A Performer's Guide to Bach's Dance Suites (with Magdalena Stern-Baczewska)
Whether you play the guitar, violin, cello, flute, or the piano, you are invited to join this session with Magdalena, who returns to tonebase live for a discussion of Bach's dance music. Using musical examples from across Bach's instrumental dance suites, Magdalena will talk about the social currency and the rich tradition embodied in dance culture. You will learn the essential characteristics of the most popular dances, and gain powerful tools for an eloquent performance.
Follow this event link to tune in!
https://app.tonebase.co/guitar/live/player/guide-to-bach-suites
We are going to be using this thread to gather suggestions and questions!
- What questions do you have on this topic?
- Any particular area you would like me to focus on?
-
Identification of the "essential characteristics" of dances in Bach's music is a great topic, but could you also identify these same characteristics in actual dance performances? There are now quite a few examples on YouTube.
Or is that wrong-headed? I have the impression that a) no-one believes that Bach intended these suites to be danced to and b) these dances were no longer danced in Bach's time. Is that true? Would Bach have been able to recognize (eg) a Sarabande in a dance video with the sound off had he had access to one? It is clear that Lully would have....