Dance and the Music of J. S. Bach

by Meredith Little, Natalie Jenne

Stylized dance music and music based on dance rhythms pervade Bach's compositions. Although the music of this very special genre has long been a part of every serious musician's repertoire, little has been written about it.

The original edition of this addressed works that bore the names of dances--a considerable corpus. In this expanded version of their practical and insightful study, Meredith Little and Natalie Jenne apply the same principals to the study of a great number of Bach's works that use identifiable dance rhythms but do not bear dance-specific titles.

Part I describes French dance practices in the cities and courts most familiar to Bach. The terminology and analytical tools necessary for discussing dance music of Bach's time are laid out.

Part II presents the dance forms that Bach used, annotating all of his named dances. Little and Jenne draw on choreographies, harmony, theorists' writings, and the music of many seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
composers in order to arrive at a model for each dance type.

In Appendix A all of Bach's named dances are listed in convenient tabular form; included are the BWV number for each piece, the date of composition, the larger work in which it appears, the instrumentation, and the meter.
Appendix B supplies the same data for pieces recognizable as dance types but not named as such.

More than ever, this book will stimulate both the musical scholar and the performer with a new perspective at the rhythmic workings of Bach's remarkable repertoire of dance-based music.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

337 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Richard Pohl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unique resource on a much discussed, yet still not much researched subject - I believe this treatise is really the only comprehensive work on this topic. Includes also a very extensive list of pieces by Bach, featuring typical baroque dance-like characteristics. Absolutely a must-have for any period performer and teacher working with baroque music.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read. It exhaustively covers each dance of the French court practices used in Bach's music; complete with foot patterns that run parallel to the notated examples and a model of phrases, half-phrases, beats, pulses, taps, rhythmic patterns, and syncopations that typify the music that would accompany each dance respectively. It also contains an appendix of the movement's named after dances from all of Bach's Concertos, Partitas, Suites, etc. I can see this being illuminating to anyone involved in period practice, though any musician interested in Bach will probably enjoy it.

[Tony]

While I understand that this book focuses on pieces that were danced in the lifetime of J.S. Bach, the omission of the Allemande is disappointing. While we know that the Allemande as a dance was more or less extinct during Bach's lifetime, it is a quintessential movement found in the vast majority of suites during this period, and its inclusion would have been welcome. Little's original terminology used to describe the hierarchy of metrical accents needs to be committed to memory before you study any of the dances, as she uses them extensively, and it can be a bit confusing at first. It is similar how you need to memorize or create a cheat sheet on the names/uses of the magical bells in Sabriel to remember which one does what... lol... now you need to go read Sabriel by Garth Nix... you dirty book nerd you :)

[Kaitlyn Townsend · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

As a singer, I found the first half of each chapter more helpful than the portion referencing Bach's music (which tended to be instrumental selections). The charts breaking down the meter and typical rhythms, as well as selected listings of arias from his cantatas will be references for years to come.