Suite

(sonata da camera in Italian Baroque music): An important instrumental form of (mainly French) Baroque music, consisting of a number of movements, each in the character of a dance, and all in the same key. A regular two- or four-bar phrase structure is usual in most seventeenth century suite movements. The classical suite became extinct after 1750. The usual movements in a classical French suite are: Prelude, Allemande (German), Courante (French), Sarabande (Spanish), Gigue (English), Chaconne and Minuet; or a prelude and then A-C-S-G and a closing group usually ending with a minuet. The dance movements in a suite are nearly always in binary form except the chaconne and minuet. The modern suit is used to describe a number of pieces grouped together by the composer. They are often an arrangement of ballet (Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker ballet suit) or stage (Bizet's Carmen suit) work.