Johann Sebastian Bach's Harpsichord Concerto No. 3 in D
major, BWV 1054, is an adaptation of his own Violin
Concerto in E major, BWV 1042. He made it sometime
during the 1730s for performance by the Leipzig
Collegium Musicum -- a large ensemble made up of the
city's music enthusiasts that played in taverns and
coffee shops a few times a week. Bach had been director
since 1729. Most, if not all, of Bach's harpsichord
concertos are transcriptions of concertos for other
instruments, but only in a f...(+)
Johann Sebastian Bach's Harpsichord Concerto No. 3 in D
major, BWV 1054, is an adaptation of his own Violin
Concerto in E major, BWV 1042. He made it sometime
during the 1730s for performance by the Leipzig
Collegium Musicum -- a large ensemble made up of the
city's music enthusiasts that played in taverns and
coffee shops a few times a week. Bach had been director
since 1729. Most, if not all, of Bach's harpsichord
concertos are transcriptions of concertos for other
instruments, but only in a few cases have those source
pieces survived. A piece like BWV 1054 provides us with
a wonderful opportunity to examine just how Bach went
about recasting the old material into a new and very
individual work for harpsichord.
The most obvious change by far is the transposition
from E major down to D major (the second movement is
moved from C sharp minor down to B minor accordingly)
-- standard operating procedure for the harpsichord
transcriptions, in this case especially fortunate
because the highest notes of the solo part in the
violin version go a whole tone above what was possible
on the normal harpsichord of the day. The course of the
music remains unchanged, but the solo part cannot claim
the same thing: the basic shapes in the part remain the
same (they are filled out to exploit the harpsichord's
polyphonic capabilities, naturally), but some of the
figurations have changed to the point that wholly new
melodic lines are sometimes drawn. Bach makes a couple
of very slight tempo alterations, or perhaps just
omissions: Allegro is indicated in the violin version,
while the first movement has no indication at all in
the harpsichord version (Allegro would be assumed); and
the original Allegro assai marking at the head of the
third movement is now simply Allegro.
Although originally written for Harpsichord, 2 Violins,
Viola and Continuo, I created this Arrangement of the
Concerto in D Major (BWV 1054) for Piano & Strings (2
Violins, Viola & Cello).
SHEET MUSIC