a sonata / a suite of Robert Schumann

    “Big Zoo, Triptych“ (1913) 

 

             August Macke

  

              __________

 

if a sonata is a piece of music with 

more than one segment, and a 

suite is also a piece of music with 

more than one segment, what’s 

the difference, you’ll ask, not 

unreasonably  

 

a sonata speaks for itself, as itself, 

is itself, whereas a suite, also in 

several sections, describes 

something else, something not 

itself, but a place, or an action, it’s

a tale, not an autobiography

 

this has some implications, the 

sonata will consequently be more 

expansive, displaying not only 

emotional impact, but also 

technical wizardry, will beat its 

chest, in other words, whether in 

agony or in bombast, whereas a 

suite, while not excluding  

necessarily those aspects, will 

usually be more demure, objective, 

snap its suspenders less 

 

a suite also has more movements 

than the sonata’s usual three or 

four, consider the difference 

between, in art, a triptych, for

instance, and a collage, they’re

in either case artworks, but with

different intentions

 

does any of this matter, to the

aficionado it does, if you want to

buy a home, you could be looking

for a duplex instead of a condo, if

you’re listening to music, you

might  prefer chamber pieces to

large orchestras, suites to sonatas

 

Robert Scumann’s “Kinderszenen“,

or “Scenes from Childhood“,

though not yet identified, in 1838,

as a suite, since the term hadn’t

been used that way yet, is

nevertheless not any different

in kind from Debussy’s later

“Children’s Corner“, 1908, so  

that the label fits, however

retroactively  

 

you could say the same of Beethoven’s 

“Pastorale” Symphony, for instance,

it’s also, however retroactively, a suite

 

but here’s Schumann’s Second Piano 

Sonata, to compare with his

“Kinderszenen“, to get back to my

original subject, the difference

between a suite an a sonata

 

listen

 

R ! chard

“Années de pèlerinage”, 2nd Year – Liszt

     “Petrarch“ (c.1450) 

 

           Andrea del Castagno

                     ___________

 

 

                                    for John, who would’ve 

                                                       been 60 today

 

though the suite might’ve started with

Bach’s string of dance pieces in the 

early 18th Century, it becomes evident 

during the 19th Century, after a lapse 

of nearly 100 years, while it fell into 

disfavour, that its resurrection as a 

valid musical form might’ve kept the 

original structure, which is to say its 

several separate parts to make up a 

whole, its movements, but that it 

now was serving a different purpose 

 

where music had, through to the early

Romantic Period, followed dance 

rhythms, or variations of tempo,

adagio, andante, allegro, and the like,

it now presented itself as a background

for settings, be it ballets, as in

Tchaikovsky’s, plays, as in Edvard

Grieg’s celebrated , “Peer Gynt Suite“,

after Ibsen‘s eponymous play,

specific locations, as in Debussy’s

“Children’s Corner“, or more  

expansively, both geographically

and in its compositional length,

these very “Années de pèlerinage” 

of Liszt

 

this is in keeping with the exploration

of consciousness of that era, which 

would lead to not only Impressionism, 

but to Freud, and the others, and the 

development of psychoanalysis

 

you’ll note that music seems much 

more improvisational in Liszt than in

Chopin, or Beethoven, prefiguring

already even jazz, more evocative,

less emotional, more personal, not

generalized, idiosyncratic, a direct

development of the newly acquired

concept of democracy, one man, at

the time, one vote, one, indeed, 

voice, however individual, however 

even controversial 

 

listen, for instance, to Liszt’s “Années

de pèlerinage”, 2nd Year, Italy 

 

   1. Sposalizio

   2. Il penseroso

   3. Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa 

   4. Sonetto 47 del Petrarca 

   5. Sonetto 104 del Petrarca 

   6. Sonetto 123 del Petrarca 

   7. Après une lecture de Dante: Fantasia Quasi Sonata 

 

 

today you can listen to suites 

from famous films, for instance 

“Blade Runner“, the beat, in 

other words, goes on

 

but note the renovations, find them, 

I dare you, you’ll be surprised at 

your unsuspected perspicacity

 

listen

 

 

R ! chard  

the Nutcracker Suite – Tchaikovsky

 original costume sketch for “The Nutcracker” (1892)

 

       Ivan Vsevolozhsky

 

              __________

 

 

it didn’t take me long, after wondering 

about precedents for Debussy’s nursery

piece, Children’s Corner, to ferret out 

Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, a work

with a similar theme, childhood 

fantasies

 

but the Nutcracker Suite

 

         l. Miniature Overture

        ll. Danses caractéristiques

                a. Marche

                b. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies

                c. Russian Dance

                d. Arabian Dance

                e. Chinese Dance

                f. Reed Flutes

       lll. Waltz of the Flowers

 

is not to be confused with the complete 

ballet, from which it had been excerpted 

to great acclaim before the ballet itself 

was presented, but to much less 

enthusiasm, until George Balanchine 

revived it in the 1960s

 

note that Tchaikovsky’s Suite, in 1892, 

contains still the traditional elements 

of the suite – see above – a prelude, or 

overture, followed by a series of 

dances, only a few years before 

Debussy’s Children’s Corner, 1908, 

redefined the form, made the 

movements indiscriminate, not 

confined to dance rhythms

 

note also that Tchaikovsky sounds 

a lot more like the Strausses, father

and son, Romantics both, than he 

does like Debussy, an Impressionist,

a generation later only

here’s the orchestral Nutcracker Suite,

a suite, in other words, is not limited

to one instrument

 

here’s a riveting version of it for two 

pianos, not to be missed 

 

R ! chard

two suites – Debussy

     “Clair de lune” 

 

      Jean Cocteau

 

        __________

 

 

two suites 

 

      Debussy’s “Suite bergamasque“

 

      his “Children’s Corner”

 

how are they similar

how are they different

 

you tell me

 

a couple o’ clues

 

      “Suite bergamasque“

 

             Prélude

             Menuet

             Clair de lune

             Passepied

 

      “Children’s Corner“

 

             Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum

             Jimbo’s Lullaby

             Serenade for the Doll

             The Snow is Dancing

             The Little Shepherd

             Golliwog’s Cakewalk

 

 

R ! chard

 

psst: if you said, there are no dance

          pieces in “Children’s Corner“,

          and only three of the four 

          movements in “Suite

          bergamasque” are dances, 

          you’d be right, the others all

          have evocative titles, nothing 

          to do with the cadence, the 

          step

 

          but that begs the question, 

          what happened to the traditional

          suite, a string of dances preceded

          by a prelude

 

          well, time, and the vagaries of

          language, intentions, essentially, 

          Debussy did to the suite what

          Chopin had done to the prelude, 

      changed its meaning, took away

          its original purpose, for better or

          for worse, a suite is now, in a

          similar transformation, a piece

          of music, merely, any kind of music,

          with several segments, without

          even, necessarily, gasp, a

          prelude

 

          you can never step into the same

          river twice, in other words, the

          current just keeps on inexorably

           moving, even immutable,

           apparently, concepts fall by the

           wayside, see democracy, at

           present, for  instance