French Suite No. 1 in D Minor: Canarie
Le Nôtre et al. View of the Orangerie (late seventeenth century), Versailles
Le Nôtre et al. View of the Orangerie (late seventeenth century), Versailles
The French Suite in D Minor was composed in 1987. This six-movement work clearly shows my affection for the music of Bach and Handel, although no identical dance sequence is found in either of the German masters' keyboard compositions.
The suite concludes with a canarie, whose pervasive dotted rhythms seem to conjure up the exotic spirit of the Canary Islands, famous for their magnificent Phoenix palms.