Suite in D Minor

Welcome back to Tea with Liya! Today, I'm playing a song by George Frideric Handel called the "Suite in D Minor." He actually wrote at least 3 pieces with this name, from what I've looked up, so perhaps we will one day run into a Sonata in A Major predicament. Sometimes, it seems that composers just don't have enough time to think of names for songs - which, in this case, might be an accurate statement. I hope you like listening to it!


Listen to the song here
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A Baroque composer who was writing in the 1700s (yes, I'm bringing this song back after 300 years have passed) would probably have written a suite to be performed at a dance for a specific group of people. It contains 4 or 5 parts that all have different patterns of rhythm and thus would provide a variety of music for his guests to dance to. However, his guests might have come to such events every week, and they wouldn't be satisfied with hearing the same songs multiple times. They would want new music! And what does that mean? More work for the composer. 

Now, it was probably work that he enjoyed to some extent. Otherwise, he would have found a different profession that could bring in more cash with less talent and creativity. But he still had to be consistent in writing songs for his clients.

I'm not even sure where the composers got all the ideas from, since they couldn't just look back on the 300 years of history we have now, but you can imagine that with limited time to write, they wouldn't be concerned about titles. Usually, they just decided to use the key as the title of the song. (If all the parts of the suite were in the same key, then groups of musicians that were playing it wouldn't have to re-tune all their instruments.)

This looks like a piano, but it isn't. The front of this harpsichord doesn't even have white and black keys - it has orange and black keys. However, it was the instrument that led to the creation of the piano.

And since this is still back in the days of the harpsichord, no one had to come up with song titles that would result in sales when they were printed on recordings. They didn't have to compete with thousands of songs from across the world, either.

Of course, that doesn't mean Handel was limited in the song titles he could write. Some of his later works - for example, The Messiah, or Music for the Royal Fireworks - were performed publicly for hundreds of people to listen to. However, these were being played in a different setting and they took much longer to write. 

Handel probably didn't intend for this specific suite in D minor to be remembered 300 years later. Of course, that doesn't mean he didn't put any creative effort into it, but it wasn't expected to be a masterpiece that everyone would remember him by. But, despite his assumed expectations, it is still being played 300 years later. Someone decided to collect together his manuscripts and make copies of them, other pianists decided to perform them, and eventually I came across a recording and decided to play this song.

You never know what will be happening in 2300. Maybe songs that were originally written as, say, background music for videos in the 2020s will be studied and analyzed. The long-forgotten music that no one appreciated while its composers were alive might make a return. Articles could even be published about the musicians whose talents were only rarely recognized.

Because no matter what it's used for, or what it's called, there's always someone who wants to fill their teacup with fresh music!

~Liya