Brandenburg Concerto No. 1

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) composed the six Brandenburg Concertos in 1721 during his tenure in Cöthen, the Calvinist court where secular instrumental music took precedence over sacred music. Each concerto explores a different combination of solo instruments and varying degrees of coordination between the soloists and the full orchestra (the latter group also known as the ripieno or ritornello). Bach didn’t have many musicians at his disposal in Cöthen. A further reduction in numbers after the arrival of Prince Leopold’s unmusical new bride was certainly a factor in Bach’s decision to leave his post. But during better times, those few musicians—whose ability clearly compensated for their scant numbers—helped inspire Bach’s fabulous and diverse concerto scorings.

Parts of Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 exist in other works, suggesting it partly dates from a time before Cöthen. Indeed, its remarkable four-movement structure only exists because Bach appended a dance finale to the basic fast–slow–fast format. Apart from that novelty, Brandenburg No. 1’s robust scoring typifies the Baroque concerto grosso in which a small group of solo instruments emerge from and recede back into the full orchestral texture. It features an intriguing solo ensemble: three oboes, two horns, bassoon, and a violino piccolo. That last item is simply a smaller version of the standard four-string violin. Its higher timbre may have been favored here by Bach because it could hold its own against the powerful winds.
His inclusion of horns also merits comment. Horns were not typical instruments in concert settings at this time. They were heard almost exclusively during the hunt, and it is not surprising that this concerto once functioned as the opening in Bach’s “Hunt” Cantata 208 (1713). We note the horns most clearly during the opening Allegro where they unexpectedly perform numerous triplet rhythms against the prevailing duple meter. Their other moment to shine comes in the Polacca Trio of the fourth movement. The horn’s distinctive sound gives an autumnal quality to the work. During the second and third movements, Bach favors the pairing of violino piccolo and oboe; the Adagio in particular features the lyrical, affecting quality of those two soloists.
The Minuet in Brandenburg No. 1 is played by the full ensemble, whereas the delightful Trio is scored for just two oboes and bassoon. Similarly in the Polish dance with Trio that follows, Bach writes the one for strings alone and the other for two horns and oboes. The Polacca enjoys a pastoral feel in F major with drone pitches in the bass. But listen for the briefest of foot-stomping intrusions during the Polacca’s middle section. Bach uses the Minuet as a refrain against these other dances, creating an overall ABACADA structure.
Focusing now on the final dance movement, we are reminded just how fluid these compositions were in the early 18th century. It is not unlikely that the dances were added to satisfy a specific performance situation; perhaps a festive banquet, in the spirit of Telemann’s popular Tafelmusik? That these dances remained as part of the received (and now definitive) Brandenburg No. 1 text may be just a happy coincidence. They could easily have been lost or removed at some point prior to the moment in which the received version was put together, and thus would not have been included with the materials passed down to us.

(c) Jason Stell