The ''Concerts royaux'' (singular: ''Concert royal''; English: Royal Concerts) are

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small num ...

suites by François Couperin written for the court of

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ve ...

. Each consists of a prelude and a succession of dances in the order

allemande An ''allemande'' (''allemanda'', ''almain(e)'', or ''alman(d)'', French: "German (dance)") is a Renaissance and Baroque dance, and one of the most common instrumental dance styles in Baroque music, with examples by Couperin, Purcell, Ba ...

sarabande The sarabande (from es, zarabanda) is a dance in triple metre, or the music written for such a dance. History The Sarabande evolved from a Spanish dance with Arab influences, danced by a lively double line of couples with castanets. A dance ca ...

courante The ''courante'', ''corrente'', ''coranto'' and ''corant'' are some of the names given to a family of triple metre dances from the late Renaissance and the Baroque era. In a Baroque dance suite an Italian or French courante is typically pai ...

, followed by others – but the suites are intended for listening more than dancing. Four were produced in 1714 and published in 1722. Another ten followed in 1724, now called ''Nouveaux concerts, ou les Goûts réunis'' (referring to the "reunited" French and Italian musical tastes). Neither of the two sets has fixed instrumentation: each suite can be played by solo

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a ...

or an ensemble with a bass and three melody instruments, such as a violin, a

viol The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...

, and an

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...

or flute. (This freedom is found also in works by

Marin Marais Marin Marais (; 31 May 1656, in Paris – 15 August 1728, in Paris) was a French composer and viol player. He studied composition with Jean-Baptiste Lully, often conducting his operas, and with master of the bass viol Monsieur de Sainte-Colom ...

and Gaspard Le Roux.) The first and more frequently played of the sets is as follows: ;''Premier concert'' in G Major *''Prélude'' *''Allemande'' *''Sarabande'' *''

Gavotte The gavotte (also gavot, gavote, or gavotta) is a French dance, taking its name from a folk dance of the Gavot, the people of the Pays de Gap region of Dauphiné in the southeast of France, where the dance originated, according to one source. Ac ...

'' *''

Gigue The gigue (; ) or giga () is a lively baroque dance originating from the English jig. It was imported into France in the mid-17th centuryBellingham, Jane"gigue."''The Oxford Companion to Music''. Ed. Alison Latham. Oxford Music Online. 6 July 2 ...

'' *''

Menuet A minuet (; also spelled menuet) is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in time. The English word was adapted from the Italian ''minuetto'' and the French ''menuet''. The term also describes the musical form that accompa ...

en trio'' ;''Deuxième concert'' in D Major *''Prélude'' *''Allemande fuguée'' *''Air tendre'' *''Air contrefugué'' *''Echos'' ;''Troisième concert'' in A Major *''Prélude'' *''Allemande'' *''Courante'' *''Sarabande grave'' *''Gavotte'' *''Musette'' *''

Chaconne A chaconne (; ; es, chacona, links=no; it, ciaccona, links=no, ; earlier English: ''chacony'') is a type of musical composition often used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repe ...

légère'' ;''Quatrième concert'' in E Minor *''Prélude'' *''Allemande'' *''Courante française'' *''Courante à l'italienne'' *''Sarabande'' *''

Rigaudon The rigaudon (also spelled rigadon, rigadoon) is a French baroque dance with a lively duple metre. The music is similar to that of a bourrée, but the rigaudon is rhythmically simpler with regular phrases (eight measure phrases are most common) ...

'' *''

Forlane The furlana (also spelled ''furlane'', ''forlane'', ''friulana'', ''forlana'') is an Italian folk dance from the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. In Friulian, ''furlane'' means ''Friulian'', in this case ''Friulian Dance''. In Friuli the ...

External links

*The original version, as published by François Couperin at the end of ''Troisième Livre de Clavecin'' (1722): :http://icking-music-archive.org/ByComposer/Couperin.php {{Authority control Compositions by François Couperin Suites (music) 1715 compositions