Suite

An instrumental composition that consists of a succession of fairly short, congruous movements. During the Baroque period, when the suite was a principal instrumental form, each movement more or less took on the stylized character of a particular dance, and these were normally played all in the same key and quite often were linked together thematically. As this form of music evolved, it gradually made use of contrasting keys at the start of each section and on occasion, contrasting thematic material. The suite eventually evolved into what we now call a sonata during the 18th century.