Modeling Bach Session B

Session B takes place at 12 PM PST / 3 PM PST / 9PM CET. A zoom link will be sent to participants.

In this class students will be shown demonstrations in analyzing and modeling Bach’s music. Each class will focus on a work that exemplifies a specific technique and a step-by-step procedure in recreating the work. Our first subject will apply Sergei Taneyev’s theory of imaginary combinations to the canonic procedures of the Bach Mass in B Minor. Then we will examine the relationship between procedure and rhetoric in text setting. Next we will study the application of these techniques in the context of concerti and chamber works. The curriculum will conclude with a survey of imitative counterpoint in J.S. Bach’s Leipzig cantatas to analyze the broader technical reasons why they appear in certain forms rather than others. Technical concerns cover which cantatas use a cantus firmus and how this influences the types of imitative techniques used, at what intervals and voice orderings do imitations occur, and connections to the text with the previous two concerns. The practical application of the findings will be the construction of templates for use in counterpoint pedagogy and style composition.

Course Schedule

June 1 ⎸ Imaginary Combinations

Ericsson Hatfield

June 8 ⎸ Process and Rhetoric

Ericsson Hatfield

June 15  ⎸  The Concerto

Ericsson Hatfield

June 22  ⎸  Habits of Imitation: An Examination of Imitative Counterpoint in The Leipzig Cantatas of J.S. Bach

Daniel Chang