Often they form part of a set, or suite.
Shostakovich lent them a sympathetic ear more than 400 years later when, nearing death in 1974, he set his "Suite on Words of Michelangelo".
In "Return," for instance, Robert Garland has taken the vocabulary of classical ballet, astutely blended it with social dancing and set this suite to music sung by James Brown and Aretha Franklin.
Handel also published harpsichord music, of which two sets of suites, the Suites de pièces pour le clavecin of 1720 and the Suites de pièces of 1733, containing 17 sets in all, are his finest contribution to that instrument's repertoire.
Based around the great hall in the library's newly refurbished Jefferson building, the center -- which will be formally announced on Thursday -- is to set aside suites of offices and meeting rooms for the scholars and lawmakers.
One consultant said the plans include direct underground access to a parking garage so celebrities can come and go unnoticed (so far unheard of in Paris), a new soundproofing system between rooms and floors, a new set of suites overlooking the gardens, bathtubs that will fill up in 10 seconds.
Its program tonight is the second installment in a traversal of a set of suites, published in 1726 as "Les Nations," a work notable for its combination of Italian structural conventions and the courtliness of French dance forms.
These instrumental sets and suites for violin, keyboard, organ and cello often look so technical, so formal, as they tease out every harmonic strand within the musical DNA of a slender phrase or theme.
Kenneth Gilbert's fine recordings of both sets of suites (as well as the partitas) are available in a six-CD package in Harmonia Mundi France's Bach Edition (HMX 2908078/83).
