Hidden Dance Structures: About Time and Phrasing in Baroque Music

Peter Frankenberg
Hidden Dance Structures: About Time and Phrasing in Baroque Music.

Lecture as part of the 14th Summer Early Music Methodical Courses – ONLINE edition
November 16-26, 2020
www.muzykadawna.org

The aim of the lecture is to show the importance of dance in baroque music as an element influencing, among others for phrasing, time signatures, tempo, the shape of the melodic line, distinguishing between strong and weak notes; encouraging performers to search for dance elements in their repertoire.

The lecture program is based on the lecturer’s experience gained during many years of work with students. The lecture covers the following topics:

• how to “read” a piece of music,
• finding the right, primal melodic lines,
• limiting the number of accents,
• giving the right character to ornamental notes (to make them less important) and to upbeats (to make them lighter),
• finding a pulse of the dance in order to find characteristic, rhythmic dance structures influencing the emphasis on specific metric values ​​in a bar,

During the lecture the discussed issues will be presented on the basis of musical examples of various composers.