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All Students preparing for Grade exams are
recommended to use the Hofnotes on-line
training pages to practise for the aural tests.
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!
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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
- fairly quick
- common time
- dignified
- from Germany
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
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
- lively
- compound triple time
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.
- like a march
- common time
- beginning with a half bar
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
- sedate
- triple time
- often with a ground bass
    
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