The form of the suite ensures the greotest possible freedom for the composer. ln many suites of that period, however, with their loose linking of the movements to one onother, this led to a certain formlessness of the work os a whole. That such a form creator as Bach, who fitted every work into a strict self-mode orchitectural plan in which the overall structure ond the smallest musicol gesture alike had their place, had to regord this "unformed" form os a challenge and stimulus is self-understood. The selection and sequence of the movements as a task for the performera a matter of course in Fronce ten yeas earlier and still quite thinkable among his contemporaries, is out of the question in this suites. One cannot amit a single movement or put it in a different place, without destroying the whole work. For Bach differed in one importont respect from all composers of his generotion: he rejected the freedom of the performer, that essentiol feature of all boroque music, entirely. Perhaps it was just because he, as an unequalled improviser, knew the dangers that threatened the best compositions of his colleagues through the arbitrary interference self-understood at that time, such as choice of instruments, transposition, arrangements of the order or again through clumsy ornamentation, that he left no place for this in his own works. ln this, he was two generations ahead of his time. Just as he wrote out the execution of the ornaments in detail - which must almost have been on insult to the musicians of that time - he also laid down himself the final and unequivocal form.
Through the extension of the dominating introductory movement, the overture, to half the length of the entire work, he elevated his suites from the sphere of light "table music" and formed them into genuine works of "worldly" festive music. The elements of greatness and splendour are underlined by the constitution of the orchestra in the 1st 3rd and 4th suites. The dances and characteristic pieces follow the overture according to a brilliant plan of dramatic significance.
The structure of the Third Suite in D major is more easily grasped than that of the other suites, alone on account of the smaller number of movements. After the magnificently energetic overture there follows, as the heart of the work, the unique Air. lt is an "italian" adagio which Bach has placed as the only movement reminiscent of the Vivaldi style in the “French” environment. This stylistic contrast lends its far-soaring melody an added magic. The three French dance movements that follow again offer an ingenious intensification of tempo and expression; from the aristocratic Gavotte there springs, as it were, the fiery Bourrée, and the work then closes with a further intensification in the energetic Gigue. ln this Gigue, the ltalian and French forms of the dance, of explained above, are blended in a wonderful manner. The 1st violins and the oboes run along in quavers, it is true. but since these are not led in virtuoso leaps and broken chords as in the ltalian gigue but in small intervals - furthermore being slurred in half-bars - the soloist bravura characteristic of the Italian gigue is tamed to produce a finale with wide melodic curves in the upper part rising above the dance-like, forwardurging foundation of the middle parts and the bass.
The Fourth Suite in D major is the only one already to include an allegro section in dance character in the overture. The character and rhythm of a gigue are built into the form of the fugato Allegro. The sequence of dances is not laid out so as to create an intensification here, but as a continual calming down. lt begins with a passionate Bourrée; the Govotte that follows is both one degree more moderate in tempo and one stage more noble in character. ln the Minuet, which is still more calm in tempo, courtly elegance and restraint dominate again. The sequence of these three movements thus shows not only a calming of the passion, o moderating of the tempo, but more still a gradual becoming nobler expressed in ever greater self-control. The Réjouissance is here simply the necessary joyful finale, intended to dismiss the listener gaily after the suite.
Concertante Elements in the Suites
Soloists are already used in the earliest overtures and dances of Lully, preference being shown fo a trio of two oboes and a bossoon that reply to the tutti sections played "forte". The contrasting of two dances played in alternation (such as two minuets or two gavottes), the second of which was allotted only to this solo trio (thus the later classical designation "Trio" for every second minuet) was also introduced by Lully. These solo possibilities already prepared were extended by Bach in many directions. There are predominant solo instruments in each of his suites, which make their main appearance in the Allegro section of the overture, thus lending it a concertante character, but are also heard in the dances. In the Third Suite there are two big violin solos in the Ovenure (bars 42-58 and 71-88) which, however, are not indicated in the autograph parts and therefore not marked in modern editions. Apart from the unmistakable clear concertante structure of these passages, there exists a very reliable full score by Penzel, a pupil of St Thomas' School, in which these passages are allotted to the "Violino concertato". In the Fourth Suite, on the other hand, the three trumpets with the timpani as a bass, the three oboes with the bassoon and the strings are contrasted with one another as three choirs. The solo passages in the overture are more group solos of the woodwind and the strings. A genuine woodwind solo is to be found in the Bourrée ll, whereas in the Bourrée l, the Gavotte and the Réjouissance the play of contrasts between the three alternating choirs predominates.