4.2 Keyboard genres: suite, toccata, and prelude and fugue

Baroque keyboard music flourished with diverse genres like suites, toccatas, and preludes and fugues. These forms showcased the harpsichord and organ's capabilities, blending dance rhythms, virtuosic displays, and complex counterpoint.

Composers like Bach and Handel perfected these genres, creating timeless masterpieces. Their works laid the foundation for future keyboard music, influencing generations of composers and shaping the development of piano literature.

Keyboard Genres in the Baroque Era

Keyboard genres in Baroque era

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• Suite: Multi-movement instrumental work consisting of several dance movements (Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue) originated in Renaissance but became prominent keyboard genre in Baroque era typically written for harpsichord, clavichord, or organ
• Toccata: Virtuosic, free-form keyboard composition showcasing performer's technical skill features rapid passagework, improvisatory sections, and contrasting textures designed to highlight capabilities of keyboard instrument
• Prelude and Fugue: Two-part keyboard composition consisting of prelude followed by fugue prelude is free-form, improvisatory piece that establishes key and mood fugue is contrapuntal composition based on principal theme (subject) imitated and developed throughout piece

Structure of Baroque keyboard works

• Suite structure includes core movements:
  • Allemande: Moderate-tempo dance in duple meter with flowing, contrapuntal texture
  • Courante: Fast, lively dance in triple meter with rhythmic complexity
  • Sarabande: Slow, stately dance in triple meter emphasizing second beat
  • Gigue: Fast, lively dance in compound duple meter often with imitative counterpoint
  • Optional movements: Minuet, Gavotte, Bourrée, Passepied
• Toccata characteristics:
  • Improvisatory nature with virtuosic passagework and rapid figurations
  • Contrasting sections of free-form and imitative counterpoint
  • Explores keyboard instrument's range, sonority, and technical possibilities
• Prelude and Fugue form:
  • Prelude: Free-form, improvisatory structure establishing key and mood may feature arpeggiated chords, scalar passages, and ornamental figurations
  • Fugue: Contrapuntal composition based on principal theme (subject)
    1. Exposition: Subject introduced in each voice successively, followed by countersubject
    2. Development: Subject explored through various contrapuntal techniques (inversion, augmentation, diminution, stretto)
    3. Recapitulation: Subject returns in home key, often followed by coda

Stylistic features of Baroque keyboard music

• Ornamentation and embellishments: Trills, mordents, turns, and other ornaments decorate melodic lines performers often improvised additional embellishments based on composer's indications
• Contrapuntal techniques:
  • Imitation: Melodic idea introduced in one voice then repeated in other voices
  • Canon: Strict imitation where same melody played in different voices at fixed time interval
  • Fugal techniques: Exposition, development, and recapitulation of subject and countersubject
• Harmonic language:
  • Tonal harmony based on major and minor keys
  • Suspensions, dissonances, and chromaticism used for expressive effect
  • Modulations to closely related keys provide variety and contrast
• Rhythmic complexity:
  • Intricate rhythmic patterns and syncopations, especially in dance movements (Courante, Gigue)
  • Hemiolas (shifting between duple and triple meter) create rhythmic interest

Evolution of Baroque keyboard genres

• Early Baroque (1600-1650):
  • Suite emerges as collection of dance movements
  • Toccatas by composers Girolamo Frescobaldi and Johann Jakob Froberger
• Middle Baroque (1650-1700):
  • Suite's core movements standardized (Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue)
  • Prelude and fugue develop as separate but related compositions
  • Notable composers: Louis Couperin, Johann Pachelbel, Dieterich Buxtehude
• Late Baroque (1700-1750):
  • Baroque keyboard genres culminate in works of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel
  • Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier": Two volumes of 24 preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys
  • Handel's suites and keyboard works showcase virtuosity and expressive range
• Influence on later keyboard music:
  • Suite inspired later collections of character pieces and dance-inspired works (Schumann's "Carnaval," Tchaikovsky's "The Seasons")
  • Prelude and fugue influenced composers like Mendelssohn, Brahms, and Shostakovich
  • Toccata's virtuosic and improvisatory style influenced development of keyboard fantasy and etude