The Beginning of the Middle: Initiation and Reinitiation in Bach's Binary-form Keyboard Works

Abstract

This article borrows from William Caplin's theory of formal functions, adapting these concepts to music from Bach's keyboard dance suites. It begins with a description of how Caplinian phrase functions such as "initiation" and "continuation" can be applied to this music. A novel "reinitiation" function is then proposed to identify a phrase function that Bach uses following non-final cadences. Reinitiation is similar to Caplin's initiating phrase functions, with the crucial difference that it occurs in an unstable harmonic con text. This combination of harmonic instability with otherwise initiating features allows reinitiation to succinctly express both a local "beginning" and a higher-level "middle." Bach most often achieves the harmonic instability characteristic of reinitiation function by means of a technique this article calls "de-tonicization": the immediate tonal desta bilization of a point of cadential arrival by reinterpreting it as a non-tonic harmony in another key. These ideas help illuminate how each moment of Bach's music "expresses [its] own location within musical time" (Caplin 2010).