2nd Brandenburg Concert

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Opening bars of the Second Brandenburg Concerto (partial score of the soloists) on a Berlin commemorative stamp from 1971 .

Johann Sebastian Bach's Second Brandenburg Concerto , BWV 1047, is one of the best-known baroque concerts. It is the second in a collection of six concerts that Bach sent to Margrave Christian Ludwig von Brandenburg-Schwedt in March 1721 under the title Six Concerts avec plusieurs instruments in score .

On the occasion of the dedication, Bach did not compose the individual concerts in this collection from scratch, but rather compiled the score from existing works. The individual concerts differ greatly in terms of line-up, scope and character.

occupation

The Second Brandenburg Concerto contrasts four high instruments with the string orchestra and thus has a very characteristic, strikingly bright sound.

Origin and further performances

Although there is a copy that is independent of the dedication score, it does not contain any significant changes; therefore, one can only speculate about the details of its origins.

The combination of a trumpet with the key of F major is unusual in Bach's work; therefore the musicologist Thurston Dart suspected that the work might have been written for horn, so that the solo instrument sounded an octave lower and thus integrated better into the solo group. An existing copy, which adds “or horn” after the word trumpet , was only made after Bach's death, and this addition was added later. Today it is assumed that the part for a French trumpet was written in E and performed in the concert pitch usually used in Köthen, a semitone lower.

Regardless of this, it is striking that all solo instruments - with the exception of the trumpet, whose natural tones forbid this - are always involved in the tutti. This suggests that the string orchestra was added later. It would also explain why in the final movement, a fugato , neither second violin nor viola take up the theme. It is assumed today that the composition was originally composed as a five-part concerto for four solo instruments and continuo; As in the Concerto in C major for two harpsichords , Bach would have added the orchestral parts later (but certainly before the dedication score was transcribed).

For stylistic reasons, the concert will be dated shortly before the dedication score was written:

"If the autograph score from 1721 did not exist, one would be inclined to call the Brandenburg Concerts 2 and 4 Leipzig Works, because such a comprehensive development in compositional technology in a few years, as revealed by a comparison between the opening movements of the first and second Brandenburg Concerts, would not be expected without further ado. "

- Siegbert Rampe, Dominik Sackmann

A flute sonata of Frederick the Great (Sonata in A minor) shows clear themes in the second movement of the final movement of the Second Brandenburg Concerto, so that it is quite likely that the work was performed in Berlin, possibly from a score by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach .

music

The concerto follows the three-movement form customary in the Baroque era in the tempo sequence fast - slow - fast :

  • (no movement name) ¢ F major
  • Andante 3/4 in D minor
  • Allegro assai 2/4 in F major

First sentence

The ritornello of the first movement consists of four individual motifs, all of which are repeated verbatim. Then the solo instruments introduce themselves one after the other with a second, common theme (the first two-bar phrase of the tutti from the ritornello always sounds in between); the tutti closes this section in the dominant key of C major. Another short trumpet solo leads through a longer sequence of fifths and finally ends in D major. Little by little the ritornello theme will appear at all usable levels of the F major scale; B flat major is reached about halfway through the movement. Here again the low-voiced movements and motifs of the first solo exposition (one can also speak of a fugato ) are taken up; it leads into another dense, modulating passage; the resumption of the fifth case sequence then leads to A minor at this point. Here the recapitulation is clearly marked by unison, i.e. the final ritornello, the second half and final of which Bach delays by inserting the modulating passage again. Since it is now transposed, the result is the sequence bach in the bass notes - however, Bach does not particularly emphasize these notes, so it remains open whether he was aiming at something special.

It is not for nothing that the movement is one of the most popular movements in baroque music. Not only the eye-catching, luminous, "bright" instrumentation, but above all the easily accessible periodicals of directly repeated motifs make the composition immediately accessible to every listener. The sovereignty with which Bach - not only here in the first movement - established and at the same time breaks through a regular two-bar period, make it clear that the composer and his works "far surpass the contemporary concerts - including those by Antonio Vivaldi".

Second sentence

As is usually the case with Bach, the slow movement is in the parallel minor key . Since this is not accessible to the trumpet with its limited supply of notes, the movement of violin, oboe and recorder is played over an unthematic continuo bass running in eighths. The movement is clearly divided into three parts, all of which begin with a theme to which Bach contrasts a characteristic sigh motif . After a while, the motif of sighs displaced the subject each time before it is reintroduced by one of the instruments.

Third sentence

The final movement suggests a fugue with inserted concertante passages. The four-part exposition of the fugue theme begins with the solo instruments and ends in C major. After a short athematic interlude, the trumpet brings the theme one more time, then a fifth fall sequence with orchestral beats ends this first section.

In C major there is now a new thematic development with the soloists; The continuo comes in here as the fourth voice, with the orchestra filling the tutti tonally. Another passage modulated by cases of fifths, which here ends in G major. The third section is an initially athematic interlude by the soloists, which soon introduces a new motif, which is now passed contrapuntally by the soloists, before this part also ends in a tutti fifth case sequence, this time in B flat major. Now the second section is repeated with swapped voices, and the movement ends with the theme quotation in the trumpet.

Others

The Voyager Golden Records , which were shot into space with the Voyager probes in 1977 , contain a version of the Second Brandenburg Concert.

Web links

grades

Discography

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Siegbert Rampe, Dominik Sackmann: Bach's Orchestermusik , Kassel 2000, ISBN 3-7618-1345-7 , p. 316
  2. ^ Klaus Hofmann: On the version history of the second Brandenburg concert . In: Martin Geck (Ed.): Bach's orchestral works. Report on the 1st Dortmund Bach Symposium 1996 . Witten 1997, ISBN 3-932676-04-1
  3. ^ A b Siegbert Rampe, Dominik Sackmann: Bach's orchestral music . Kassel 2000, ISBN 3-7618-1345-7 , p. 232
  4. ^ Peter Schleuning: Johann Sebastian Bach's Art of Fugue . Kassel 1993, ISBN 3-7618-1050-4
  5. ↑ bars 109 to 111
  6. ↑ Martin Geck: Comprehensible and artificial. Reflections on Bach's writing style . In: Martin Geck (Ed.): Bach's orchestral works. Report on the 1st Dortmund Bach Symposium 1996 . Witten 1997, ISBN 3-932676-04-1
  7. ↑ Jet Propulsion Laboratory - Voyager - The Interstellar Mission (English)