The Art of Gigue Perspectives on Genre and Formula in J. S. Bach’s Compositional Practice Rowland Moseley PH.D. DISSERTATION Department of Music HARVARD UNIVERSITY · SEPTEMBER 2014 Revised and reformatted NOVEMBER 2018 © 2014–2018 by Rowland Moseley All rights reserved Please cite this document as follows when using the Chicago notes style. In bibliographies: Rowland Moseley. The Art of Gigue: Perspectives on Genre and Formula in J. S. Bach’s Compositional Practice. Printed by the author, 2018. Revised edition of doctoral dissertation (PhD diss., Harvard University, 2014). In notes: Rowland Moseley, The Art of Gigue: Perspectives on Genre and Formula in J. S. Bach’s Compositional Practice (author, 2018; revised edition of PhD diss., Harvard University, 2014). Abstract The objects of this study are the thirty-four gigues of J. S. Bach. This corpus of pieces represents one musician’s encounter with the most engrossing dance genre of his time, and by coming to terms with this repertory I develop analytical perspectives with wide relevance to music of Europe in the early eighteenth century. The study has a clear analytical focus but it also speaks to methodological issues of the relationship between theory and analysis, and the problem of reading a creative practice out of fixed works. Its main theoretical commitment is to middle-out perspectives on musical process. The study’s main themes are form, hypermeter, and schema. Its primary contribution to music theory lies in setting out an original position on the analysis of hypermeter, and advancing approaches to form and schema that are consistent with that position. “Form” and “schema” refer to compositional formulas that associate with hypermeter on the larger and smaller scales respectively, with observational windows as wide as the first half of a binary movement and as narrow as a couple of bars. Chapter 2 addresses the form of Bach’s cello gigues. I arrive at a complete model of formal functions and phrase rhythm by first considering the turning points in the rhetoric of Fortspinnung. Chapter 4 addresses the chain of fifths sequence in Bach’s harpsichord gigues. I analyze over fifty sequence passages, develop a typology of their contrapuntal frameworks, and consider the connections from sequence passages to subsequent events. These substantive analytical case studies flank the discussion of hypermeter. Chapter 3 includes analyses of Bach’s orchestral gigue and two chamber-sonata gigues but is the most purely theoretical chapter. Its arguments are relevant to the study of meter and hypermeter across the whole “common practice” period. Since chapters 2–4 address subsets of the corpus, a comprehensive overview is entrusted to chapter 1, which also introduces the study. Chapter 1’s overview anchors the more specialized chapters in a wider reflection on the ability of compositional technique to inflect different styles, idioms, genres, and affects. Contents List of Examples vii List of Tables xv Preface to this Revised Edition xvii Acknowledgments xix 1 Genre: “The Bach Gigue” as Corpus and Creative Practice 1 Introduction to this Study . 1 An Overview of Bach’s Gigues . 8 Repertoire and Chronology . 9 Distinctions of Style and Texture . 13 French and Italian . 13 Quick and Moderate . 16 Fugal and Lyrical . 19 Parameters of Form and Design . 22 Proportion . 22 Duration . 26 Tonal Palette and Cadence Schemes . 29 Corpus and Creative Practice . 32 2 Form: Bach’s “Cello Gigue” 39 Introduction . 39 How did Bach structure a gigue for cello? . 40 What makes a gigue tick? . 51 Quintessential Gestures of the Cello Gigue . 51 One, Two, Three . 52 Four . 53 Three Moments: Highlights from Gigues 1, 3, and 6 . 56 The G major Gigue . 57 The C major Gigue . 60 The D major Gigue . 65 Outlining a Phraseology . 70 The Four Modules . 72 Opening Complex . 74 iv The Art of Gigue Answering Complex . 75 Interior Phrase . 76 Closing Complex . 77 Temporal Scale . 78 Written Length of Strains and Periods . 78 Tempo . 80 Proportions Reconsidered . 87 Finding a Level with Period II . 88 Hypermeter . 94 Finding a Level with the Answering Complex . 96 Three More Moments: Selections from Gigues 2, 5, and 4 . 97 The D minor Gigue . 97 The C minor Gigue . 102 The E major Gigue . 110 Considering Form and Function . 114 3 Hypermeter 117 Introduction . 117 Theorizing Hypermeter in Bach’s Orchestral Gigue . 117 Situating the Analyst . 118 Progress Already Made . 119 The Temporalist View of Pulse . 122 An Illustration: BWV 1068 . 127 Frame of Reference . 127 Dot Diagrams . 128 Continuity and Change in Metric Levels . 128 Metrical Deletion and Well-Formedness . 131 Metrical Well-Formedness and Formal Design . 133 Metric Grids, Overlaps, and Elisions . 135 Contrast With “Accent” Theories . 142 Accent and Duration . 142 Realization, Expectation, Prediction . 146 Challenges to Metric Analysis Premised on Pulse . 149 The First-Pulse Problem . 149 The One-Pulse Problem . 150 The Last-Pulse Problem . 151 A Temporalist View of Hypermeter . 152 Revising Hierarchy, Re-Evaluating Continuation . 152 Metric Projection, Prosaic Projection . 157 Projections “Acute” and “Obtuse” . 158 Projection Diagrams . 161 Diagramming Acute and Obtuse Projections . 162 Contents v Idioms of Triple Hypermeter . 163 The Many-Pulse Problem . 167 Toward Rhythmic Reduction . 168 Analyzing Hypermeter in Bach’s Chamber-Sonata Gigues . 169 Pulse and Meter in Bach’s Gigue for Flute and Harpsichord . 170 Flux and Containment Bach’s Gigue for Violin and Continuo . 177 Conclusion . 180 4 Schema: The Fifths Chain in Bach’s Keyboard Gigues 183 Existing Schema Studies . 185 A Typology of the Chain of Fifths in Bach’s Keyboard Gigues . 191 Repertoire for this Case Study . 191 Contrapuntal Methods . 192 Analytical Approach . 196 Uses of the “Sixths and Sevenths Above” Type . 204 The E minor Partita as Essay in the Chain of Fifths . 215 Uses of the “Sixths and Sevenths Below” Type . 227 Uses of the “Fourths and Fifths” Type . 235 Peripheral Cases . 254 Connections to Other Analytical Studies and Repertories . 264 The Chain of Fifths in Bach’s Aria Introductions . 265 The Chain of Fifths in Corelli . 274 Conclusion . 278 Appendix A: Citations to Scores Reproduced in the Supplement 279 Appendix B: Corpus List and Chronology 283 Bibliography 289 Score Supplement (Separate Volume) 301 List of Examples 2.1 Formal outline generalized from Bach’s thirty-four gigues. 40 2.2 Formal outline generalized from Bach’s six cello gigues. 41 2.3 Formal schema for Bach’s cello gigues. 42 2.4 The Answering Complex in Bach’s cello gigues. 43 2.5 The Opening Complex in Bach’s cello gigues. 44 2.6 Period I in Bach’s cello gigues. 45 2.7 Projection in the Opening Complex. 46 2.8 Conspicuous metric departures in period I. 46 2.9 Fortspinnung types in period I. 47 2.10 Period II in Bach’s cello gigues. 48 2.11 Period III in Bach’s cello gigues. 49 2.12 Period III in the D minor cello gigue. 49 2.13 Fleshed-out formal schema for Bach’s cello gigues. 50 2.14 Pastiche of a Bach cello gigue. 52 2.15 Analysis of periods and formal cruxes in the pastiche. 54 2.16 Bach’s G major cello gigue (BWV 1007). Annotated. 57 2.17 Thematic and motivic relations in the G major cello gigue. 59 2.18 Bach’s C major cello gigue (BWV 1009). Annotated. 61 2.19 Motivic relations in the C major cello gigue. 63 2.20 Bach’s D major cello gigue (BWV 1012). 66 viii The Art of Gigue 2.21 Form-functional analysis of Bach’s G major cello gigue. 71 2.22 Form-functional analysis of the pastiche. 71 2.23 Map of phraseological modules within the three periods of Bach’s six cello gigues. 73 2.24 Recomposition of period III in the pastiche. 74 2.25 The final cadence in each of Bach’s six cello gigues. 84 2.26 The opening Vordersatz in each of Bach’s six cello gigues. 86 2.27 Period II in Bach’s G major, D minor, and C minor cello gigues. 89 2.28 Period II in Bach’s C major cello gigue. 90 2.29 Period II in Bach’s E major cello gigue. 91 2.30 Bach’s D minor cello gigue (BWV 1008). 99 2.31 Hypothetical ending for Bach’s D minor cello gigue. 100 2.32 The final subphrase of Bach’s C minor cello gigue. 103 2.33 Hypothetical ending for Bach’s C minor cello gigue. 103 2.34 The end-rhyme in Bach’s C minor gigue. 104 2.35 Bach’s C minor cello gigue (BWV 1011). Annotated. 107 2.36 Chains of descending and ascending thirds in Bach’s C minor cello gigue. 110 2.37 Bach’s E major cello gigue (BWV 1010). Annotated. 112 2.38 Recomposed opening of the E major cello gigue. 113 3.1 Example of projection in Bach’s orchestral gigue (BWV 1068), mm. 1–8. 123 3.2 A metric dot diagram of the orchestral gigue. 129 3.3 Recomposition of the orchestral gigue, mm. 18–24. 140 3.4 Recompositions of the orchestral gigue, mm. 9–16. 142 List of Examples ix 3.5 Diagram of prosaic projection. 161 3.6 Diagram of metric projection. 162 3.7 Diagram of acute metric projection. 162 3.8 Diagram of obtuse metric projection. 163 3.9 Diagram of obtuse prosaic projection. 163 3.10 Diagram of ordinary triple hypermeter. 164 3.11 Diagram of triple organization of the “1, 2, 2” idiom. 165 3.12 Diagram of triple organization of the “1, 2—and” idiom. 165 3.13 Reconstruction of a non-modulating period as the basis of Bach’s gigue for flute and harpsichord, BWV 1030.