Graduate recital in piano

Includes recorded audio files in WAV and MP3 formats, 65:06 in lengthThe Baroque keyboard suite is a cycle of several dance pieces in the same key and different tempi, combined to form one large work. The dances are all in a bipartite form. During the Baroque period the suite movements were stylized versions of actual dances which had come from various European countries. Basically the suite has a core of four dances, the allemande from Germany, the courante from Italy, the sarabande from Spain and the gigue from England. To these are added one or two optional dance forms such as the minuet, bourree, gavotte, passepied, polonaise or anglaise, and are placed between the sarabande and gigue. Bach wrote three sets of suites for the keyboard. Of these sets one group is designated as the English Suites. This set of suites maintains the order of dances described above, with a prelude added at the beginning. The English Suite number two, in A Minor, has a prelude in the style of a concerto grosso. There are two contrasting sections, the first is repeated to end the Prelude. In the middle section is music characteristic of that played by the solo ensemble in the concerto grosso. It is lighter and thinner in texture to contrast with the busier vitality of the first section. The textural contrast was an important interpretive consideration. (See more in text)..