What I've deduced about the Sarabande from a bit of reading and a lot of listening/analysing is that it's always in Binary form, and in 3/4, a harmonic and/or melodic rhythm of | * * - | seems to be common, with an accent (again, melodic or harmonic) on the second beat of the bar. It seems the the first section is usualy one to two periods, between 8 and 16 bars and the second section is longer, more harmonically adventurous with more developmental features.
I shall start on Sarabande melodies now
I have a few Bach Sarabandes printed off and sitting at my piano (and guitar in
one case) and I also printed off that Rameau one for analysis so I shall be looking in detail at the melodies and seeing what charictarises them as Sarabande melodies.
I'm also working on some short phrases in four part harmony and in some cases three part counterpoint using the neopolitan chord, just to get its sound into my head and become as comfortable with using it as I am with secondary dominants. I started an attempt at a Sarabande style phrase but found it difficult working the N6 in there without it sounding awkward, so I'll work on getting myself more used to using it in a variety of contexts
As for your plans for future lessons - all sounds great and I can't wait
(well, I can, plently to work on atm
)