Talk:Joueurs de flûte

suite

How is this a "suite"? Is it a set of dance movements? Did the composer describe it as a suite? I will remove the category without some justification given for it. Schissel | Sound the Note! 16:07, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

Suites are not necessarily made up of dance movements, but it does appear that your doubt is well-founded. While I can see the resemblance to the suites of character pieces by composers such as François Couperin, a quick check of the usual sources does not suggest that Roussel thought of Joueurs de flûte as a suite, but rather just as four pieces with a shared concept. They were apparently first published separately, and Georges Barrère once tried unsuccessfully to induce Roussel to compose a fifth piece (suggesting George Washington as a possible subject!). All of this points to a loose set of pieces collected together under one opus number, and while this could easily have constituted a "suite" in the 17th and 18th-century understanding of the term, it does seem quite a different thing in a 20th-century context. I propose to change the lede sentence, accordingly, unless someone can produce further evidence.—Jerome Kohl (talk) 00:54, 14 December 2015 (UTC)