Brandenburg concertos
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The Brandenburg concertos (BWV 1046–1051) by Johann Sebastian Bach are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig, margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt[1], in 1721 (though probably composed earlier). They are widely regarded as among the finest musical compositions of the Baroque era.
[edit] History
Though it is possible to ascertain a date of latest composition for the Brandenburg Concertos because of the inscription of 24 March 1721 on the dedication manuscript to the Margrave, most likely they had been written over a number of years during Bach's tenure as Kapellmeister at Anhalt-Cöthen and possibly even extending back to the period of his employment at Weimar (1708-17).
The dedication page Bach wrote for the collection merely indicates they are Concerts avec plusieurs instruments (Concertos with several instruments). Indeed, in these works Bach innovated in a daring manner. He used the "widest spectrum of orchestral instruments... in daring combinations," as Christoph Wolff has commented in his book on Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician (WW Norton, New York, 2000). "Every one of the six concertos set a precedent in scoring, and every one was to remain without parallel."
Bach was not above taking a rather obsequious tone toward a potential patron. Here is the first sentence of his dedication to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt:
"As 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 honour 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."
Because King Frederick William I of Prussia patronized the military over the arts, Christian Ludwig lacked enough musicians in his Berlin ensemble to perform the concertos. They were left in the Margrave's library until his death in 1734, when they were sold for only 24 groschen. The concertos were discovered in the archives of Brandenburg in the 19th century.[2]
[edit] Orchestral versus chamber music
In the modern era these works have been performed by chamber orchestras, using a fairly substantial string section. An example is the performance by Karl Richter and his chamber orchestra, 1958, recorded by Teldec Classics, digitally re-mastered in 2002, Warner Classics UK. They have, however, also been performed as chamber music, with just one instrument on each part, especially among period-performance groups using baroque instruments and historically-informed techniques (though not invariably).
The Fifth Concerto is used in arguments that Bach's concertos were played with one player to a part. Uniquely, it has one violin part rather than two in the orchestra. Bach is known to have preferred to take the viola part often when playing in ensembles, so he could sit "in the middle of the harmony". The argument goes that, since Bach was not available to take the viola part for this concerto (since he was playing the solo harpsichord), one of his violinists must have had to move over to play the viola, and that was the reason for the oddity of the single violin part. This is by no means conclusive evidence and is taken as merely a possible explanation. The inference is not necessarily that Bach would have only ever used one player per part but that the number of players per part was ad libitum from one upwards as circumstances allowed and as suited the music. In purely practical terms, the smaller size of the one-player-per-part ensemble would make sense in the 5th concerto, as the sound of the harpsichord would tend to get drowned out in a larger ensemble; this would be particularly unfortunate in a work designed to show off the harpsichord and its player.
[edit] The individual concertos
[edit] Brandenburg Concerto No.1 in F major, BWV 1046
- I. Allegro
- II. Adagio
- III. Allegro
- IV. Menuetto; Trio I; Menuetto; Polacca; Trio II;Menuetto
Solo instruments: violino piccolo, corni da caccia I/II, oboes I/II/III, bassoon
Orchestra: violins I and II, viola, cello, basso continuo.
This concerto is the only one in the collection with four movements. The last movement is the only example of a menuet (minuet) and trio or polacca in the Brandenburg concertos.
An earlier version of this concerto, without the third movement, survives as a sinfonia, BWV 1046a (used as the opening of cantata BWV 208). This version lacks the violono piccolo and the polonaise in the final movement. The first movement can also be found as the sinfonia of the cantata BWV 52, "Falsche Welt, dir trau ich nicht". The third movement was used as the opening chorus of cantata BWV 207.
[edit] Brandenburg Concerto No.2 in F major, BWV 1047
- I. Allegro
- II. Andante
- III. Allegro assai
Solo instruments: trumpet in F, recorder, oboe, violin
Orchestra: violins I and II, viola, cello, basso continuo.
This piece was probably written with the court trumpeter in Cöthen, Johann Ludwig Schreiber [1], in mind. Even after the invention of valves, the trumpet part is still considered one of the most difficult in the entire repertoire, although many specialist trumpeters regularly play this piece on the valveless trumpet for which it was intended.
The trumpet is not used in the second movement. It was common for the trumpet to rest in the middle movement of a concerto to allow the player to recover.[citation needed] This also made for greater contrast of tone and texture with surrounding movements. The third movement is a fugue.
[edit] Brandenburg Concerto No.3 in G major, BWV 1048
- I. Allegro
- II. Adagio
- III. Allegro
Instruments: Violins I/II/III, violas I/II/III, cellos I/II/III, basso continuo.
The second movement consists of a single measure with the two chords that make up a Phrygian mode cadence and—although there is no direct evidence to support it—it was likely that these chords are meant to surround or follow a cadenza improvised by a harpsichord or violin player. In recent times, these chords have often been played as is.
Occasionally, the third movement from Bach's "Sonata for Violin and Continuo in G , BWV. 1021" (marked Largo) is substituted for the second movement as it contains an identical Phrygian mode cadence as the closing chords. The alternative Adagio from the Violin Sonata in G, BWV 1019a, has also been used as a substitute.
The outer movements use the ritornello form found in many instrumental and vocal works of the time.
The first movement can also be found as the sinfonia of the cantata BWV 174, "Ich liebe den Höchsten von ganzem Gemüte", with the addition of three oboes and two horns.
The score is available here: [2]
[edit] Brandenburg Concerto No.4 in G major, BWV 1049
- I. Allegro
- II. Andante
- III. Presto
Solo instruments: violin, recorders I/II ('fiauti d'echo' in the score)
Orchestra: violins I/II, viola, cello, basso continuo
The violin part in this concerto is extremely virtuosic in the first and third movements. In the second movement, the violin switches roles, providing a 'bass' for the recorders, moving what is traditionally foundation to the treble register.
Bach adapted the 4th Brandenburg concerto as the last of his set of 6 harpsichord concertos, the concerto for harpsichord, two recorders and strings in F major, BWV 1057. As well as taking on most of the solo violin's role, the harpsichord also takes over some of the recorders' parts in the andante, plays a basso continuo role at times and occasionally adds a fourth contrapuntal part to an originally three-part texture (something which Bach occasionally did while improvising). The harpsichord concerto is thus more than a mere transcription.
- Concerto #4, Movement 1 (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- Problems playing the files? See media help.
- Note: This piece's first movement is featured in Disney's movie Miracle (film) during the scene where Coach Brooks is talking to his wife at the skating rink towards the end of the movie (before the Soviet game).
[edit] Brandenburg Concerto No.5 in D major, BWV 1050
- I. Allegro
- II. Affetuoso
- III. Allegro
Solo instruments (concertino group): harpsichord, violin, flute
Orchestra (the ripieno): violin, viola, cello, double bass/violone, harpsichord.
The part of the harpsichord serves as one of the soloists in the concertino and also as the usual continuo in the ripieno.
This concerto makes use of a popular chamber music ensemble of the time (flute, violin, and harpsichord). It is believed that it was written in 1719, to show off a new harpsichord by Michael Mietke which Bach had brought back from Berlin for the Cöthen court. It is also thought that Bach wrote it for a competition at 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 improvisation.
The concerto is well suited throughout to showing off the qualities of a fine harpsichord and the virtuosity of its player, but especially in the lengthy solo 'cadenza' to the first movement. It seems almost certain that Bach, considered a great organ and harpsichord virtuoso, was the harpsichord soloist at the premiere. Scholars have seen in this work the origins of the solo keyboard concerto; indeed it is said to be the first-ever example.
An early version, BWV 1050a, is much the same except that most of the harpsichord solo from the first movement is missing; only the fast scale passages are present without the thematic material incorporated into the later version's solo.
The affettuoso is for the solo instruments alone, and the final movement is a fugue.
[edit] Brandenburg Concerto No.6 in B-flat major, BWV 1051
- I. Allegro
- II. Adagio ma non tanto
- III. Allegro
Instruments: violas I/II, cello, violas da gamba I/II, continuo (including violone)
This concerto - generally believed to be the earliest of the group - sets two trio groups against each other. On one side sit the "modern" instruments: two violas and a cello, while on the other are the "old-fashioned" violas da gamba and violone. These opposed low-register trios present a series of call-and-response motifs.
[edit] Popular culture
As with other familiar works of classical music, the Brandenburg Concertos have repeatedly been mined for use in film scores and as theme music for television programs. The First Movement of the Second Concerto is the first selection of music placed upon the Voyager Golden Record on the Voyager spacecraft. It is listed as such on the JPL Voyager website [3] and mentioned in the season 2 episode of The X-Files, Little Green Men. The third movement of the same concerto was also the theme for William F. Buckley's television talk show, Firing Line. The Third Concerto was used as the original theme of the BBC programme "The Antiques Roadshow". The first movement of the Fifth Concerto appeared in the soundtrack [4] of the 1995 film The American President starring Michael Douglas, Annette Bening and Martin Sheen. The beginning of the third movement of the Sixth Concerto is the theme jingle for American Public Media. In 1968, British Progressive Rock Pioneers The Nice, featuring Keith Emerson, adapted the Brandenburg Concerto No.3 into a piece of music entitled 'Brandenburger'. Emerson also used Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 for an instrumental solo in The Nice's adaptation of Bob Dylan's 'Country Pie'.
[edit] Reference
- ^ MacDonogh, Giles. Frederick the Great: A Life in Deed and Letters. St. Martin's Griffin. New York. 2001. ISBN 0-312-27266-9
- ^ HartfordSymphony.org. "Notes on Bach's Brandenburg Concertos". Accessed November 21, 2006.
The first movement of the third concerto features briefly in the film 'Hannibal', and is seen being played by a chamber group.
[edit] External links
- Brandenburg Concertos - Essay about the Brandenburg Concertos
- Inkpot Bach The Brandenburg Concerti - Introduction to the Brandenburg Concertos
- Scores for Bach's Brandenburg Concertos — from the Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities
- Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G, arranged for a String Quartet
- Public Domain Scores of the Brandenburg Concertos at IMSLP
- List of recordings, with reviews, from jsbach.org
