Red and White Suite

The ‘Red and White Suite’ is loosely based on poetry by Elfriede Jelinek. Very loosely. Its roots come from the Bach dance suites, and it is structured as such. The piece is split into five movements: Overture, Allemande, Sarabande, Minuet, and Gigue. For the most part, it is traditional Baroque dance suite, each movement a strict binary form (for the most part), though their adherence to the characteristics of the dances themselves is cursory. As thorny as the suite is both musically and technically, it flows effortlessly (or at least it’s meant to). Therein lies its greatest challenge, to navigate the often virtuosic technical elements, yet still maintain the sense of flow.