The Keyboard suite in D minor (HWV 437) was composed by Handel, for solo keyboard (harpsichord), between 1703 and 1706. It is also referred to as Suite de pièce Vol. 2 No. 4. and was first published in 1733. This Sarabande is the 3rd movement of the suite and has been used in various contexts, such as the ground-breaking Stanley Kubrick film Barry Lyndon and the Yesterday TV Channel, often supporting historical documentaries.
A Sarabande (from the Spanish, Zarabanda) is a dance in triple time. The dance evolved from a Spanish dance with Arab influences that would have been danced with a lively double line of couples with castanets. The dance seems to have been especially popular in the 16thand 17th centuries, initially in the Spanish colonies, before moving across the Atlantic to Spain. The Jesuit priest Juan de Mariana thought it indecent, describing it as "a dance and song so loose in its words and so ugly in its motions that it is enough to excite bad emotions in even very decent people”. It was banned in Spain in 1583 but was nevertheless still performed and frequently cited in literature of the period. It spread to Italy in the 17th century and to France, where it became a slow court dance. Baroque musicians of the 18th century wrote suites of dance music that typically included a sarabande as the third of four movement and was often paired with and followed by a jig or gigue. Handel was strongly influenced by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and the German choral tradition. Handel started three successful opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera. In 1737 he became ill and had a physical breakdown. After this he changed direction creatively toward English oratorio and choral music based mainly on mythical and biblical themes. Almost blind, and having lived in England for almost fifty years, he died in 1759, a well-respected and very rich man. His funeral was given full state honours, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey. Handel is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Baroque era. Works such as "The Water Music", "Music for the Royal Fireworks" and "The Messiah" still remaining hugely popular. Of his four Coronation Anthems, "Zadok the Priest", composed for the coronation of King George II, has been performed at every subsequent British coronation. Handel composed more than forty operas in over thirty years, and since the late 1960s, with the revival of baroque music and original authentic period instrumentation, interest in Handel's operas has grown.
