Brandenburg Concertos

Abstract

Brandenburg Concerto

The First Brandenburg Concerto is scored for three groups of instruments: horns – oboes with bassoon – strings; the use of horns suggests that it was written for use on some particular occasion. Horn players were, however, so frequently engaged from outside Cöthen that Bach did not consider it necessary to eliminate the horn parts of the work’s original version, which still survives, when preparing the final version. During his revision of the score Bach added a violin piccolo, which sounds a minor third higher than it is written. At the same time he added the third movement, which did not exist in the original score, here giving an important solo role to the violin piccolo; at time particular instruments are chosen from each of the instrumental groups to engage in passages of dialogue with the violin piccolo. Thus this Allegro approaches the character of a solo concerto. The first movement is constructed in accordance with a different compositional principle; here the three instrumental groups form fairly self-contained entities, which take over from each other when they are not combined in a tutti section, so that the influence of the old technique of using different groups antiphonally is still in evidence.- The Adagio, in which the horns are not used, is a duet between the firs oboe and violin piccolo, in which these two solo instruments initially alternate and then play in canon. The abbreviated return of the theme in the bass introduces a rondo-like element into the varied strophic torm. This movement possesses a fascination of its own on account of its fluctuating tonality: the basic key of D minor is only briefly established, the movement opening and closing in the dominant key of A major; at the beginning this obscures the fundamental tonality, and at the end it creates a tense transition to the third movement. Another individual feature of this work is its combination of elements from the concerto and the suite- the gigue character of the third movement in 6/8 time is one such element belonging essentially to the suite. The seven-section Minuet which follows, including two Trios and a central Polonaise, is remote from both the style and technique of the concerto – it is a self-contained appendix, whose existence could probably be explained only by reference to the unknown circumstances surrounding the work’s composition.

In the Second Brandenburg Concert Bach adopted the characteristics of the High-Baroque concerto grosso with little alteration, although here too the formal construction of the first movement reveals the influence of Vivaldi’s solo concertos. For the “concertino” of solo instruments them singly, in pairs, or three or all four together, always in such a way that they stand our clearly against the background of the ripieno strings. Transparency of texture is also a feature of the last movement, in which Bach combined the form of a concerto movement with fugal elements – In the Andante the flute, oboe and violin form a solo trio, accompanied by steadily striding quavers (eight-notes) in the bass. The thematic sections, which are richly woven by the use of canonic imitation between the solo instrumental lines, twice give place to passages marked by answering “sighs”. This method of constructing a slow movement is in the tradition of the sonata rather than the concerto.

The Third Brandenburg Concerto is based on the interplay of three homogeneous groups of stringed instruments; violins, violas and celli, whit the continuo remaining apart from them. Here Bach adopted the principle of Venetian antiphony to a considerably greater extent than in the First Concerto, his sense of tradition leading him to write in an almost archaic manner, but at the same time he made use of the then extremely modern technique, exemplified above all in the music of Vivaldi, of the splitting up of motives, one of the roots of the later classical procedure of the working out of thematic material. Thus old and new elements are here combined. In both movements Bach blended the concerto principle with a rondo layout; in the last movement this element is easily recognizable, but in the first movement is so obscured by various factors that is influence on the movement as a whole is almost imperceptible; it is, however, revealed by the introduction of a new theme at the centre of the movement. The two movements are linked by tow Adagio bars, probably intended as the basis a free solo passage.

The Fourth Brandenburg Concerto, with its solo scoring for violin and two flutes, produces the initial effect of an ensemble concerto, but the violin is so greatly favoured in the first and last movements that it is more in the nature of a disguised solo concerto. The figuration of the solo parts clearly reveals the influence of Vivaldi, but Bach’s use in the first movement of two independent solo themes shows him working in a manner quite different from that of the Venetian composer. As in the Second Concerto the final is a concertante fugue. The shaping of the Andante owes much to that of the corresponding movements of the celebrated concerti grossi of Corelli. The flutes produce echo effects; as in the first movement, their tome creates the impression of music of a pastoral nature.

The Fifth Brandenburg Concerto, with a transverse flute, violin and harpsichord as concertino instruments, shows in its first movement even more clearly than in the Fourth Concerto the tendency for the concerto grosso to develop into the solo concerto. In the course of the first movement the harpsichord is given such prominence that this movement may be regarded as the first keyboard concerto in musical literature. The high point of this process of transformation in the 65-bar solo cadenza before the last tutti ritornello. In the next movement, marked Affettuoso, the three solo instruments play without any orchestral accompaniment in the manner of the earlier trio sonata, but here, too, Bach brought old and new together in a characteristic manner by writing the harpsichord part out in full, for both hands, instead of merely a figured bass line. In the finale all three soloists again participate in the traditional manner. This movement is characterized by its complex structure, in which da capo form, fugue, and the form of a concerto movement with rondo-like elements are all combined.

The Sixth Brandenburg Concerto, which so clearly reflects the circumstances of Bach’s music-marking with Prince Leopold, is the most homogeneous of these works in timbre and sonority, as only stringed instruments of the middle and low registers are employed. Although the scoring for two violas, two viole da gamba, cello and bass recalls the principle of using separate groups, Bach modelled his work on a typical ensemble concerto, the concertino generally consisting of the two violas, Nevertheless the other instruments appear at times in a solo capacity, so that the instrumentation does not demonstate any clear differentiation between tutti ritornelli and solo episodes. The concertino and the ripieno ensemble do not confront each other as independent bodies of constant size – instead both vary in scoring. This is yet another example of the imaginative power with which Bach constantly discovered new modes of expressions which enabled him to transform typical and traditional elements in a wholly individual way. Between 1718 and 1720 Bach composed a considerable number of concertos. Early in 1721 he selected from among this wealth of material the six works recorded here; he ordered them in a particular, non-chronological sequence, wrote out the various scores in a new fair copy with the works in their chosen order, and dedicated this copy to the Margrave of Brandenburg in Berlin. It is to this dedication that the Concertos owe the name by which they have been known ever since. By sending the score Bach was complying with a request of the Margrave, Whom he had met in 1719 while visiting Berlin, but the request had probably been of so general a nature that Bach had not felt himself impelled to comply with it immediately. There may have been a special reason for his responding to the request so long after it had been made. It may be that as early as the beginning of 1721 the originally excellent relationship with Prince Leopold became strained, with the result that possibly Bach decided to leave Cöthen even before the Prince´s marriage to a princess described as an “amusa”. This may well have accounted for the passage in the dedication of the Concertos in which Bach offered his services to the Margrave, and hence the fact that, completely contrary to the custom of the time, he assembled a group of works all differently scored; Bach may have used this means to demonstrate to a possible new employer what tonal riches he could create with a small ensemble. Thus this set of Concertos represented a kind of application for a new position as a Kapellmeister, but the Margrave in any case failed to respond. In 1723 Bach moved to Leipzig as Cantor of St. Thomas’s.