Funktionale Metrik in Claviertänzen des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts

This study illuminates the origins and genesis of musical hypermeter from the perspective of both historical musical writing and compositional practice, using the example of keyboard dances. It shows how verbal instructions in the 17th and 18th centuries grew beyond the boundaries of dance music, spilled over into other genres and finally reached the centre of composition theory. The analysis is based on historical music theory, supplemented by the newly introduced descriptive model of the 'functional bar' and Peter Petersen's 'components theory' (2010). A detailed description of the Baroque keyboard dance in metrical terms is followed by its embedding in its cultural and historical context.