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Institute für Music und Musicology
Faculty of Art and Sports Sciences
Studenten im Sommer auf dem Campus Nord, rote Zahnräder im Hintergrund © Roland Baege​/​TU Dortmund

Research Topics

A circle of music theorists and organists shaped musical life in Salzburg throughout the entire eighteenth century. The cosmopolitan composer Georg Muffat is regarded as the founder of this lineage, followed by his pupil J. B. Samber, author of three influential treatises (1700/1707/1710). This tradition continued through Matthäus Gugl, J. E. Eberlin, A. C. Adlgasser, Mozart, and Michael Haydn, whose music-theoretical work has received little attention to date. The goal is to contextualize the Salzburg school within the broader South German-Austrian partitura tradition and to understand it as a Catholic counterpart to the Protestant North German tradition as well as to the Neapolitan partimento practice of Italy.

 Projects:

  • "Georg Muffat's 'De Praxis Compositionis Regulis' (ca. 1678–1690) and the Salzburg School of Music Theory." Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) – Project Number 589959788.

 Publications:

  • Remes, Derek. “Johann Joseph Fux (1660?-1741) Kaiserrequiem (K 51–53; ca. 1719-20).” In Book of Requiems, edited by Markus Neuwirth. Forthcoming.
  • Remes, Derek. 2025. “Matthäus Gugl’s Fundamentals of Thoroughbass: Edition, Translation, and Commentary.” Theoria 29: 5–92.

In J. S. Bach's teaching, the four-part chorale was not the central model, but most likely the so-called multiple-bass chorale for the keyboard. His pupils likely learned to compose multiple figured basses to a single melody—both as practical preparation for improvising different harmonizations in church services and as a compositional exercise. The goal is to demonstrate both the historical context and the compositional technique of this long-overlooked tradition.

Publications:

  • Remes, Derek. “J. S. Bach’s pupil J. C. Kittel demonstrates the use of multiple bass chorale harmonizations.” In Thinking Music: Global Sources for the History of Music Theory. Edited by Thomas Christensen, Carmel Raz, and Lester Hu. Forthcoming. https://neubauercollegium.uchicago.edu/research/thinking-music
  • Remes, Derek. 2025. Realizing Multiple-Bass Chorales in the Circle of J. S. Bach: J. C. Kittel’s 24 Chorales. Colfax, NC: The Leupold Foundation.
  • Remes, Derek. 2021. “Bach’s Chorale Pedagogy.” In Rethinking Bach, edited by Bettina Varwig, 271–288. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Remes, Derek. 2019. “New Sources and Old Methods: Reconstructing and Applying the Theoretical Paratext of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Compositional Pedagogy.” Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie 16/2: 51–94. https://doi.org/10.31751/1015
  • Leaver, Robin A., and Derek Remes. 2018. “J. S. Bach’s Chorale-Based Pedagogy: Origins and Continuity.” BACH: Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute 48/2 and 49/1: 116–150. doi.org/10.22513/bach.48-49.2-1.0116
  • Remes, Derek. 2018. “Teaching Figured-Bass with Keyboard Chorales and C. P. E. Bach’s Neue Melodien zu einigen Liedern des Neuen Hamburgischen Gesangbuchs (1787).” BACH: Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute 49/2: 205–226. https://doi.org/10.22513/bach.49.2.0175
  • Remes, Derek. 2017. “Chorales in J. S. Bach’s Pedagogy: A Method for Teaching Undergraduate Music Theory Inspired by a New Source.” Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 31: 65–92. https://doi.org/10.71156/2994-7073.1241
  • Remes, Derek. 2017. “J. S. Bach’s Chorales: Reconstructing Eighteenth-Century German Figured-Bass Pedagogy in Light of a New Source.” Theory and Practice 42: 29–53.

Despite its central importance in music theory pedagogy for centuries, there is still no generally accepted method for harmonizing a chorale. An examination of historical sources opens up new perspectives—for example, through Bach’s student J. C. Kittel, who traces his clause-based method back to Bach’s teachings. A systematic, computer-assisted analysis of Kittel’s multiple-bass chorales puts into perspective his claim that entire chorales are characterized exclusively by cadential clause pairs: such pairs occur significantly more frequently at the end of a line than in the middle.

Publications:

  • Remes, Derek, Victor Duy Phan, and Mark Gotham. 2025. “Clausulae-Pairs in Multiple-Bass Chorales.” In The Oxford Handbook of Musical Variation and Thematic Techniques, edited by Jeffrey A. Swinkin, 1070–94. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Remes, Derek. 2020. “Harmonizing Chorales Systematically: A Translation of G. H. Stölzel’s Kurzer und Gründlicher Unterricht (Brief and Thorough Instruction), ms. c.1719–49.” Music Theory Online 26/3. https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.26.3.7
  • Remes, Derek. 2019. Realizing Thoroughbass Chorales in the Circle of J. S. Bach. 2 vols. Colfax, NC: Wayne Leupold Editions.

It has long been known that the thoroughbass played a central role in J. S. Bach’s teaching; however, its function was usually regarded as mere accompanimental. Prof. Remes’ discovery that Bach drew on concepts from Johann David Heinichen’s *Der Generalbass in der Composition* (1728) not only opens up a new line of research within Bach studies but also assigns thoroughbass a compositional role. This demonstrates that Bach aligned himself with theorists—including Werckmeister, Niedt, and Heinichen—who viewed thoroughbass as an alternative to the 17th-century approach, characterized by vocal polyphony.

Publications:

  • Remes, Derek. 2023. “Wieso bezeichnete Johann Sebastian Bach den Generalbass als ‘fundamental’ in der Komposition? Die Generalbasslehre als Kompositionslehre.” In Alte Musik für heute: Geschichte und Perspektiven der historischen Aufführungspraxis, edited by Richard Lorber, 112–23. zamus: Zentrum für alte Musik Köln. Kassel: Bärenreiter.
  • Remes, Derek. 2021. “Eine Rekonstruktion von Johann Sebastian Bachs ‘Fundamental-Regeln der Composition’ Reflexionen über einige Neuentdeckungen.” Musik & Ästhetik 25, Heft 100 (October): 36–53.
  • Remes, Derek. 2020. “Exploring the Compositional Potential of Thoroughbass in Today’s Classroom.” In The Universal Instrument: “Applied Piano” from Historical and Contemporary Perspectives / The Universal Instrument: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on “Applied Piano," edited by Philipp Teriete and Derek Remes, 179–215. Schriften der Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. Vol. 9. Hildesheim: Olms.

 

Eighteenth-century sources indicate that the practice of improvisation on keyboard instruments was significantly shaped by modular principles. This research examines the use of typical compositional models and their modular interconnection in the context of improvisation. Since improvisation and composition were regarded as complementary activities at that time, such models also serve today as the basis for historically informed analysis.

Publications:

  • Remes, Derek. 2021. The Art of Preluding: Deconstructing and Reconstructing the Preludes in J. S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier I & II. Colfax, NC: The Leupold Foundation.
  • Remes, Derek, and Michael Maul. 2021. “Jakob Adlung’s ‘Anweisung zum Fantasiren’ (c.1725–7): edition, translation, and commentary.” Early Music 49/iii (August): 429–439. https://doi.org/10.1093/em/caab054
  • Remes, Derek. 2020. “Some (Dis)Assembly Required: Modularity in the Keyboard Improvisation Pedagogy of Jacob Adlung and Johann Vallade.” Music Theory Online 26/1 (March). https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.26.1.5
  • Remes, Derek. 2019. “Four Steps Towards Parnassus: Johann David Heinichen’s Method of Keyboard Improvisation as a Model of Baroque Compositional Pedagogy.” Eighteenth-Century Music 16/2: 133–154. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1478570619000149

 

Completed editorial projects include critical editions and translations of significant 18th-century music theory texts—including works by C. P. E. Bach, F. W. Marpurg, and Jean Kuhnau—and thus contribute to a deeper understanding of music theory within the international community. Numerous other projects are available in the TUDOdata database of the Technical University of Dortmund.

Ongoing Qualification Projects