Among the most important of his clavier works are the
several groups of suites and partitas. These are sets of dance
tunes grouped together in such a way as to make a composite
cycle out of well-contrasted units, all knit together in the
circuit of one key. The idea of grouping dance tunes together
was of very old standing; and composers had tried endless
varieties, from galliards and pavans to rigadoons and trumpet
tunes. But by degrees they settled down to a scheme which
was in principle exactly the same as that of the distribution
of sonata movements in later times — having the serious and
more highly organised movements at the beginning, the slow
dances in the middle, and the gay rhythmic dances at the
end. Many composers had succeeded admirably in this form,
especially Couperin, who generally fell in with the taste of
his French audiences by adding to the nucleus a long series
of lively picture-tunes which savoured of the theatrical ballet.
