Johann Sebastian Bach most likely completed his
Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050, in
1721. This work is the fifth of six concertos the
composer dedicated to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of
Brandenburg. The offering was likely a sort of
application for employment; Bach got no response, but
these pieces have become some of his best-known
material. Every one of the concertos is distinct, as
are the composer's sets of suites and partitas. Hearing
the fifth concerto in the context of the...(+)
Johann Sebastian Bach most likely completed his
Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050, in
1721. This work is the fifth of six concertos the
composer dedicated to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of
Brandenburg. The offering was likely a sort of
application for employment; Bach got no response, but
these pieces have become some of his best-known
material. Every one of the concertos is distinct, as
are the composer's sets of suites and partitas. Hearing
the fifth concerto in the context of the rest of the
set makes it clear that, apart from Bach's inimitable
strength as a contrapuntist, the key to his ability to
make music that is both sublime and entertaining lies
in the fact that in his hands, everything is elastic.
No other composer of the Baroque era could write
through the constraints of form as if it was not there
at all. Bach saw more options than anyone else, in form
and in influence. The way he blended the Italian sound
into his own in these concertos ennobled both Italian
and German music. The scope of his vision and his
relentless invention, making everything he wrote new,
frustrates any attempt at comparison.
This fifth concerto is scored for flute, solo violin,
obbligato harpsichord, and strings. It is the only one
of the six pieces to have any solo material given to
the harpsichord, which is part of the continuo
throughout the other works, filling out the harmonies.
In the second movement (the 'Affettuoso'), there are
five tutti passages each taking four bars. The
identical opening and closing tutti passages are in B
minor, with the violin playing the leading melody line.
The flute takes the lead in the other tuttis. The
central tutti passage is the only one, apart from the
outer ones, in a minor key. The first of the two major
key tuttis is a mere transposition of the opening tutti
to its relative major, also switching the violin and
flute roles. The fourth tutti, in G major, variates the
melodic material. The harpsichord takes the lead in the
intermittent solo episodes: the harpsichordist's right
hand, accompanied by a bass line in the left hand and
some figuration by the other concertato instruments,
variates on the tutti material in soloist episodes
varying from five to eleven bars in length. The
structure of the movement is thus more or less
symmetrical, with some added weight to the fourth tutti
and episode.
The music of this movement is exclusively performed by
the three concertato instruments, with the right hand
of the harpsichordist being allotted the soloist role,
and the other instruments, together with the continuo
line of the harpsichordist's left hand, producing the
orchestral accompaniment – as a whole this
distribution of roles is quite different from that of a
trio sonata movement. The violone part of the early
version of the concerto breaks off after the first
movement, leaving uncertain whether it was intended to
perform only in the outer movements or also in the
middle movement: it is possible that in this version
the violone reinforced the continuo bass-line in the
tuttis.
The movement's tempo indication is a standard "Adagio"
in the older version, changed to "Affettuoso" in the
final version. The latter indication may reflect more
clearly what Bach wanted to express in the movement.
Additionally, while some of the harpsichord's melodies
involve sustained notes (which would not sound for a
long enough time if the movement is played too slow),
Bach may have wanted to accelerate the pace a bit by
the new tempo indicator. Bach contrasted the
harpsichord's long notes to short-note figuration by
violin and flute: these instruments, although naturally
more suitable to play sustained notes, play no long
notes throughout the movement.
Originally written for Flute, Violin & Harpsichord, I
created this Arrangement of the Affettuoso from the
Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major (BWV 1050 Mvt. 2)
for Flute, Cello & Piano.
PARTITION