Suite (music) These optional movements were known as "galanteries": common examples are the minuet, gavotte, passepied, and bourrée. Often there would be two contrasting "galanteries" with the same name, e.g. Minuet I and II, to be played "alternativement", meaning that the first dance is played again after the second, thus I, II, I. The later addition of an overture to make up an "overture-suite" was extremely popular with German composers; Telemann claimed to have written over 200 overture-suites, J. S. Bach had his four orchestral suites along with other suites, and Handel put his "Water Music" and "Music for the Royal Fireworks"
Music history of France singing of French translations of the Psalms, for instance those written by Goudimel (who was killed in the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572). Starting with the 17th century, Italian and German opera was the most influential form of music, though French opera composers like Balthasar de Beaujoyeaux, Jean Philippe Rameau and Jean Baptiste Lully made a distinctive national style characterized by dance rhythms, spoken dialogue and a lack of Italian recitative arias. The Baroque period saw a flourishing of harpsichord music. Influential composers included Jacques Champion de Chambonnières, Louis Couperin, François Couperin. Jean Philippe Rameau, a prominent opera composer,