Brandenburg, in Bach’s day, was a political and military powerhouse. It had been part of the Holy Roman Empire since the mid-12th Century, and its ruler – the Markgraf, or Margrave – was charged with defending and extending the northern imperial border, in return for which he was allowed to be an Elector of the Emperor. The house of Hohenzollern acquired the margraviate of Brandenburg in 1415, and the family embraced the Reformation a century later with such authority that they came to be regarded as the leaders of German Protestantism. Potsdam was chosen as the site of the electoral court in the 17th Century.
Extensive territorial acquisitions under Frederick William, the “Great Elector,” before his death in 1688, allowed his son Frederick III to secure the title and the rule of Brandenburg’s northern neighbor, Prussia, with its rich (and nearby) capital city of Berlin. He became King Frederick I of Prussia in 1701. Frederick, a cultured man and a generous patron, founded academies of sciences and arts in Berlin, and he built the magnificent palace Charlottenburg for his wife, Sophie Charlotte, which became one of the most important musical centers in early 18th-Century Germany. When Frederick William I succeeded his father in 1713, however, he turned the court’s focus from music to militarism, and dismissed most of the excellent musicians that his father had assembled. Several of them found employment at the court of Anhalt-Cöthen, north of Leipzig, where a young prince was just starting to indulge his taste and talents for music. Frederick William did, however, allow his uncle, Christian Ludwig, younger brother of the late King Frederick and possessor of the now-lesser title of Margrave of Brandenburg, to remain at the palace and retain his own musical establishment.
Johann Sebastian Bach met Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg, in 1719, during his tenure as music director at the court of Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, the young prince who had recently signed up some of the musicians fired by Frederick William I. Bach worked at Anhalt-Cöthen> from 1717 to 1723, and he and Leopold seem to have gotten along splendidly. The Prince enjoyed travel, fine art a= nd, above all, music, and he respected and encouraged Bach in his work, even occasionally participating in the court concerts as violinist, gambist or harpsichordist. Provided by Leopold with an excellent set of instruments and a group of fine players, Bach enjoyed a fruitful period at Cöthen. Many of his greatest works for keyboard, chamber ensembles and orchestra date from those years.
Early in 1719, Leopold sent Bach to Berlin to finalize arrangements for the purchase of a new harpsichord, a large, two-manual model made by Michael Mietke, instrument-builder to the royal court. While in Berlin, Bach played for Christian Ludwig, who was so taken with his music that he asked him to send some of his compositions for his library. Bach lost an infant son a few months later, and in 1720 his wife died. So it was more than two years before he fulfilled Brandenburg’s request.
By 1721, however, Leopold had become engaged to marry a woman who looked disapprovingly upon his huge expenditures for musical entertainment. Bach seems to have realized that when she moved in, he would probably be moved out, so he began casting about for a more secure position. He remembered the interest the Margrave Brandenburg had shown in his music, and he thought it a good time to approach him again. So he picked six of the finest concertos he had written at Cöthen, copied them out meticulously, had them bound into a sumptuous volume, and sent them to Christian Ludwig in March 1721 with a flowery dedication in French. But this was all to no avail. No job materialized at Brandenburg, and in 1723, Bach moved to Leipzig’s St. Thomas Church, where he remained for the rest of his life.
It is highly likely that the Margrave of Brandenburg never heard any of these magnificent instrumental works that have immortalized his name, since records indicate that his modest orchestra might not have been able to negotiate their difficulties and instrumental requirements. The Concertos apparently lay untouched in his library until he died thirteen years after Bach had presented them to him. Fortunately, they were preserved by the noted theorist and pedagogue Johann Philipp Kirnberger, a pupil of Bach, and the concertos came eventually into the collection of the Royal Library in Berlin. They were brought to light during the 19th Century Bach revival, and they were first published in 1850. These six concerti have since come to be recognized as the supreme examples of Baroque instrumental music.
The Brandenburg Concertos differ from those of later eras in both instrumental disposition and form. These are concerti grossi (great concertos), works in which a small group of soloists (concertino) rather than a single instrument is pitted against the orchestra (ripieno). Most of the fast movements of the Brandenburgs use a formal procedure known as “ritornello”, which is based on the contrast of sonority between concertino and ripieno. First the orchestra presents a collection of thematic ideas from which much of the movement grows. Then the soloists take over for an episode, sometimes borrowing material from the opening orchestral introduction, sometimes providing something new. The orchestra then returns (ritornello is Italian for “return”), and this is followed by another solo episode, and that by another orchestral ritornello, and so forth. The remaining fast movements are based on dance types, while the slow movements are usually lyrical and through-composed, a sort of elaborate wordless aria.
Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F major, BWV 1046
- I. Allegro
- II. Adagio
- III. Allegro
- IV. Menuetto, Trio I; Polacca, Trio II
Solo instruments: 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 an extensive and relaxed sequence, consisting of a minuet played four times, with a separate trio or polacca section for each of the intervals.
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.
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, in mind. Even today, the trumpet part is still considered demanding, 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. This also made for greater contrast of tone and texture with surrounding movements. The third movement is a fugue.
Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048
(Listen Below in RealAudio Format)
- 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 Sebastian Bach’s Sonata for Violin and Continuo in G, BWV. 1021 (marked Largo) is sometimes substituted for the second movement of this concerto since 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 liebeden Höchsten von ganzem Gemüte,” with the addition of three oboes and two horns.
Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major, BWV 1049
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- 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.
Brandenburg Concerto No.5 in D major, BWV 1050
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- I. Allegro
- II. Affetuoso
- III. Allegro
Solo instruments: harpsichord, violin, flute
Orchestra: violin, viola, cello, double bass/violone
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 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.
Brandenburg Concerto No.6 in B-Flat Major, BWV 1051
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- 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.