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Bach Brandenburg Concertos
Manuscript of the first movement of Concerto No. 3As I had the good fortune a few years ago to be heard by Your Royal Highness, at Your Highness's commands, and as I noticed then that Your Highness took some pleasure in the little talents which Heaven has given me for Music, and as in taking Leave of Your Royal Highness, Your Highness deigned to honor me with the command to send Your Highness some pieces of my Composition: I have in accordance with Your Highness's most gracious orders taken the liberty of rendering my most humble duty to Your Royal Highness with the present Concertos, which I have adapted to several instruments; begging Your Highness most humbly not to judge their imperfection with the rigor of that discriminating and sensitive taste, which everyone knows Him to have for musical works, but rather to take into benign Consideration the profound respect and the most humble obedience which I thus attempt to show Him. Many biographers say that Bach sent this as a request for a position or title. But I doubt that Bach wanted a new position when he was so happy and comfortable as musical director at the court of prince Leopolf of Anhalt-Köthen. Bach met the margrave a year earlier in Berlin, when he went to buy a new harpsichord for the Köthen court. As it was the costum at the time, Bach had to pay respects to the music-loving noble. From the dedication of the concertos we can know that Bach performed for the margrave and received instructions of sending him a few compositions. Bach fulfilled these instructions without any financial benefit whatsoever. He didn't seek a permanent position in Brandenburg, with a very small orchestra compared to that of Köthen, but it was just an occasional service given at the Margrave's request.
Margrave Christian Ludwig von BrandenburgMusic is like this, the scores of this beautiful music were there, but without musicians to
interpret them, were just dead ink on paper. Siegfried Wilhelm Dehn rediscovered the
manuscripts and published them for the anniversary of Bach's death in 1850.
CompositionThese concertos were composed, or at least selected, as a set(as many of Bach's works). However, they are so varied, in style as in instrumentation, that it would have been difficult to guess that they shared something in common if they weren't bundled together. Scholars and musicologist never understood the wayward disparities and uniqueness of each concerto and say that they were composed at different times and places. Bach, when needed to send something to the Margrave, just selected some of his instrumental works, modified slightly some of them, and named it "concerts avec plusieurs instruments", that is concertos with many instruments. He is so right at naming it like this, the instrumentation of some of the concerts are of the more bizarre found in Western Music. The Brandenburg concertos in general share an optimist, joyful and "courtly" character. They
are easily apprehended by audiences as Bach's "happiest" works. Appart from that, they show
a very well crafted inner structure, with a counterpoint unequalled in chamber music. Bach
here uses his counterpoint "experimenting" with varied instruments. And he made it again,
created something that both casual listeners could enjoy and intellectuals admire.
Concertos?When talking about Concertos, people not into classical music would think of an Italian talking about a rock concert in a stadium. But Concerto isn't just the Italian word for concert, it is an art music genre that had its origins in the baroque period and evolved until reaching the modern solo concerto in the Classical period. Bach had a part in this evolution. Although many people see him as a conservative that never broke rules, he created the genre of the solo keyboard concerto. In musical ensembles of his time, keyboard instruments were meant only as accompaniment. He forgot about that and added a 67 bar solo harpsichord cadence on his 5th concerto, probably meant to be played by himself. This is the first example, later in his life he would compose other cembalo concertos. Now, back to the Concertos. During the baroque period was popular a form called the "concerto grosso", with its most important exponent being Arcangelo Corelli. In this form the music is played by two differentiated groups of musicians, a small group of soloist (the concertino) and the full orchestra (the rippieno). The Brandenburg Concertos are generally considered in this form, but they are so unique and different from anything written before that they often resist this categorization. Some of the concertos also are influenced by the solo concerto, also originated in Italy. Good examples are Vivaldi's violin concertos. Bach is known to have admired Vivaldi as he made many transcriptions of his works. Although he was influenced by these forms when writing these concertos, Bach made something
totally new, unique masterpieces.
Concerto No. 1 in F Major BWV 1046This almost a perfect "Concerto Grosso", all instruments interacting equally, but with nevertheless a unique instrumentation, with two horns and a violin piccolo (a violin of smaller size and tuned a little higher). These concerto existed before it took part of the Brandenburg set. It existed as a "Sinfonia" for the cantata BWV 1046a. It features two horns making "hunting calls" and some have related because of it to the "Hunt Cantata" (BWV 208) in its original form as a "Sinfonia". Concerto No. 2 in F Major BWV 1047Here Bach poured all his originality on the instrumentation! The solo group or concertino is formed by a trumpet, oboe, recorder and violin. The trumpet part is considered of great difficulty, and rightly so, you have to hear it to believe. The first movement of this concert is one of my favorites, and also favorite of many, it was included in the "golden record", a phonograph record containing sounds from the earth sent to space, hopes that some intelligent extraterrestrial species might find and decode its contents. What a surprise they will have when hear this beauty! They will think that everything here in earth is as perfect as this piece of music. Concerto No. 3 in G Major BWV 1048This is one of the earliest of the entire set. It is more conservative than the others in instrumentation and style. It is scored for three violins, three violas and three cellos, with harpsichord and bass continuo. It is interesting the fact that the third movement consists only of two chords, where Bach expected some musicians to improvise. Here all the instruments interact with each other, with almost no solo parts, though he sometimes highlights the dialogue between two or more instruments. The third movement is particularly special for me, as it was the first work by Bach that I heard and loved. I still have that first record and many copies of it for my listening pleasure. The second and third movement are in one file, beeing the second so short. Concerto No. 4 in G Major BWV 1049The concertino is formed by a violin and two recorders. The violin is evidently the most prominent in this group playing virtuosic parts in the first and third movements. The second movement, though, focuses more on the recorders. This concerto shows characteristics of both the concerto grosso and the evolving solo concerto, as it threats the concertino instruments sometimes as an ensemble as well as individually. It exists also as a harpsichord concerto as BWV 1057, the harpsichord taking all the parts of the violin and some of the recorders. Concerto No. 5 in D Major BWV 1050This is said to be the first-ever example of the solo keyboard concerto. It is scored for a concertino of harpsichord, violin and flute. The harpsichord is also part of the rippieno. It is famous for its lengthy solo cadence to the first movements. A 67 bars solo harpsichord part at the end of the movement. It is thought that Bach intended to be the soloist here. Some theorize in may be to test a new harpsichord and others say that it was for a competition Dresden with the French composer and organist Louis Marchand; in the central movement, Bach uses one of Marchand's themes. Marchand fled before the competition could take place, apparently scared off in the face of Bach's great reputation of virtuosity and improvisational skills. This concerto is also modern because of the use of transverse flute, an instrument that he had just got to know in Köthen, and explored its means of expressions in the slow second movement. Concerto No. 6 in B-Flat Major BWV 1051This is something you must hear, a concerto without violins! The violas had a prominent and beautiful part. We never hear a solo voice, always at least three instruments playing at the same time. It is similar to the third concerto in that it features string instruments only, but the low pitched strings-only gives this concerto a distinctive sound. It features two viola da gamba, an old-fashioned instrument, even at the time, probably to be played by Prince Leopold and Bach himself.
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