The opening allemande is a gentle, singing melodic example, and a suitable opening to the entire suite.  The courante is in the Italian style (which would actually be a corrente), rather than the triple-meter French-style dance.  The movement is almost entirely in two parts, active treble and bass lines which take turns playing sixteenth-note runs and eighth notes which outline the prevailing harmony.  Only occasionally does Bach add additional notes to fill in the harmony or counterpoint.  This is a good example of a movement which has distinct pedagogical purposes, as each hand has its turn at developing dexterity.

If you are looking for examples of the range of possibilities in Bach’s sarabandes, you need only to compare the sarabande from the D minor French Suite to that of the G major French Suite.  This is the longest of the sarabandes in Bach’s French Suites (40 full measures).  The G major sarabande is tuneful, highly ornamented, and contrapuntal in texture, with limited chromaticism and a strong sense of movement—the exact opposite of the sarabande in the 1^st French Suite.  The emphasis on the 2^nd beat, so characteristic of the sarabande in general, occurs in this example in three primary ways:

• Placement of a half note on the second beat, following a quarter note on the downbeat
• Movement up by step to an extended second beat, where this is the highest pitch in the measure
• Ornamentation on the second beat

The texture initially appears to be simple, clear, and uncluttered by contrapuntal “filler,” but as the movement progresses, all parts become more active, creating the contrapuntal texture we do not see in the d minor sarabande

The gavotte from the G major French Suite is another movement that many amateur pianists will recognize, for it is often included in anthologies of easy to intermediate piano music.  As with all gavottes, this one begins and ends in the middle of a measure.  This gavotte might be seen as an example of “Bach the progressive” – the Bach who was looking forward stylistically, anticipating the galant style of the middle of the 18^th century.  The texture is clean and crisp and primarily homophonic, with a moving bassline added in the second phrase (and later in the movement) for some variety—and, presumably, also for improving the dexterity of Bach’s pupils.  It is a spritely, cheerful movement marked by a single thematic idea which appears in inversion (at the beginning of the second half, and later in this section) and then is transferred to the bassline, before ultimately appearing again in the final phrase.  Each time the pitches are different, but the gesture and outline of the phrase are the same. 

The bourreé of the G major French Suite is one of Bach’s longer ones among the keyboard works.  It is riddled with anapest figures (marked in red below), though Bach uses a variety of articulations to create interest and cross-rhythms (Little and Jenne).  Even where specific articulations (like phrase marks or staccatos) are not indicated, different articulations are forced by changes of direction leading to or out of these anapest figures, by the leaps they cover, or by the series of eighth notes which leads into and includes them, as you can see in just the first few measures of the movement below. 

Bach wrote only 3 movements titled “loure” in all of his instrumental works.  One appears in the G major French Suite.  Although employing a French title, it is hardly French in style.  According to Little and Jenne, the loure was a French court dance, found particularly in the works of Rameau and his contemporaries.  It might be thought of as a “slow gigue.”  In French examples, the phrases were often irregular and unbalanced with a highly contrapuntal texture. 

Bach’s example uses clear balanced phrases, which distinguishes it from traditional French examples.  It does use a 6/4 meter (common to French loures) and a moderate tempo; phrases begin with an upbeat (also common to the French model), and is highly ornamented.  The ornaments here appear as grace notes and mordents, or in the written-out ornamental bassline.

The G major suite ends in typical fashion with a gigue, though with an atypical gigue.  This example is a 3-part “giga-fugue” (Little and Jenne).  The second half of the movement inverts the fugal subject as a new fugal texture emerges.

French Suite No. 1 in D Minor
French Suite No. 5 in G Major
French Suite No. 6 in E Major