My doctoral research investigates the presence and structural significance of implicit baroque dance rhythms in the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). While Bach's music is traditionally divided along sacred and secular lines, this project challenges such categorical boundaries by proposing that a substantial portion of his output is underpinned by latent dance types, even in genres not conventionally associated with dance.
Building on close analytical work and systematic cataloguing, the thesis identifies and classifies implicit dances across Bach’s vocal, instrumental, sacred, and secular compositions. These findings are analysed both qualitatively and statistically, with the aim of demonstrating that dance rhythms function as foundational compositional agents shaping form, affect, and most importantly, meaning.
By reframing dance as an omnipresent and structurally integral element in Bach's compositional thinking, this research contributes to broader debates concerning form, neuroscience, and the relationship between sacred and secular aesthetics in the early eighteenth century. More generally, the project seeks to illuminate how the acquaintance with implicit dance types has been lost in time, and how musicians and performers could draw inspiration from this knowledge when approaching Bach's music from a historically informed perspective.
