March 24
Several events
occurred in Sebastian’s life on this date:
1721 Six Concertos were dedicated to Christian
Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt
1729 Schott left his position as director of the
Leipzig Collegium musicum to go to
Gotha, and Sebastian took over the directorship (see March 20 in Bach Bagatelles)
1742 The third revision of the St. Matthew Passion was first performed
(see March 23 in Bach Bagatelles)
It is 1721 that
provides our Bach Bagatelle for today: The
Brandenburg Concertos.
Christian Ludwig was Margrave of
Brandenburg-Schwedt. What and who was he?
A March
is a boundary or borderland between two centers of power. The word comes from
the Frankish marka, and we see it in
the name “Denmark.” The Germanic tribes that the Romans called Marcomanni meant “men of the
borderlands.” As a county is ruled by a Count,
so a march is ruled by a Marquess,
Marquis, or Margrave.
Originating in the middle ages, the
northern march, or the Margraviate of Brandenburg, was one of the electoral
states of the Holy Roman Empire and, along with Prussia, formed the original
core of the first unified German state, with its capital in Berlin. After 1688
the two were combined into Brandenburg-Prussia, ruled by the House of
Hohenzollern. These grew to become the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701.
Christian Ludwig (1677-1734) was a
military officer of Brandenburg-Prussia’s Hohenzollern dynasty, given the title
of Margrave of Brandenburg, a title which did not reflect territorial rule.
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 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.
Sadly, the Margrave never had the
works performed. At his death in 1734 they were sold for what today would buy
about half a tank of gas, and lay hidden in the Brandenburg archives until
rediscovered by Siegfried Wilhelm Dehn in 1849 and published in the following
year.
Perhaps the Margrave never had them
performed because he did not have access to musicians capable of playing them,
which often prevents them from being performed as a complete set even today.
They are composed in the most complex high Baroque style, with each concerto
having at least two solo instruments.
Scholar Heinrich Besseler is certain
that Sebastian did not write these specifically for the Margrave, but that he
had composed them earlier in Cöthen, since the orchestration matches perfectly
the 17 musicians available to him there.
The original title of BWV 1046-1051
was Six Concerts á plusiers instruments.
They are widely praised as some of the best orchestral compositions of the
Baroque period. In them he uses the widest possible spectrum of instruments in
bold, adventurous combinations that demand virtuoso playing. Christoph Wolff
says, “Every one of the six concertos set a precedent in scoring, and every one
was to remain without parallel.”
Concerto No. 1 is the only one with four movements. It prominently
features the horns and oboes. The first movement is an Allegro with a winding
melody that features the horns in harmony. The second movement allows the
violin and oboe to shine in an expressive, passionate duet. After a lively
third movement, the concerto closes with a dance-like section that pauses
briefly then pushes through to a dazzling close. Sebastian uses music from the
first and third movements BWV 52, 207, and 208.
Concerto No. 2 features violin, flute, oboe and trumpet as the solo
instruments. Scholars think the challenging trumpet part was written for a
singularly accomplished trumpeter, Joann Ludwig Schreiber of Cöthen. Schreiber was a clarino
player, a term that in earlier periods may have referred to either a style of
playing in the high register of the trumpet or a distinct type of trumpet, a smaller, treble instrument. By the 18th
century, however, it referred to the style of playing in the high register. The extremely high range of this trumpet solo called for
uncommon skill. Even today, trumpeters find it difficult, often choosing the
smaller, higher piccolo trumpet.
Since Baroque trumpets only allowed the musician to play in
major keys, it is often excluded from second movements, usually in minor keys.
This exclusion is the case with this concerto. The third movement of the
concerto is on the “golden record,” sent to space with the Voyager probe. It
was also used by William F. Buckley as the theme song for his Firing Line, and begins each lecture for
The Teaching Company’s Great Courses
series. The thrilling final movement is
thought by many to be one of the most ennobling and beautiful pieces Sebastian
ever wrote.
Concerto No. 3 contains a string ensemble in which the instruments are
equally balanced throughout. Owing to the simplicity of its structure, this is
thought to be one of the earliest compositions in the set. The second movement
is unusual, however, in that it consists of only two chords, suggesting that
the center of the movement was an improvised cadenza (solo improvised passage)
for a harpsichord or violin. Modern performers either play it as written,
insert movements from other of Sebastian’s works (often BWV 1019 or 1021), or
orchestrate a new movement to fit the key and style of the entire concerto, leading
to the vibrant and cheerful final movement. Wendy Carlos (see March 26), for
example, wrote two quite different versions for Switched-on Bach and Switched-on
Bach 2000.
Concerto No. 4 features a violin and two flutes as solo instruments. Sebastian
called for “echo flutes,” instruments unknown ever to have existed, suggesting
that he intended an effect that sounded as if the instruments were playing at a
distance. It is even possible, think some, that recorders were used to create
this quality, even though the flute of Sebastian’s time was made of wood.
Today, it is most often the custom to use the modern flute. Sebastian adapted
this concerto as the last of his set of six harpsichord concertos.
Concerto No. 5 features solo flute, violin and harpsichord, but the
virtuoso harpsichord part makes it almost a harpsichord concerto. Scholars
speculate that Sebastian may have written this to highlight his well-known
improvisatory keyboard skill (specifically for his intended Dresden competition
with Frenchman Louis Marchand, since he uses one of Marchand’s themes in the
central movement), or that he was demonstrating the new Mietke harpsichord he
had acquired in Berlin when he met the Margrave. Although an earlier version of
this concerto exists (BWV 1050a), its composition date is believed to be
1720-21.
Concerto No. 6 is curious in that it features violas da gamba but no
violins. There are some interesting assumptions about this fact. The viola da gamba was, by 1721 when this work was written, an old-fashioned
instrument, but one associated with aristocracy, while the viola da braccio (viola)
was typically played by the servant class. One theory holds that Sebastian’s
patron, Prince Leopold, played the viola
da gamba and the composer wished to honor him. An alternate theory contends
that by focusing on the viola rather than violins, thereby upending the balance
of musical roles, Sebastian signaled that he wished to end his tenure under
Leopold and seek new employment. In either case, the use of the violas creates
a richer, warmer sound that sets this concerto apart from the rest of the set.
The jaunty gigue in the final movement provides a stirring finish to the piece.
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