (c. 1626 - 1661)

Chambonnieres (c. 1602 - 1671)

D'Anglebert (c. 1628 - 1691)

Orders - collections of dances by dance or later by key. (Couperin)

Francois Couperin (1668 - 1733)

L'Art de Toucher le clavecin

          J.J. Froberger - cosmopolitan style, mixture of German sense of form and

                                                counter point with french style galant.            

                         Formed the first suites (Allemande, Courante, Gugue, Sarabande or Allemande, Gigue, Courante, Sarabande)

                         * Gigue was optional in Froberger

                          Important inflence on Bach

                          Father of the Suite

Style brise - broken style, arpeggiation used by lutenists in France in the 17th century. Used by Froberger, who translated                            it to the keyboard.

Sources - for performance practice of Baroque music.

R. Donington - "Baroque Music, Style and Performance"

F. Neumann - "Essays in Performance Practice"

Historical treatises -

Quantz - 1753

C.P.E.Bach - 1751 - "The True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments"

Mattheson - 1739 - "Der Vollkommene Capellmeister" (The Complete Conductor)

Issves - Overdotting in French Overture

Notes inegales (unequal notes)

contradictions in tempo indications

ex: Bach Partita #4 Minuette, Overture

For Dances - use Mattheson (1739) and Arbeau Orchesographe (1588)

• Simple Binary Form   ||:A1   A2:||:B1   B2:||

                                                          I ----V---------I

ex: Bach English Suite #2 Sarabande (Lesagrements de la meme Sarabande)

• Blanced Binary Form   B2 = a return of A2 thematic material

ex: Bach French Suite #5 Gavotte

• Rounded Binary Form   B2 = A1 or A1 and A2

ex: Bach French Suite #1 in d minor Sarabande

Note inegales - to be used in moderate to slow pieces in the French manner ad only when there is a sequence of the smallest prevailing note values

Listening List:

The Suite