Influence of Social Minuet on Bach French Suites

Influences of the Early Eighteenth-Century Social Minuet on the Minuets from J. S. Bach'sFrench Suites, BWV 812-17Author(s): Eric McKeeSource: Music Analysis, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Jul., 1999), pp. 235-260Published by: WileyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/854481 .

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ERIC McKEE

L\4FLUENCES OF THE EARLY EIGH rEENTH-cEmvry SOCIAL MrNuET ON THE MrNuETs FROM J. S. BACH S FRENCH SUrTES, BWV 8 1 2-1 7

It is difficult in today's world of endless entertainment opportunities to appre- ciate fully the central role dance had in eighteenth-century European life.* At that time dance was without question the most popular form of social entertainment. It pervaded all levels of society and served a wide range of social functions. 1 For the lower classes dancing served as a diversion from the toils of the day; the upper classes used it as a way of defining themselves individually within their class, and collectively apart from the lower classes; and for all levels the activity of dancing was a vehicle for courtship, ceremonies and celebra- tions. It seems that whenever and wherever people got together, there was bound to be dancing. Because of its ubiquity it would seem likely that aspects of the dance as danced, and dance music, carried over into other musical genres and in some way influenced the formation of the Classical style, especially with regard to Classical phrase structure.

But beyond citing apparent similarities between dance music and Classical music, it becomes very difficult to pinpoint the exact nature and level of the dance's influence. Certainly dance was not the only player in the formation of the Classical style. As Charles Rosen and others have pointed out, vocal music - both folk and art - also had a tremendous impact and may have influenced the formation of the Classical style as much or even more so than the dance.2 Furthermore, there is a growing body of evidence which shows that many functional dances in the first half of the eighteenth century exhibited irregular phrase structures and that in many cases dancers did not even pay attention to the music's phrase structure.3 If this is true, then one cannot argue as convinc- ingly for the practical necessity in dance music of one particular type of phrase structure over another. This, in turn, weakens the position that dance music provided the principal model for the development of phrase structure in Clas-

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Questions emerge: Just what was required of the music to make it danceable? - How did the practical necessities of the dance affect the structure of the music? - and, perhaps most importantly: What might composers have learned

* An earlier version of this article was given at the 1996 annual meeting of the Society for MusicTheory (Baton Rouge) . The author thanksWilliam Rothstein, Robert Hat- ten, Michael Broyles and Laura Macy for their helpful comments on earlier drafts.

Music A nalysis, 1 8/ii ( 1 999) 23 5 c Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK



236 ERIC McKEE

from composing dance music? In addressing the first of these questions, the first part of this article focuses on the practical aspects of the most important social dance of the eighteenth century, the minuet - and specifically the ballroom version of the menuet, the menuet ordinaire. An examination of eighteenth- century dance treatises reveals that the practical necessity of the minuet is not a particular type of phrase structure, as is commonly believed, but rather the presence of consistently maintained metrical levels above the notated metre in which bars are organised in terms of strong and weak beats - what is commonly referred to today as hypermetre.4

The second part of the article explores the influence of the danced minuet as seen in the minuets of Bach's French Suites. Out of the seven minuets, I exam- ine four in some detail (BWV 812, 814, 815 and 817). Bach's solution in providing the minuet's practical necessity was to rely on a particular type of phrase structure in which new groups are initiated every other bar and organised in what is today referred to as 'sentence' structure. I believe Bach's progressive approach to phrase structure in his minuets is directly related to a conscious effort on his part to establish and maintain a prominent two-bar hypermetre. The minuet's true influence, at least in the first half of the eighteenth century, may well lie in directing composers' attention to the establishment, manipulation and control of metrical levels above the notated metre.

Minuet as danced

The most common form of the social minuet (as opposed to theatrical minuets) was the menuet ordinaire, which was the standard form from the Court of Louis XIV to the French Revolution. The organising component of the minuet and of all French court dances is the step-unit. A step-unit is a collection of individual steps, hops or springs, and involves at least two changes of weight from one foot to another. In the minuet, the principal step-unit is the pas de menuet which contains four changes of weight, always beginning with the right foot (RLRL). The pas de menuet takes six beats in 3/4 time to complete and begins on the upbeat with a bending of the knees. The bending of the knees, often referred to as a 'sink' (or plie), prepares the dancer for a rise or spring on the downbeat.

Step-units were combined to form symmetrical floor patterns calledfigures. Figures typically comprised four to eight step-units, thus requiring eight to sixteen bars of music to complete. Fig. 1 is from Kellom Tomlinson's 1735 treatise TheArt of Dancing.5 It illustrates the standard succession of figures for the menuet ordinaire: the introduction, the S reversed, the presenting of the right arm, the presenting of the left arm, the S reversed, the presenting of both arms, and the conclusion.6 Each of the figures shown comprises eight dance steps, which Tomlinson has numbered (in very small print) within the figures.

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THE MINUETS FROM J. S. BACH s FRENCH SUITES 237

Fig. 1 KellomTomlinson's diagram of the standard figures for the minuet (The Art of Dancing, London [1753], Plate U)

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238 ERIC McKEE

Since each figure comprises eight step-units, and the step-unit involves two bars, the eight-bar musical strains would need to be repeated to conform to the sixteen-bar figures. The entire dance was preceded and concluded with reverences to the highest ranking personages (seated at the top of the hall) as well as to one's partner.

What makes the music danceable? Most scholars today are of the opinion that for minuet music to be danceable there needs to be some congruence between the musical structure and the choreography of the dance. Just where that congruence lies varies from scholar to scholar. On the one hand,Julia Sutton (1985, p.125) believes that there was complete congruence between the music and the dance at all levels of structure. Other scholars, such as Wendy Hilton (1981, p. 293), Sarah Reichart (1984, p.167), and Meridith Little and Natalie Jenne (1991, pp.69-70), allow for large-level conflicts between dance figures and musical strains, while main- taining the need for congruence at lower levels. Tilden Russell (1983, p. 64), however, believes that 'there was no one-to-one relation between the dance and the [phrase structure of the] music'. Echoing an earlier study by Karl Heinz Taubaut (1968, p.169), Russell maintains that 'The music provided a metrical rather than formal basis for the dance' (1983, pp. 61-2). In a later article, Russell retreats slightly from this position, noting that in performance dancers 'concentrated on the tactus and the two-measure groups in the music' (1992, p.134).

In considering the dance/music relationship, however, one must first deter- mine the function and context of the dance: theatrical, pedagogical, ceremo- nial court ball, or more informal balls held outside of the court.7

As a general rule, when the dance and music were composed for a specific occasion or when a dancer was given prior notice as to what music would be played, there often was, as Sutton suggests, complete agreement between the music and the dance. This situation would arise in the case of theatrical dances as well as many dances performed at formal court balls where almost nothing was left to chance.8

Dances included in pedagogical treatises were also generally choreographed to fit the music exactly, as Tomlinson's diagram given in Fig. 1 illustrates. No doubt the dancing master did not want to introduce any unneeded complexity. But dancing masters also probably approached the dances in their manuals as they did theatrical dances where, given the opportunity to choreograph a dance to a specific tune, the natural inclination was to mould the dance around the tune.9

However, at less formal court balls and balls held outside the court, which accounted for the vast majority of the occasions for dance, there was no oppor-

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THE MINUETS FROM J. S. BACH S FRENCH SUITES 239

tunity for the dancer to know beforehand what music would be played. And because there was no standard phrase length for the minuet or for any of its dance figures, it would only be by sheer coincidence that the dancer's choreography would fit the music (Russell 1992, pp. 125-6).

Conflict between dance and music is further suggested in that in the ballroom it was considered in good taste to add embellishments at will to the menuet ordinaire. Not only were flourishes added to the steps, but steps were also added to increase the length of the figures. Thus the length of the dance and of its components could be altered 'according to the dancer's pleasure' with apparently little concern for the relation of the dance to the musical accompaniment (Tomlinson, [1 735], p. 1 40). Tomlinson summarises:

... in Effect [the minuet] is no more than a voluntary or extemporary Piece of Performance, as has already been hinted, in Regard there is no limited Rule, as to its Length or Shortness, or in Relation to the Time of the Tune, since it may begin upon any that offers, as well within a Strain as upon the first Note or commencing thereof. It is the very same with Respect to its ending, for it matters not whether it breaks off upon the End of the first Strain of the Tune, the second, or in the Middle of either of them, provided it be inTime to the Music. (p. 137)

Tomlinson is clear on another matter that would result in noncongruence between the music and the dance: the opening reverences. After making the opening reverences to the highest ranking personages and to one's partner, Tomlinson instructs the dancers not to wait for the opening of the next strain to begin the dance. Instead, they should

. . . begin upon the first Time that offers, in that it is much more genteel and shews the Dancer's Capacity and Ear in distinguishing of theTime, and from thence begets himself a good Opinion from the Beholders, who are apt to judge favourably of the following Part of his Performance; whereas the at- tending the concluding ... of a Strain has the contrary Effect. (p. 124)

'Time'

From the evidence cited above, it is obvious that dancers - at least good dancers - were little concerned with a minuet's phrase structure. According toTom- linson and other dancing masters of the eighteenth century, the key to dancing a minuet in good taste was the dancer's ability to coordinate his or her dance- steps with the minuet's time. 'Time' was a term commonly used in the eighteenth century to refer to a piece's metrical structure (Hilton 1981, pp. 82-3). In general, Tomlinson instructs the dancer to 'mark the time' of any dance by rising from a sink to the first note of a bar. In doing so, the dancer gesturally marks the downbeats of each bar, thereby visually and physically supporting the notated metre. For the menuet, however,Tomlinson observes that the dan-

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240 ERIC McKEE

cers are not to mark the downbeats of each bar but of every other bar (pp. 148- 49). By rising from a sink to the first note of every two bars dancers not only mark downbeats, but potential hypermetrical downbeats as well.

Thus, to dance the menuet ordinaire effectively, dancers would need only to attend to the minuet's metrical structure. By gesturally marking the downbeats of every other bar, dancers provided a potential basis of congruence between the dancer's step-unit and a two-bar hypermetre. Composers of functional minuets generally responded to the dancers' cueing requirements and provided in their music a clear and consistent two-bar hypermetre.

Although Tomlinson is perhaps the most explicit of all eighteenth-century writers on the metrical relationship between the minuet as danced and minuet music, he is not alone. For example, in order to feel two bars of the minuet as one metrical unit, dancing masters often instructed their students to count in 6/4 rather than in 3/4, despite the moderate tempo.l° Reflecting this practice, many early minuets - especially those used in dance treatises - were either notated in 6/4 or used a dotted line to indicate the metrically weak bars.ll In conducting their students, dancing masters and music teachers reinforced the hypermetre by beating down on the first (good) bar and up on the second (false) bar.l2 Later in the century the Italian dancing master, Gennaro Magri, reiterated the importance of time in the minuet. He not only described the two-bar metrical unit as the minuet's 'real substance' and 'indispensable regu- lator', but also as 'a rock against which many are dashed' ([1779], pp. 88-90).

In eighteenth-century dance sources, discussions of two-bar metrical units only occur in connection with the minuet. Why were two-bar metrical units so important to the minuet as compared with other dances? For the simple reason that the minuet was the only court dance, aside from the passepied (which is very closely related to the minuet), that employed a two-bar step-unit.l3 All other dances contained step-units that were no longer than one bar. With one- bar step-units, the downbeat of every bar is equally marked by the dancer's movements by a rise from a sink. So long as dancers know where the downbeats are, they will be 'in time' with the music. Because of this, there was no practical reason to cue dancers' metrical levels above the notated metre.With a step-unit duration of two bars, however, it is critical for dancers to hear a consistent two-bar hypermetre, especially when they first begin to dance. For if, as Tomlinson says, '[the dancers] should happen to begin out of Time, it is a thousand to one if they ever recover it throughout the dance.... and not being able to recover it afterwards, they dance the whole Minuet out ofTime' ([1735], p. 124). Certainly the incentive to keep track of the two-bar hypermetre was enhanced by the fact that the menuet ordinaire was danced by only one couple at a time while everyone else watched. Any mistake certainly would have been noticed and would have resulted in some loss of reputation.

The insistence of Sutton, Hilton, Reichart and others on the presence of

c Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999 Music Analysis, 1 8/ii ( 1999)




two-bar groups stems from a common confusion between phrase structure and metrical structure. While they rightly identify the presence of two-bar units as a defining feature of minuets, they mistakenly attribute those units to the phrase structure rather than to the metrical structure. The phrase structure may indeed support the metrical structure, thus resulting in a succession of two-bar groups. This congruence, however, is not essential to the minuet. Indeed, minuets consisting entirely of two-bar segments are exceedingly rare. One scholar, tightly holding onto the notion of symmetrical, duple-length phrases as the norm in the minuet, has suggested the fantastic notion that through some quirk in historical preservation, only the exceptional irregular minuets have survived (Helmut Goldmann 1956, p. 17).

I agree with Taubaut's and Russell's more extreme position that in order to dance the menuet ordinaire it was not necessary for the music's phrase structure and the dancer's choreography to be congruent at any level. While I also agree with their position that the minuet's music provided a metrical rather than formal basis for the dance, that basis can be refined as a two-bar hypermetre.

The minuets fFom Bach's French Suites Although there is debate over the provenance of the posthumously-applied modifier 'French' in the title 'French Suites', both the use of French dance titles and the simpler, more elegant, galant melodies and less discursive and contrapuntal treatment of the dance music, especially in comparison with Bach's earlier English Suites and later Partitas, do suggest a connection with the dances of the French court. This connection is circumstantially supported in that Bach, as Little and Jenne (1 991, pp. 3-1 5) have shown in their book on Bach's dance music, was well-acquainted with the social dances of his time, and especially those of the French court. Indeed, as reported by Little and Jenne, three of Bach's personal acquaintances taught French court dancing Uohannes Pasch, Pantaleon Hebenstreit and Jean-Baptiste Volumier).

Although the various dance types appearing in Bach's French Suites were not specifically intended for dancing, it would be a mistake to assume that they are unsuitable for dancing. Depending on the degree of stylisation, some are clearly more suited than others. As a general rule, older dance types that were out of fashion as social dances were subject to greater stylisation. Allemandes and gigues, for example, are among the oldest dances contained in the suites and were dances that were rarely, if at all, used as social dances at the time Bach wrote them. And in Bach's suites they are among the most stylised. They serve a functional purpose within each suite as a whole, in that the allemandes, metrically very free and improvisatory, are used as opening preludes whereas the gigues, with their weighty and extended contrapuntal passages, serve effectively as closing movements.




242 ERIC McKEE

Of all the dances contained in the French Suites, the minuets are among the least stylised, showing little substantive differences from functional minuets of the time.I4This is not surprising, given the fact that the minuet was among the newest and by far the most popular of the social court dances used in the suites. Here there were fewer opportunities for either idealised reminiscence or stylistic corruption from external influences.

Bach's practical knowledge of the minuet as it was danced is evidenced by the presence of a strong, unambiguous and consistently-held two-bar hypermetre in every minuet of the set. This is a musical characteristic that defines the minuet apart from the other dance types of the suites, both new and old. While other dances may at times project a strong sense of hypermetre, very few do it as clearly or as consistently as the minuets.

Bach employs a variety of techniques to project a two-bar hypermetre. In general terms, it is achieved by consistently placing some sort of phenomenal accent on the downbeats of every other bar. A phenomenal accent is any musical event that 'gives emphasis or stress to a moment in the musical flow' (Ler- dahl andJackendoff 1983, pp. 17-18).15 Sudden changes in dynamics, register, contour, texture and timbre are some examples. Most typically, though, Bach uses phenomenal accents brought about by locating the inception of an 'event' of relatively long duration at the beginnings of every other bar. The event may be a pitch, harmony, texture, pattern of articulation, or some combination thereof. The beginnings of such durations receive an accent; when they are consistently placed two bars apart, a two-bar hypermetre emerges.

BWV 812

Ex. 1 presents the opening section of the minuet from Bach's French Suite in D minor, BWV 812. Between the staves is a hypermetrical analysis (represented by Arabic numbers) and beneath the music is a grouping analysis (represented by brackets). At the bottom I have listed the phenomenal accents or 'cues' used by listeners to extrapolate the beginnings of each two-bar hypermeasure.

In this example Bach employs a consistent pattern of phenomenal accents brought about by changes in texture, contour, register and harmony to establish a clear two-bar hypermetre. The first beat is clearly marked as a downbeat by all voices entering simultaneously with i in the outer voices.l6 It is also strongly articulated by the relatively long durations that begin on the first beat: the opening harmony, bass note and texture are sustained until the downbeat of bar 3. The downbeat of bar 2 receives some emphasis through a sudden change in the soprano's register, a change in contour in the inner voice, and through the sequential repetition in the top voice. But this downbeat is less strongly articulated than the downbeat of the first bar, and thus it serves as the second hypermetrical beat.




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Ex. 1 Minuet from J. S. Bach's French Suite BWV 812, bars 1-8

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244 ERIC McKEE

A two-bar hypermetre is unequivocally established by the strong emphasis given to the downbeat of bar 3. Particularly important is the change of harmony - harmonic rhythm is one of the most important perceptual inputs in the establishment of metre. As part of a plagal cadence, the iv6 not only effects a harmonic change but also initiates the beginning of a two-bar cadential progression, which provides durational emphasis as well. In the remainder of the excerpt similar events verify and reinforce the two-bar hypermetre established in the first four bars.

Another more effective way Bach projects a two-bar hypermetre, in this example and in his minuets in general, is through the use of a particular type of phrase structure in which new groups are consistently initiated every other bar. This technique establishes a strong durational accent at the beginnings of odd- numbered bars, thereby clearly supporting a two-bar hypermetre. The remainder of this article will focus on the use of such phrase structures as a means of establishing the minuets' practical necessity.

By saying that in Bach's minuets new groups are consistently initiated every other bar, I do not mean that Bach's minuets consist entirely of two-bar groups, as some have suggested. Through the technique of overlap, the end of one group may also serve as the beginning of another, thus resulting in a three-, five- or seven-bar group. In this example, the first half of the minuet consists of one eight-bar phrase divided into two smaller four-bar phrases. At the next level of phrase structure, level c, the four-bar phrases are further subdivided into two subphrases. Notice that the second four-bar phrase, which leads to a perfect cadence in the dominant minor, is segmented into two subphrases, propor- tioned 3+2. The first subgroup of the second phrase is extended into bar 7, overlapping with the beginning of the second subphrase. This overlap is ac- complished by the prolongation of the modulating dominant (bar 6) and its resolution at the downbeat of bar 7. The resolution of the dissonance in conjunction with stepwise motion in the outer voices carries the subphrase into the next bar. Thus it can be seen that groups of asymmetrical length do not inter- fere with the establishment of a two-bar hypermetre so long as the inception of groups occurs on odd-numbered bars.

Sentence structure

Within the phrase structure certain patterns of thematic repetition figure very highly. In contrast to the predominant use of parallel binary in the other dances, rounded binary is used in three out of seven minuets; parallel periods are common, as are phrases built out of contrasting subphrases. But by far the thematic pattern used most often in Bach's minuets is 'sentence' structure.l7 In its nor- mative form, the sentence is an eight-bar phrase composed of two subphrases: (1) the first subphrase, itselfdivided into two groups, contains the presentation

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of a basic idea (two to three bars long depending on whether or not overlap is present) followed by a literal or varied repetition of the basic idea beginning in the third bar; (2) the second subphrase, beginning in the fifth bar, contains a continuation to a cadence. The continuation is typically marked by thematic fragmentation, an increase in harmonic rhythm, and a registral climax followed by a linear descent into an perfect or imperfect cadence. As a result of fragmentation, the continuation itself may exhibit the sentence's characteristic grouping structure in miniature (1+1+2).

Bach's minuets are exceptional in their imaginative and varied sentence structures; they represent a musical compendium of sorts in which every time sentence structure occurs, Bach utilises a different constructive principle. Espe- cially noteworthy, as we shall see, is Bach's treatment of the repetition of the basic idea. Furthermore, by initiating a new group at the beginnings of the first, third and fifth bars of each phrase, the sentence is an ideal means for supporting a two-bar hypermetre. Thus, it is not surprising to see it used so often, not only in Bach's minuets (after 1720), but in the minuets of other eighteenth-century composers as well.

BWV 815

In the ED major minuet, BWV 815 (Ex. 2), the entire first half of the minuet consists of one eight-bar phrase organised as a sentence structure in which the basic idea is imitated by the bass an octave below. The underlying tonal motion supporting the basic idea is a descending linear span in the soprano, EAD>C- BWAFG, which, beginning with the C in bar 2, is doubled a tenth below. The arrival of the G in bar 3 not only concludes the linear descent but also effects a voice exchange between the second beat of the first bar and the downbeat of bar 3, as shown by the crossed lines in Ex. 2 (the second beat of bar 1 also effects a voice exchange with the first beat of bar 1). The end of the basic idea, as defined by these tonal motions, also serves as the beginning of the varied repetition of the basic idea. The same linear descent, E; to G, now in the left hand, extends the repetition of the basic idea to the downbeat of bar 5, which also serves as the beginning of the continuation.Thus, the technique of overlap in conjunction with non-duple groups (3+3+4) not only supports a two-bar hypermetre but gives it more prominence through the conjunction of a beginning and ending boundary.

The continuation itself exhibits sentence structure, albeit on a smaller scale: 1+1+2. Although in this regard the continuation group itself is a self-contained motivic structure with a well-defined beginning, middle and end, on a higher level it also effectively serves the function of 'continuation to a cadence'. The contraction in the size of the groups and the increase in chord changes per bar provide a rhythmic acceleration to the perfect cadence in bars 7-8.

Music Analysis, 1 8/ii (1999) c Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999



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The second half of this minuet also exhibits sentence structure with overlapping groups (3+3+4). Here the repetition of the basic idea is achieved through varied transposition of the right hand's melody. Structural uniformity in this minuet is thus achieved not only motivically but in terms of the phrase structure as well.

BWV 814

Thirty-six bars long without repeats, the minuet from the Suite in B minor, BWV 814, is one of the longest minuets of the French Suites. Its length, however, is not indicative of a digressive treatment of its motivic material. Quite to the contrary, it is a model of elegance, restraint and hidden control. The first half, shown in Ex. 3, consists of a sixteen-bar parallel period in which the consequent modulates to the relative major. Both the antecedent and the consequent exhibit 'sentence within sentence' structures. And, as in the prearious minuet, the use of overlapping groups in conjunction with regularised patterns of thematic repetition help establish and accentuate a consistently-held two- bar hypermetre.

In the opening phrase, the basic idea - a very plain arpeggiated melody with very little linear or harmonic motion - is repeated (almost) literally in bars 3-5. The glue for this rather mundane and static opening four bars is an overarch- ing bass arpeggiation that extends from the downbeat of bar 1 to the downbeat of bar 5 (refer to the voice-leading graph in Ex. 3).

A tremendous drive to the cadence is provided by the continuation part of the phrase. It is achieved by three means: (1) an increase in harmonic rhythm through a descending fifths progression; (2) the inception of the first substan- tial linear motions of the piece, both in the bass and in the soprano; and (3) the use of sentence structure in smaller proportion. As a result the dominant in bar 8 is achieved with great force, both linearly and harmonically. In order to avoid a jolting pause, Bach dissipates the built up tension by increasing the rhythmic motion in the bass and by providing an upward arpeggiation in the left hand, which lifts us back to the opening of the consequent phrase.

The simplicity of the opening arpeggiated melody enables Bach to use it as an accompanimental figure in the opening of the second half of the minuet (Ex. 4).18 Above it he presents an entirely new eight-bar melody, one with no strong internal divisions. In fact, this type of melody would be stylistically anti- thetical to the minuet were it not for the very regularised and predictable accompaniment below. Bach thereby avoids what could have been a banal repetition of the opening melody (including repeats, this is the fifth time we have heard it) both by providing it with a different textual function and by crafting a new melody above it.

In the final phrase Bach gives IlS yet another variation of sentence structure.

MusicAnalysis, 18/ii (1999) C) Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999



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-



250 ERIC McKEE

There are two noteworthy features. First, the repetition of the basic idea is achieved through a rising 5-3 voice-leading sequence. Second, the continuation group (bars 29-36) of this large sentence is itself an organised sentence structure - not a four-bar sentence, which would balance the four-bar long presentation, but rather a full eight-bar sentence. In order to ensure that the start of the proportionally larger continuation does not function too strongly as a new beginning, Bach exaggerates the presentational function of the basic idea and its repetition (bars 25-8) and downplays the presentational aspect of the continuation's basic idea and repetition (bars 29-32).

I shall first discuss the presentation aspect of bars 25-8. An opening agogic accent in the melody and a closing agogic accent in the bass clearly segment the basic idea and its repetition, thus setting it apart from what comes before and after. Except for cadential notes, these are the longest held notes in the piece. Segmentation, and hence presentation, is further emphasised by the crotchet rest in bar 28, the only rest in the entire minuet. Finally, a new rhythmic diminution in the melody coupled with the rising sequence of the repetition draws attention to itself. Bach often reserves the rising sequence to signal sectional or global closure; the ascent allows the music to build to a climax that will 'fall down' into the final cadence. Its use here highlights its role as part of the final phrase of the minuet.

Although the continuation (bars 29-36) is itself organised as a sentence, Bach maintains its overall function as a continuation to a cadence (1) by continuing the registral ascent initiated by the basic idea and its repetition, (2) by shifting into a constant stream of quavers in the right hand and crotchets in the left hand, and (3) by beginning the continuation with an enlargedV-I progression that not only replicates the descending fifth progression of the basic idea (bars 25-6) but also re-establishes the tonic, thereby allowing time to prepare for the final cadence.

In sum, every phrase of this minuet, like the minuet in E; major previously discussed, displays sentence structure. Each sentence, however, employs a different constructive principle. The opening parallel period, perhaps the most Classically oriented, uses (almost) literal repetition. The phrase beginning the second half recontextualises the opening melody as an accompanimental sentence over which a melody with very little interrlal division is played. The final sentence of the work utilises the typically Baroque procedure of sequerlce in the repetition of the basic idea. Its continuation is then expanded through the use of a 'sentence within a sentence'.

BWV 817

In the final suite of the set, Bach presents another minuet consisting entirely of sentences (Ex. 5).19 Structural uniformity is further obtained through motivic

c Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999 MusicAnalysis, 18/ii (1999)



I basic idea E I repetition of basic idea t

I presentation l I

t; , 7X ? ,, f V (vi IV) V

iiS} " | > 0 > @ bS <

4 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2

#### rJ eSJ tIf::,: r f r z:::;

I basic idea E I repetition of basic idea ]

I presentation " ] continuation

251

I basic idea s I repetition of basic idea

I presentation

MusicAnalysis, 18/ii (1999)

THE MINUETS FROM J. S. BACH S FRENCH SUITES

Ex. 5 Minuet from J. S. Bach's French Suite BWV 817

,, ,, ,

c Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999



252 ERIC McKEE

consistency: the entire piece is derived from the opening two-bar idea. That a piece is generated from a single musical idea is certainly not extraordinary for Bach. The motivic fabric of most of his works is also drawn from material presented in the opening bars.What is striking about this minuet is that in the face of all the repetitions, none are derived from techniques of imitative counter- point. All of the repetitions are in the service of a particular type of phrase construction: sentence structure.

The high degree of structural uniformity within the phrase structure together with an almost complete agreement between the phrase structure and the metrical structure result in a highly-segmented musical surface. Segmenta- tion is further emphasised by the use of solo texture to begin groups and the abandonment of quaver motion at the ends of groups, which is quite unusual for Bach. I shall use this minuet - the last minuet I will discuss - to show how Bach, in the face of such severe compositional restraints, overcomes the danger of creating an overly rigid and predictable piece of music. Three factors provide the dynamic impetus to hold this piece together and drive it forwards, and along the way make it an interesting piece of music: the binding unity of Stufen, rhythmic displacements, and constructive conflicts between the dance as kinaesthetically felt and the music as heard.

Stufen

Two unusual but related features of this minuet, especially noticeable in the first and last eight-bar phrases, are the scarcity of bass notes and the slow harmonic rhythm. The first phrase is supported by the progression I-V, the last phrase V-I. As the voice-leading sketch shows, in the first phrase, the opening tonic triad is gradually unfolded by an ascending arpeggiation, SSi-3. This arpeggiation together with the bass's pedal E tonally fuse bars 1-5 together as the expression of a single harmony- the tonic Stufe. Only after the bass E becomes transformed into a dissonance in bar 6 is it finally persuaded to move from its pedal point into a cadential progression tonicising the dominant.

Although the harmonic rhythm of the second phrase increases somewhat at the musical surface, at the middleground it is essentially static, comprising one harmony, the dominant. Established at the end of the previous phrase, the dominant is composed-out by means of a double neighbour motion, B-C,$A-B, that both unifies bars 9-16 as one voice-leading unit and establishes a large- level manifestation of the neighbouring motion first presented in bar 2 in the upper voice. And, at a deeper level, bars 1-16 are heard as the progression of just two Stufen, I-V.

Bar 17 marks the return of this minuet's opening material, thereby establishing it as a rounded binary form. Bach avoids a literal return of the opening material and provides global closure by reversing the progression of the opening phrase, I-V, toV-I. Thus, what initially sounds like a tonic return in bar 17

MusicAnalysis, 18/ii (1999) (D Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999



Ex. 6

:'";J02'J t t t S J-: <"rJ_: rC;xj jJ;; X

t-x#lXr r r =z j r j 8rz r r r r C : 8


turns out to be the inception of an elaborated dominant. This dominant is prolonged until it resolves into the final tonic of the last bar. The use of the dominant to begin the phrase, as opposed to the tonic, undercuts the stability of the thematic return and helps propel the music onwards to its final resolution.

Rhythmic Dxsplacements The delayed entrances of the bass within the phrase structure create staggered beginnings in which the bass and soprano are out of phase with each other. While the use of solo texture helps signal the beginnings of each group, the absence of a bass voice weakens the stability of the opening bars of each group, giving them the character of an upbeat. Nonetheless, I interpret the opening bar of each group as a hypermetrical downbeat for two reasons. First, danced minuets typically begin on the first beat of the bar without the use of upbeat figures. Eighteenth-century listeners would therefore hear the downbeat of the first bar as hypermetrically strong. Second, while the bass does enter in bar 2, it enters on the weak part of the first beat and concludes with a descending octave leap that strongly emphasises the third beat. As such, the bass's role, at least in the first two subphrases of each phrase, is to support intermediate closure.

As Ex. 6 so clumsily illustrates, Bach could easily have composed a bass line to the opening bar of each group. Not only does the added bass line take away much of the ambiguity and tension that resulted from its absence, but it also provides too much stability at the beginning of each group. Also notice that the added bass support for the dominant in bar 3 over-emphasises closure in bar 4: the soprano's i feels too much like the goal of a complete phrase rather than an intermediate step along the way. The net result is a loss of continuity across overly-predictable phrase boundaries.

Perhaps the most complicated phrase of this minuet is the middle eight-bar phrase. Although harmonically it prolongs a single chord, the dominant, its upper voice is composed-out by means of a linear descent (F,tFE-DC,tFB) in which all pitches of the descent are rhythmically delayed or anticipated. The diagonal lines in the voice-leading sketch indicates some of these displacements. Of all the displacements, the delay of the E in bar 13 causes the greatest distur- bance, resulting in an overlap between the second and third groups of the phrase.

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254 ERIC McKEE

Ex. 7

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'"##*§ tyr; 8t; s:2z.: r r : e:::J

Since the middle phrase begins as a transposed version of the first phrase, it is natural to hear the opening phrase as a model upon which to base our expec- tations. In bar 12 it is the right hand that deviates from the expected course of action and is thus heard as thematically unstable. The right hand's descending run lands on the wrong note (B,") forcing another attempt in which it gets it right. In terms of the voice leading, the wrong note results from a chromati- cised ascent in an inner voice (B-B>C,"). The delay of the C,: through the B,: helps alleviate the effects of the middleground parallel octaves between the inner voice and the bass. Ex. 7 reconstructs one possible model from which the surface can be heard to deviate. Although, as an abstraction, Ex. 7 may represent a more normal version of the second eight-bar phrase, in reality the second phrase's position within the form demands some sort of destabilisation and greater continuity. By delaying both the E and the inner voice C", Bach achieves both.

Conflicts between the dance and the music Finally, one must bear in mind that eighteenth-century listeners would most likely be imagining and kinaesthetically feeling the dance as danced while the piece was being played. In terms of the functional dance, the six-beat-long minuet step always begins on the upbeat with a 'rise from a sink'. Thus, the last beat of every other bar would be felt, physically, as a pick-up into the downbeat of the next bar. This conflict between the dance and the music provides a sense of continuing motion across the phrase boundaries, which always begin at the downbeat.

Conclusions

The consistent emphasis of a two-bar hypermetre in the dance, in the music, and in performance, is a defining feature of the functional minuet, one which helps distinguish it from other court dances. The compositional challenge of providing a consistent two-bar hypermetre gave composers experience in the manipulation and control of metrical levels above the notated metre. To meet the requirement of a two-bar hypermetre, Bach, in the minuets of the French Suites, relied on a type of phrase construction that is more characteristic of Classical works than Baroque: sentence structure within a predominantly homo-





phonic texture. Sentence structure is found in all but one of the seven minuets, and of the six minuets that employ it, five make use of it in every phrase throughout the piece. The one minuet where it is absent serves as a 'second minuet', where some sort of contrast was perhaps desired.

The forward-looking approach to phrase construction exhibited in Bach's minuets is very different from the more contrapuntal phrase techniques commonly found in his other works, even within the French Suites. For example, the Allemande from the French Suite in D minor, BWV 812, is characterised by a continuous outpouring of material based upon an opening motive set within a polyphonic texture. The absence of any regularised motivic contrast or repetition, the lack of congruity between the voices, the almost obsessive rhythmic continuity, the polyphonic texture, and the fact that the motivic contents are not bounded within the bars, result in a hierarchically shallow, irregular, and thus unpredictable phrase structure. In sharp contrast, the minuets, by enlarging the basic motivic unit from two or three beats to two or three bars, and by employing standard patterns of melodic repetition (here sentence structure) within a predominantly homophonic texture, have a hierarchically deeper, more regular, and thus more predictable phrase structure. To borrow a term from Erwin Ratz (1973), the phrases contained in Bach's minuets are much more 'tightly knit' than those contained in other dances. The principal motivation for such highly articulated and regulated phrase structures, which are, of course, more typical of Classical music than Baroque, was the desire to project the characteristic two-bar hypermetre of the minuet as danced.

That hypermetre is a defining feature of the minuet is in line with what the eighteenth-century minuet embodied: good taste, noble character and, above all, restrained elegance. As Magri observed: 'the minuet needs hidden control which corresponds to the gracefulness which is sought in it' (1779, p. 187).20 It is my contention that hypermetre musically provided much of that 'hidden control'.

As a final point, Fig. 2 illustrates that Bach's early minuets seldom employ sentence structure at the beginning, where it would be most useful in establishing a two-bar hypermetre.2l The turning point seems to come in a set of three minuets, BWV 841-3, composed around 1720. Karl Geiringer has suggested that these minuets served as compositional exercises for Bach's son Wilhelm Friedemann, in which the first was written byWilhelm Friedemann alone, the second jointly by father and son, and the third by J. S. Bach alone (1966, p. 270). The first two are of a simpler nature and do not employ sentence structure. The third, the longest and most elaborate of the three, employs sentence structure from beginning to end. It is as if Bach, in wanting to communicate to his son the essence of the minuet, seized upon the one particular phrase structure that best suited this purpose. And from that point on, the use of sentence structure became a standard feature of Bach's minuets.

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256 ERIC McKEE

Fig. 2

BWV work and instrument

1033 Sonata in C (flute)

822 Suite in G minor (Klavier)

820 Overture in F (Klavier)

1071 Sinfonia in F (orch.) (early version of BWV 1046)

809 English Suite No. 4 in F (Klavier)

1006 Partita No. 3 in E (violin)

1007 Suite No. 1 in G (cello)

1008 Suite No. 2 in D minor (cello)

841 Minuet No. 1 (Klavier) W. F. Bach Clavier-Buchlein



929 Trio in G minor (Klavier) W. F. Bach Clavier-Buchlein

1066 Suite in C (orchestra)

opening

sentence

no no

no no no

no no

no yes

no no

no no

no no

no no

no

no

yes

yes

(complete use of sentences)

no

yes

no

date place number

2

2 3

2

2

2

2

2

2

1 708-14 Weimar or earlier

17 13 Weimar

byl715-25 Weimar/Leipzig

1 720 Cothen

c. 1720 Cothen

c. 1720 Cothen

c. 1720 Cothen

c. 1720 Cothen

c. 1720 Cothen

1 720 Cothen

by 1724-5 Cothen/Leipzig no

812 French Suite No. 1 in D minor 1722-5 Cothen/Leipzig 1 yes yes 2 yes yes

813 French Suite No.2 in C minor 1722-5 Cothen/Leipzig 1 yes no

814 French Suite No.3 in B minor 1722-5 Cothen/Leipzig 1 yes yes 2 no

815a French Suite No.4 in ES 1722-5 Cothen/Leipzig yes yes

817 French SuiteNo.6 inE c. 1724 PLeipzig yes yes

818a Suite inAminor (Klavier) c. 1722 Cothen yes yes

819 Suite in ES (Klavier) c. 1722 Cothen 1 yes yes 2 yes no

825 Partita I in BS (Klavier) 1731 Leipzig 1 yes yes 2 no

827 Partita in A minor (Klavier) 1731 Leipzig yes yes

828 Partita No.4 in D (Klavier) 1731 Leipzig no

1069 Suite in D (orchestra) c.1729 Cothen/Leipzig 1 no 2 yes no

1067 Suite in B minor (orchestra) c. 1738-9 Leipzig yes yes

* The chronological and geographical listing of Bach's minuets given here is based on a listing given in Little and Jenne, Dance and the Music of g. s. Bach (1991, pp.207-8) .

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RE;FE;RENCES

Allanbrook,Wye Jamison, 1983: Rhythmic Gesture in Mozart (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).

Brainard, Ingrid, 1986: 'New Dances for the Ball: The Annual Collections of France and England in the 18th Century', Early Music, 14, pp. l 6s73.

Caplin,William E.,1998: Classical Form:A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instru- mental Music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven (NewYork: Oxford University Press).

Feuillet, Raoul-Auger, [1700] 1968: Choregraphie, repr. (NewYork: Broude Brothers). 1700: La Pavanne des saisons (Paris: l'auteur).

Geiringer, Karl, 1966: gohann Sebastian Bach: The Culmination of an Era (NewYork: Oxford University Press).

Gerbes, Angelika Renate,1972: 'GottfriedEaubert on Social andTheatrical Dance of the Early Eighteenth-Century' (PhD diss., Ohio State University).

Goldmann, Helmut, 1956: 'Das Menuett in der deutschen Musikgeschichte des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts' (PhD diss., University of Erlangen).

Harris-Warrick, Rebecca, 1986: 'Ballroom Dancing at the Court of Louis XIV', Early Music, 14, pp.41-9.

Hilton,Wendy,1981: Dance of Court and Theatre: The French Noble Style 1690-1725 (London: Dance Books).

Lacepede, Bernard Germain, 1785: La poetique de la musique, 2 vols. (Paris). Laskowski, Larry,1990: 'J. S. Bach's "Binary" Dance Movements: Form andVoice

Leading', in Schenker Studies, ed. Hedi Siegel (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni- versity Press), pp. 8F93.

Leppert, Richard, 1988: Music and Image (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Lerdahl, Fred and Jackendoff, Ray, 1983: A Generative Theory of Tonal Music (Cam-

bridge, MA: MIT Press). Lester, Joel, 1986: The Rhythms of Tonal Music (Carbondale: Southern Illinois Uni-

versity Press). Little, Meredith and Jenne, Natalie, 1991: Dance and the Music of j. S. Bach (Bloom-

ington: Indiana University Press). Little, Meredith, 1967: 'The Dances of J.-B. Lully (1632-1687)' (PhD diss., Stan-

ford University). 1980: 'Minuet', in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley

Sadie (London: Macmillan). Loulie, Etienne, [1696] 1965: Elements or Principles of Music, trans. Albert Cohen

(NewYork: Institute of Mediaeval Music). Magri, Gennaro, [1779] 1988: Theoretical and Practical Treatise on Dancing, repr.

(London: Dance Books). Pemberton, E., [1711] 1970: An Essay for the Further Improvement of Dancing, repr.

(Westmead: Gregg International).

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258 ERIC McKEE

Ratz, Erwin, 1973: Einfuhrung in die musikalische Formenlehre, 3rd edn (Vienna: Universal Edition).

Reichart, Sarah, 1984: 'The Influence of Eighteenth-Century Social Dance on the Viennese Classical Style' (PhD diss., City University of NewYork).

Rosen, Charles, 1980: Sonata Forms (NewYork: Norton). Rothstein,William, 1989: Phrase Rhythm in Tonal Music (NewYork: Schirmer Books). Russell, Tilden A., 1983: 'Minuet, Scherzando, and Scherzo: The Dance Move-

ment in Transition, 1781-1825' (PhD diss., The University of North Caro- lina).

1992: 'The Unconveniional Dance Minuet: Choreographies ofthe Menuet d'Exau- det', Acta Musicologica, 64, pp. l l 8-38.

Saint Lambert, Monsieur de, [1702] 1984: Principles of the Harpsichord, trans. and ed. Rebecca Harris-Warrick (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Schoenberg, Arnold, 1967: Fundamentals of Musical Composition, ed. Gerald Strang and Leonard Stein (NewYork: St. Martin's Press).

Schulenberg, David, 1992: The Keyboard Music of j. S. Bach (NewYork: Schirmer Books).

Smith, Peter H., 1995: 'StructuralTonic or ApparentTonic?: Parametric Conflict, Temporal Perspective, and a Continuum of Articulative Possibilities',3'ournal of Music Theory, 39, pp.245-84.

Sutton, Julia, 1985: 'The Minuet: An Elegant Phoenix', Dance Chronicle, 8, pp. 119-52.

Taubaut, Karl Heinz,1968: Hofische Tanze: Ihre Geschichte und Choreographie (Mainz: B. Schott's Sohne).

Taubert, Gottfried, [1717] 1976: Rechtschaffener Tanzmeister, oder grundliche Erklar- ung der frantzosischen Tantz-Kunst, facsimile repr. [Documenta Choreologica, 22] (Leipzig: Zentralantiquariat der DDR).

Tomlinson, Kellom, [1735] 1970: The Art of Dancing Explained by Reading and Figures, repr. (Westmead: Gregg International).

Witherell, Anne L., 1983: Louis Pecour's 1700 Recueil de dances (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press).

NOTES 1. See Reichart (1984) and Leppert (1988) for discussions of the social role of the

functional dance in the eighteenth century. 2. 'The absorption of operatic style into pure instrumental genres lies at the heart of

the development of music in the 18th century' (Rosen 1980, p. 43). For most if not all of the eighteenth century, vocal music held a privileged status over instrumental music. Because of its specificity in depicting meaning and emotion, vocal music was considered aesthetically superior to instrumental music. Accordingly, composition pedagogues commonly instructed their students to imitate the voice from which their art is derived. To take but one of many examples, Bernard Ger-

Music Analysis, 1 8/ii ( 1999) ¢ Blachvell Publishers Ltd. 1999




main Lacepede, in his treatise La poetique de la musique, instructs the composition student to compose a symphony as though 'he were writing a grand aria in which one or more voices were trying to express emotions that were more or less vivid' (1785,Vol.2, p.331).

3. For example, about one third of Lully's minuets exhibit irregular phrase structures (Little 1967, pp.75-7) . In a valuable article on unconventional dance minuets, Russell (1983) observes that unpublished tunebooks used for dancing contain a higher proportion of minuets exhibiting irregular phrase structures than do published sources.

4. The concept of hypermetre used herein is drawn from the work of Rothstein (1989) and Lerdahl and Jackendoff (1983) .

5. The English dancing master Kellom Tomlinson is widely regarded as one of the most important dance pedagogues of the eighteenth century. His work, which is representative of French Court dancing in the first half of the eighteenth century in England and on the continent, is particularly valuable for my study because it is the most detailed primary source I am aware of concerning the relationship between the minuet as danced and minuet music. The most important German source for court dancing from the first half of the eighteenth century is Gottfried Taubert's Rechtschaffener Tanzmeister (1717). Like Tomlinson,Taubert's work rep- resents a transmission of the French style and not of an independent German style. In a valuable study of Taubert's work, Angelika Gerbes maintains that it is unlikely that a distinct German style existed (1972, p.251).

6. The type of dance notation used here byTomlinson was most likely an invention of the principal choreographer of the Paris Opera, Pierre Beauchamp (Witherell 1983, p. 5). It was first used in publication by the French dancing master Raoul-Auger Feuillet [1700] and quickly thereafter became the accepted form of dance notation throughout the eighteenth century.

7. See Reichart (1984, pp.54-106) for a detailed discussion on the different types of eighteenth-century balls.

8. Typically only a select few of the invited guests were actually permitted to dance at formal balls. As part of the preparations, a dancing master would compose new dances for the ball and distribute them to the designated dancers for them to practice (Brainard 1986, p. l 64) . Clothing and, on occasion, even hair styles were often prearranged for the dancers (Harris-Warrick 1986, p.44).

9. The dancing master Raoul-Auger Feuillet advertised in the preface to his La pa- vane des saisons that for a fee he would provide an appropriate choreography to any tune sent to him (1700).

10. SeeTomlinson ([1735], pp.148-9) and Magri ([17?9], p.189).

11. For examples of minuets notated in 6/4 rather than 3/4 see the minuets contained in E. Pemberton's treatise An Essay for the Further Improvement of Dancing (1711) . Loulie ([1696], pp. 61-2) observes that 'the only reason for using 6/4 instead of twice 3/4 [in the minuet] is because in 3/4 the good beat is not distinguished from

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260 ERIC McKEE

the false beat; and it is for this reason that dancers beat the Minuet in 6/4 although it is notated in 3/4'.

12. See St. Lambert ([1702], p. 38),Taubert ([1717], pp. 523-9, 879-89), andEom- linson ([1735], p. 149) .

13. Again,Tomlinson makes the connection between the minuet step and a two-bar hypermetre very clear:

The Time of these Movements, in Dancing, ought never to be beat after every Bar but every other Measure, by Reason, as has been said, one Menuer Step takes two Measures of these Movements; and it is to be noted that ... the Time is to be mark'd the first Measure down, and the second up, instead of twice down. ([1735], p.149)

14. In her New Grove article on the minuet, Meredith Little observes 'that Bach's minuets are extremely well suited to dance accompaniment' (Little 1980, p.356).

15. See Joel Lester (1986, pp. 13-44) for a comprehensive discussion of accents in tonal music.

16. Minuets typically begin directly on the downbeat without any upbeat preparation.

17. The term 'sentence' in connection with a particular type of phrase structure was first coined by Arnold Schoenberg (1967, pp. 20-24, 58-81) and his student Er- win Ratz (1973, pp. 23-4). In a ground-breaking study of Classical form,William Caplin (1998) examines the use ofthis phrase type in great detail in the music of the Classic period. My concept of the sentence is based on Caplin's work.

18. Bach employs a similar strategy in the second half of the first minuet of the Suite BWV 812.

19. See Peter Smith (1995) andLarryLaskowski (1990) forotherinterpretations of this work's tonal structure.

20. This relative lack of specific musical characteristics in comparison with other court dances may in part help explain why the minuet was able to adopt so many different affects and topics without losing its sense of'minuet'. Allanbrook states that the 'minuet can admit of almost any figuration which does not disguise its essential movement' and that it 'can also tolerate the overlay of another style or topical reference' (1983, p.35). Other dances, such as the sarabande, were not as flexible. As hypermetre became more of a standard feature in the second half of the eighteenth century, the minuet lost much of its ability to define itself and as a result became a generic name standing for many different types of dances in 3/4 time.

21. The chronological and geographical listing of Bach's minuets shown in Fig. 2 is based on a listing of Bach's minuets given in Little and Jenne (1991, pp.207-8) .

MusicAnalysis, 18/ii (1999) O Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999



Influence of Social Minuet on Bach French Suites

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Transcript of Influence of Social Minuet on Bach French Suites