By Javier San Martín And Quique Sacasas

What is a suite? History of the suite Important autors The best compositions

A suite is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally preformed in a concert. They may be extracts from an opera, ballet or incidental music to play or film. In the Baroque era the suite was more precisely defined, with the pieces unified by key, and consisting of dances usually preceded by a prelude or overture. The suite was also know as Suite de danses, Ordre or Partita.

Estienne du Tertre published suyttes de bransles in 1557, giving the first general use of the term suite. The first recognizable suite is Peuerl's Newe Padouan, Intrada, Dantz, and Galliarda of The "classical" suite consisted of allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue and developed during the 17th century in France. By the 1750s, the suite had come to be seen as old- fashioned and few composers were still writing suites during that time. But since the 19th century composers have frequently arranged ballets, operas and other works into suites for concert performance.

Johanne Sebastian Bach Teleman Handel

Was a German composer, organist, violist, and violinist whose ecclesiastical and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity. He makes a lot of works some of his more important works are: Brandenburg concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Partitas, the Well-Tempered Clavier, the Mass in B Minor, the St. Matthew Passion, the St. John Passion, the Magnificat, The Musical Offering, The Art of Fugue, the English and French Suites, the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, the Cello Suites.

Georg Philipp Telemann (March 14, 1681 – June 25, 1767) was a German Baroque music composer and multi- instrumentalist, born in Magdeburg. He studied law at the University of Leipzig. Often described as the most prolific composer in history, he was a contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi and a lifelong friend of George Frideric Handel. Telemann was more widely renowned for his musical abilities during his lifetime

George Frideric Handel (23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German- English Baroque composer, who is famous for his opera, oratorios, and concerti grossi. He was born in Germany, trained in Italy, and spent most of his life in England. Born in Halle in the Duchy of Magdeburg,he settled in England in 1712, becoming a naturalised subject of the British crown on 20 February His works include Messiah, Water Music, and Music for the Royal Fireworks. Strongly influenced by the techniques of the great composers of the Italian Baroque era, as well as the English composer Henry Purcell, Handel's music became well-known to many composers

Famous examples of early 20th century suites are The Planets by Gustav Holst, a 'Suite for Orchestra' in which each piece represents the astrological significance of one of the seven uninhabited planets then known, as well as his First Suite in E-flat and Second Suite in F for Military Band. Suite bergamasque is most likely one of the most famous suites, especially the third movement, Clair de Lune. Ravel is particularly well known for his Miroirs suite for piano and lesser known for Le Tombeau de Couperin.