Suite in F - Brian DiBlassio

I. Unmeasured Prelude

II. Allemande

III. Courante

IV. Sarabande

V. Gigue

With funding awarded by the University of Michigan Flint Office of Research the composition Suite in F. Written for woodwinds, string quartet, and jazz trio, the instrumentation uniquely blends 17th century French dances with modern-day jazz.

Suite in F’s premiered in Limonest, France. The debut was a collaborative performance, combining music faculty from three different institutions – UM-Flint, the Flint Institute of Music and the Limonest Conservatoire, with its premier occurring at the inaugural opening of Limonest’s Agora Cultural Center, followed by interactive outreach performances at local school programs. The piece was then performed stateside at locations at Flint and Ann Arbor, MI.

  • I. Unmeasured Prelude

    Easily the most unusual form of music of the time, the unmeasured prelude could be found in French Baroque keyboard suites. As the title implies, there are no units of meter (bar lines or measures) given in the score, but rather a series of long note durations (whole notes). In performing an unmeasured prelude, the performer was expected to take considerable freedom in its interpretation, shortening or elongating notes to best show the movement of each phrase. Using this structure, Suite in F also pays homage to the freedom of harmonic movement demonstrated during this period. Whereas musical notes in this type of piece were performed by a single keyboardist, the unmeasured note lengths in Suite in F are distributed to an instrumental ensemble.

  • II. Allemande

    French for “German dance,” the allemande was a stately dance of even meter in binary form. It was a popular choice during the Renaissance and the Baroque periods, and was often used as the first dance in a suite. Suite in F employs the tempo and meter, stylistic ornamentation, smaller, fragmented melodies, and searching harmonic progressions of the early Baroque allemande.

  • III. Courante

    Literally meaning “running,” the courante was a dance in binary form. An important aspect of the courante was the way in which composers playfully obscured the meter, traveling between groups of two and three pulses. This gave the music a quirky, jaunty feel, as Suite in F’s jazzy/“funky” version aims to do here.

  • IV. Sarabande

    Once a lively dance from Latin America, the sarabande became a refined, slow dance in triple meter within the French Baroque suite, often with an emphasis on beat two. Suite in F maintains the meter and feel of the sarabande and also emulates the pronounced bass movement and associated harmonic movement demonstrated by both Chambonnières and Couperin.

  • V. Gigue

    French for “jig,” this fast dance in compound meter usually features a wide melodic range with continuous triplet motion. While keeping one foot in the 17th-century regal harmonies of the French suite, Suite in F also steps outside to celebrate the jig of the folk fiddler, a sound universally heard throughout Europe at the time and by now, beyond.