At higher grades you must be able to discuss with the examiner musical features such as texture, form, style, and period of a piece of music. My own web pages to help with these parts of the test at Grade 5+ and at GCSE are available here!
The Suite
The ancestor of the modern sonata, the Suite is made up of a number of dances in the same key but in contrasting rhythm and speed.
Courtly dances
Suites of the 17th and 18th centuries contained a variety of dances. The main ones were:
Composers sometimes added others into the mix:
They couldn't agree how to spell them all either, so you will also see corrant, borry and menuet for example.
All the old dances were in simple binary form.
If you look through old exam lists you are 99.9% certain to find more than one of the dances above! Try to play one of them - with a feeling for the style, pace and metre of the dance.
More modern dance styles
Dance rhythms are referred to in piano music of all periods. Examples of dance styles from more recent times are:
- waltz
- bolero
- sevillana
- habañera
- malagüeña
- polonaise
- cha cha
- tango
How many of these dances have you played? How many other dances can you think of from your own repertoire?
Courtly dances: some definitions
Allemande
- fairly quick
- common time
- dignified
- from Germany
Courante
This is the Courante from JS Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C. As you can hear, it's:
- quick
- in triple time
- with a gliding or running movement
- from France
Sarabande
This is the Sarabande from JS Bach's Orchestral Suite no. 2 in B. As you can hear, it's:
- slow and stately
- in triple time
- with an accent on second beat
- from Spain
Rigadoun or Rigaudon (Fr)
This is the Rigadoon from Purcell's Musick's Hand Maid. As you can hear, it's:
- brisk
- in duple time
- from a French folk dance
Gigue
- lively
- compound triple time
Minuet
This is the Minuet from JS Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B. As you can hear, it's:
- stately
- in triple time
- begins on third beat
The minuet survives in the modern sonata, but is more elaborate there.
Gavotte
- like a march
- common time
- beginning with a half bar
Bourrée
This is the Bourrée from JS Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B. As you can hear, it's:
- smoothly flowing
- rather like a hornpipe
- in common time
- beginning on fourth beat
Chaconne
- sedate
- triple time
- often with a ground bass