Violin Concertos (Bach)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Two concertos for violin, strings and continuo and a double concert for two violins (also with strings and continuo) have been handed down under Johann Sebastian Bach's name . They have the numbers BWV 1041 to 1043. Bach may have written the concertos for Johann Georg Pisendel or Jean-Baptiste Volumier in Dresden - perhaps for himself, because his son Carl Philipp Emanuel attests in the necrology that he continued to play the violin well into old age. pure and penetrating ”to have played.

Emergence

The concerts have been handed down independently of one another; its exact date of origin is not known. Bach began to deal with Antonio Vivaldi's concerts around 1713, initially arranging several of them for solo harpsichord or organ. Afterwards, or at the same time, he should have started planning his own concerts. In Bach's models, the corner movements still follow a somewhat rigid structure, in which the ritornelle structure the structure of the movement and mark the arrival of new keys and accompanying solo passages in between serve to modulate other keys. In contrast, Bach achieved closer interlocking and integration of the formal sections through a more differentiated and varied handling of the roles of the soloist and orchestra.

The violin concertos preserved in this form appear much more stylistically developed than the more well-known Brandenburg concertos (perhaps with the exception of the fourth), which is particularly clear in the extensive slow movements. They are likely to have arisen much later than the Brandenburg Concerts, contrary to earlier assumptions, possibly not until Leipzig.

In general, in Bach's orchestral setting, the first violin is often given the opportunity to come to the fore both with and without the express note solo with small solos. In movements with several solo instruments, she often mediates between them and the orchestra. In Bach's cantatas and orchestral suites, for example, many passages and sometimes entire movements have the latent features of a violin concerto; conversely, the equal integration of the solo violin in the orchestral setting is surprising.

Regardless of the time of origin, it is certain that Bach had these concerts available when he took over the management of the Collegium musicum in Leipzig in 1730 . For performances in this context, he converted many of his concerts into harpsichord concerts ; Because of the pitch ranges of the instruments, he usually transposed the violin concertos down a whole tone.

effect

To this day, Bach's violin concertos are part of the popular program of many violinists, to whom great technical demands are made in the pieces. Nevertheless, many musicologists consider the harpsichord versions to be the final versions intended by Bach, since Bach improved many details during the revision and, at the same time , made an important step in music history by abolishing the basso continuo .

Preserved violin concertos

Violin Concerto in A minor BWV 1041

The work was first published in 1854 by the Leipzig publisher CF Peters as part of the “Oeuvres complets”, edited by Siegfried Wilhelm Dehn and Ferdinand August Roitzsch .

sentences
  • 2/4 in A minor
  • Andante c in C major
  • Allegro assai 9/8 in A minor

Bach later converted this concerto into the harpsichord concerto in G minor, BWV 1058 .

Violin Concerto in E major BWV 1042

sentences
  • Allegro ¢ E major
  • Adagio 3/4 in C sharp minor
  • Allegro assai 3/8 in E major

The work has only survived in a copy from 1760 and in Bach's version as a harpsichord concerto in D major, BWV 1054 .

Double Concerto for Two Violins in D minor BWV 1043

sentences
  • Vivace in c D minor
  • Largo ma non tanto 12/8 in F major
  • Allegro 3/4 in D minor

This double concerto is possibly the group's best-known work. Bach later reworked it for two harpsichords, as a Concerto in C minor, BWV 1062 . The first movement exposes a fugue in the tutti and introduces a contradicting theme in the solos. The second movement begins as a Siciliano , but repeatedly develops dramatic climaxes. The theme of the final movement consists of a narrow canon of the two violins and its drama is reminiscent of Vivaldi's depictions of storms - Bach may have used a work by Vivaldi as a model.

Existing autograph parts of the two solo instruments are dated today to 1730/31, that is, during Bach's time in Leipzig; it is usually assumed that the concert was created during this time. But since the entire movement is basically three-part and the orchestral instruments do not have any really obbligato parts, an underlying version is assumed as a trio sonata for two violins and continuo; For stylistic reasons, this could have been created around 1719, i.e. at the beginning of Bach's time in Koethen.

Reconstructions

From the fact that Bach apparently later reworked the traditional violin concertos into harpsichord concerts, musicology concludes that other harpsichord concerts also arose from original violin concertos whose original versions have been lost. For this reason, some underlying originals were reconstructed from existing concerts:

Concerto for violin and orchestra in D minor

(Reconstruction after the harpsichord concerto in D minor, BWV 1052. )

Concerto for violin and orchestra in G minor

(Reconstruction after the harpsichord concerto in F minor, BWV 1056. )

Double concerto for violin, oboe and orchestra

(Reconstruction after the concerto for two harpsichords in C minor, BWV 1060. )

Concerto for three violins in D major

(Reconstruction after the concerto for three harpsichords BWV 1064. ) This work was probably initially composed as a concerto for three violins and obbligato cello with continuo (i.e. without orchestra); possibly one of the earliest compositions by Bach with solo violins.

Concerto for several instruments and strings in D minor

(Reconstruction after the concerto for three harpsichords BWV 1063. ) As there is no autograph score and the three movements of the harpsichord concerto probably did not belong to the same concerto from the beginning, a reconstruction is difficult and, if it is scientifically demanding, basically not possible. Arnold Schering had assumed that a concerto for violin, flute and perhaps oboe was the model; recent research suggests either two or three violins are likely to be used as solo instruments. The middle movement certainly did not belong to this original concerto.

Further concerts with solo violin

Brandenburg Concerts BWV 1046 to 1050

The first five of the six Brandenburg Concerts contain one or more violin parts and then also extensive solo tasks for this instrument.

Triple Concerto BWV 1044

Another concerto that uses the violin with flute and harpsichord as a soloist is the so-called Triple Concerto , the date of which has still not been clarified beyond doubt.

Fragments

Concerto in D major BWV 1045

This single movement has only survived in fragments - most likely the opening movement of a planned church cantata that Bach wrote around 1742, but very likely never finished. The fragment preserved juxtaposes a virtuoso solo violin with an extensive orchestra of three trumpets, timpani, two oboes and strings; the work could possibly have originated as a movement for a violin concerto with the usual string instrumentation. This is supported by the fact that the parts of the solo instrument and the strings are fair copy, the parts of the wind instruments are concept writing. Whether the underlying concerto also has Bach as the author was disputed for stylistic reasons.

Movement in B major BWV Appendix 2

This only six-bar fragment in 6/8 time is the broken transcription of a cantata for the 19th Sunday after Trinity from the Leipzig period. The line-up includes a solo violin and four-part string orchestra and could be traced back to the middle movement of a lost violin concerto; the corner movements and thus the entire concerto would then possibly have been in G minor. The movement has also been brought up for discussion as a candidate for a slow movement of the violin concerto in G minor (which became the F minor harpsichord concerto BWV 1056).

Trivia

In 1937, jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt recorded two versions of the first movement of the double concerto with violinists Eddie South and Stéphane Grappelli .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christoph Wolff : The orchestral works of JS Bach in: Martin Geck (Hrsg.): Bach's orchestral works. Report on the 1st Dortmund Bach Symposium 1996. Witten 1997, ISBN 3-932676-04-1
  2. ↑ Ulrich Siegele: Composition and processing technique in instrumental music Joh. Seb. Bachs , 1956, ISBN 3-7751-0117-9
  3. ^ Siegbert Rampe, Dominik Sackmann: Bach's Orchestermusik , Kasel 2000, ISBN 3-7618-1345-7 , p. 221
  4. ^ Christoph Wolff: Johann Sebastian Bach , 2nd edition 2007. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main, ISBN 978-3-596-16739-5
  5. ^ Siegbert Rampe, Dominik Sackmann: Bach's Orchestermusik , Kasel 2000, ISBN 3-7618-1345-7 , p. 221
  6. ↑ Rudolf Stephan, The change of the concert form in Bach , in: Die Musikforschung 6, 1953, page 143.
  7. ↑ Pieter Dirksen, JS Bach's Violin Concerto in G Minor , in: Bach Perspectives 7: JS Bach's Concerted Ensemble Music: the Concerto, ed. Gregory Butler (University of Illinois Press, 2008), pp. 21–54.

Web links

Commons : Bach Violin Concertos  - Collection of images, videos and audio files