Description
The Suite in D minor (HWV 437) for solo keyboard (harpsichord) was composed by the German-born English composer of the late Baroque era, George Frederic Handel at the beginning of the 18th century.
A Sarabande was commonly included in such compositions, as it is here in the 4th movement. It is a slow courtly dance in triple time which incorporates the ‘folia’ chord progression with a theme followed by two variations.
The piece was used in a romanticised version in Stanley Kubrick’s film Barry Lyndon (1975) which is based on a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray about the exploits of a fictional 18th century Irish adventurer. Its stately solemnness also fitted the bill perfectly in the BBC’s documentary Auschwitz: The Nazis and ‘The Final Solution.
