Sometimes when I run out of inspiration, I write pastiches. Here's a Baroque suite.

I know it has the anachronism of using a piano with pedals, but during the 19th century there were a lot of baroque reworkings and pastiches that got away with this (e.g. Busoni), so I don't care. Also, people loved Gould, even though Bach played on the piano is an anachronism too. I like to think of this piece more of a 19th century transcription of a baroque piece for other instruments.

I like the Gigue the best as it seems to have the most bounce in it's step.  A complaint that I frequently have with these kind of suites (even with some of Bach's suites not just yours) is that they are only marginally related to the original dances which inspired them.  They lack the energy and vivacity of a dance and hence don't really sound dance-like anymore.  I don't know if the instrumentation is conducive to making them more dance-like but I've personally composed a few of these kinds of dances but for string orchestra (you can judge for yourself whether they sound dance-like or not).  Thanks for sharing!

On 6/4/2021 at 12:45 AM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

I like the Gigue the best as it seems to have the most bounce in it's step.  A complaint that I frequently have with these kind of suites (even with some of Bach's suites not just yours) is that they are only marginally related to the original dances which inspired them.  They lack the energy and vivacity of a dance and hence don't really sound dance-like anymore.  I don't know if the instrumentation is conducive to making them more dance-like but I've personally composed a few of these kinds of dances but for string orchestra (you can judge for yourself whether they sound dance-like or not).  Thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks! I agree that the gigue is the strongest movement by far. Some months ago I actually sketched out an orchestration of it for an orchestra I collaborate with sometimes (with additional countrapunctal lines).

About the dance thing, I know most numbers aren't very dance-ish, I think musicologists agree that in the 18th century most suites had become ultra-indealized pieces that barely kept any relationship with the original dances. The logical conclusion would be the minuets in symphonies, that had nothing to do with the dance. TBF, dance is something so absolutely alien to my nature as a person that I don't care at all.

Thanks for listening!

Very nice! You seemed to have grasped the German baroque sound quite well, the slight dissonances are actually quite convincing to me. I know the piano arrangement is an anachronism as you mentioned, but I think it works very well. You may not have had so much inspiration, but you it sounds like you wrote this with care.

Just an arbitrary and non-musical question, but what fonts did you use for the slanted text and the bar numbers? I might like to use it sometimes.

35 minutes ago, Theodore Servin said:

Very nice! You seemed to have grasped the German baroque sound quite well, the slight dissonances are actually quite convincing to me. I know the piano arrangement is an anachronism as you mentioned, but I think it works very well. You may not have had so much inspiration, but you it sounds like you wrote this with care.

Just an arbitrary and non-musical question, but what fonts did you use for the slanted text and the bar numbers? I might like to use it sometimes.

 

Thanks Theodore!

I stopped using this style and no longer have the fonts since I formatted my PC. Also, Sibelius is substituting everything it can't recognize with Times New Roman. However, IIRC it's a font from the DeVinne family, it looks like a faux Italic furthermore. Could also be Chamberí, but I think I employed it later.

5 hours ago, Snake_Cake said:

TBF, dance is something so absolutely alien to my nature as a person that I don't care at all.

Maybe it's because I used to be in a folk dance ensemble that I feel more of a connection to fun dance rhythms.

5 hours ago, Snake_Cake said:

I agree that the gigue is the strongest movement by far.

Have you considered that maybe, part of the reason that your gigue is the best is because it preserves the gigue's original dance rhythms?  Even the symphonic movement's that were originally based on dances such as the minuet and the scherzo I think have a hard time completely divorcing themselves from dance rhythms and even if such a divorce were completely possible would render the music dead and uninteresting imo.