It was in the early 1710s, in the middle of his days in
Weimar, that J.S. Bach first became acquainted with
Antonio Vivaldi's remarkable instrumental concertos;
they would prove to have a tremendous influence not
only upon Bach's own instrumental concertos, but also
upon his style as a whole. One of the ways that Bach
learned and absorbed new music was by making
adaptations and transcriptions of it. So he did with
many Vivaldi concertos during his Weimar residency,
recrafting them, along with co...(+)
It was in the early 1710s, in the middle of his days in
Weimar, that J.S. Bach first became acquainted with
Antonio Vivaldi's remarkable instrumental concertos;
they would prove to have a tremendous influence not
only upon Bach's own instrumental concertos, but also
upon his style as a whole. One of the ways that Bach
learned and absorbed new music was by making
adaptations and transcriptions of it. So he did with
many Vivaldi concertos during his Weimar residency,
recrafting them, along with concertos by other
composers, into series of concertos for harpsichord and
for organ (in both cases without orchestral
accompaniment). Bach's Concerto for organ No. 2 in A
minor, BWV 593, is an arrangement?or a condensation and
refinement?of Vivaldi's famous Concerto for two violins
in A minor, RV 522, No. 8?from the volume L'estro
armonico, Op.3, which first appeared in print in
Amsterdam in 1711.
Bach's reduction of the concerto for two soloists,
strings, and basso continuo to a work for just two
hands and pedals was a process that required some
alteration of the music. Bach went beyond simple
necessity, and in fact tightened and enriched the very
contrapuntal fabric of his source piece. BWV 593 is in
three movements, the second of which Bach gives to the
manuals alone. It is this second movement that I
re-arranged non-standard Woodwind Quartet (Flute, Oboe,
English Horn and Bassoon).
PARTITION