Suitte d'un Goût Étranger

"Suitte d'un Goût Étranger" is a composition by Marin Marais.

Origins

The Suite in a Strange Style was included in Marin Marais's Livre IV of pieces for viol and continuo, and which also included the pieces for three viols, which Marais referred to in the Avertissement as 'a completely new departure in France.' The first suites in Livre IV are charming and simple and closely resemble Livre III, where Marais had endeavored to present pieces of an easy and accessible nature for the less proficient players. However, these suites are followed immediately by the Suitte d'un Goût Étranger, which is infamous for its technical and musical demands.

Style

The suite is remarkable in many aspects. For one, in it Marais did away with conventional forms and structures and instead presented the public with a collection of what are essentially pièces de charactère, a clear departure from his previous suites which were built around the typical dance forms preferred and upheld by his contemporaries. In addition to this formal and structural iconoclasm, the suite is filled with music that is supremely virtuosic, descriptive, and adventurous—both melodically and harmonically. One might expect that, in an effort to 'fill in' Livre IV, Marais inserted some especially difficult or highly-favored pieces that he had been saving, and put them all into their own suite. It might also be postulated that Marais was responding to the French penchant for highly descriptive, exotic, and colorful orchestral music—a tradition upheld by the likes of Jean-Philippe Rameau and Jean-Féry Rebel--with virtuosic chamber music, as opposed to his earlier works which mimic the older generation of French Baroque composers. In any case, the Suitte d'un Goût Étranger with all of its garish flair and supreme elegance, might be viewed as a culmination in French Baroque chamber music.

Contents

• 1. Marche Tartare (March of the Tartars)
• 2. Allemande
• 3. Sarabande
• 4. La Tartarine (The Tartar Girl)
• 5. Double
• 6. Gavotte
• 7. Feste Champêtre (Rustic Festival)
• 8. Gigue la Fleselle
• 9. Rondeau le Bijou (The Jewel)
• 10. Le Tourbillon (The Tornado)
• 11. L'Uniforme (The Uniform)
• 12. Suitte
• 13. Suitte
• 14. L'Ameriquaine (The Native American Girl)
• 15. Allemande (Sujet) & Gigue (Basse)--contained in one piece, the soloist plays an Allemande before switching parts with the continuo, transforming it into a Gigue.
• 16. Allemande L'Asmatique (The Asthmatic)
• 17. La Tourneuse (The Turner)
• 18. Muzette
• 19. Caprice ou Sonate
• 20. Le Labyrinthe (The Labyrinth)
• 21. La Sauterelle (The Grasshopper)
• 22. La Fougade
• 23. Allemande La Bizare
• 24. La Minaudière
• 25. Allemande La Singulière
• 26. L'Arabesque
• 27. Allemande La Superbe
• 28. La Rêveuse (The Dreaming Girl)
• 29. Marche
• 30. Gigue
• 31. Pièce Luthée (Piece in a lute style)
• 32. Gigue La Caustique (The Caustic)
• 33. Le Badinage (The Conversation)