Brandenburg Concertos BWV 1046-1051
General Discussions - Part 4 (2019)

Continue from Part 3

Brandenburg Concertos: Unity Thru Diversity

William L. Hoffman wrote (December 24, 2019):
In Weimar following Bach's transcriptions of 22 solo concertos for organ, BWV 592-6, and harpsichord, BWV 972-87 (https://groups.io/g/Bach/topic/68708723), he turned in earnest to the composition of original ensemble concertos and "the leap from there to his first surviving original concertos is staggering," says Nicholas Kenyon.¹ Indeed, "the Brandenburg Concertos set a standard of inventiveness and excellence that other music of the era achieves all too rarely. They create a sustained sense of well-being and aspiration: there is something supernaturally dazzling in the richness, variety and deliberate virtuosic scope of these six works." "Every one of the six concertos set a precedent in scoring, and every one was to remain without parallel," says Christoph Wolff.² He also suggests that some of the music was chosen from outside the local repertory and dating back as much as a decade when Bach began working with the ritornello form. The fifth concerto in its final form probably was the last work to enter the collection in 1721.

Bach in Weimar began producing his first collection of the six Brandenburg Concertos, BWV 1046-51 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/BWV1046-1051.htm#Rev) his most popular music in Cöthen, dedicated to the Margrave of Brandenburg in 1721, two years after he visited the court in Berlin and was commissioned to provide a concerto collection. While Bach's dedication, the music itself (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_Concertos) and the plethora of recordings have been thoroughly analyzed and discussed (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/BWV1046-1051-Gen1.htm), the dating and genesis of the individual concertos with varied instrumentation is still subject to scholarly research involving the genesis, context of the music and the varied forms. "In fact, Concertos no. 3 and 6 and an early version of no. 1 were even composed in Weimar, before Bach's time in Cöthen," says Peter Bergquist.³ "Only concertos no. 5 and 4 and perhaps no. 2 were in any way immediate responses to the margrave's request." In addition, there are different versions of the Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 1-5 while various movements later were adapted as sinfonias and aria and chorus transcriptions in the Leipzig sacred cantatas, along with other movements that are through to have originated in Cöthen or earlier as remnants of concerto movements (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV1045-D2.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Parodies-5.htm).

With the exception of concerto collections of Vivaldi for diverse instruments and for the Dresden Court in 1719, RV 576-80 (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Jan03/Vivaldi_Dresden.htm), the Brandenburg Concertos are without equal in Baroque concertos. Here is the diverse scoring for the six Brandenburg Concertos: No. 1 in F Major, BWV 1046: 2 Corno da caccia, Oboe, Violino piccolo, 2 ob, bn, 2 Violins, Viola, Continuo; No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047: Trumpet, Recorder, Oboe, Violin, 2 Violins, Viola, Continuo; No. 3 in G Major, BWV 1048: 3 Violins, 3 Violas, 3 Violoncellos, Continuo; No. 4 in G Major, BWV 1049: Violin, 2 Recorders, 2 Violins, Viola, Continuo; No. 5 in D Major, BWV 1050: Flute, Violin, Harpsichord, 2 Violins, Viola, Continuo; and No. 6 in B-Flat Major, BWV 1051: 2 Violas, 2 Violas da gamba, Violoncello, Continuo. Bach is considered the first of the German composers to compose concertos with woodwinds in addition to the string ensemble previously found in the concerto grosso (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concerto_grosso), which pits the soloists in concertino, alternating with the full string section called ripieno.

The instrumental categories of concertos depends on the perspective of the individual writer. For example, Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 3 and 6 are traditional "string concertos" in concertante collective fashion, the large mixed ensemble Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 may be considered "concerti grossi" with solo (concertino) and string ensemble (ripieni), and Concertos Nos. 4 and 5 showcase individual instruments to create "solo concertos," according Nicholas Harnoncourt in his recording. ⁴ Another perspective divides the collection into "solo concertos" (Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 4 and 5), "ensemble concertos" with three or more soloists (Brandenburg Concertos Nos, 1 and 2,), and "concerto ripieni" for strings alone, Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 3 and 6), says Michael Talbot.⁵ Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 1, 2, 4, and 5 have then usual string ensemble of two violins, a viola, and continuo. A third perspective suggests that Concertos Nos. 1 and 6 are "ensemble concertos "(pieces without consistently detached soloistic subgroups)," says Michael Marissen,⁶ while the second and fifth are concerti grossi "(pieces with clearly defined concertino and ripieno groups) and the Third and Fourth Concertos juxtapose the two styles at the center of the collection."

The last five of the Brandenburg Concertos are found in the traditional Vivaldian three-movement form of fast-slow-fast tempi with the first concerto in a hybrid form of fast-slow-fast with a concluding dance movement of Menuetto and Polacca (Polonaise) preceded by Adagio and Allegro. Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 has the old three-movement form of the slow movement in one measure, marked "Adagio," which may be improvised by the continuo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuosfi94fCw), similar to the slow bridge interlude found in dance suites such as Handel's "Water Music" and in the "Organ Concerto in A major," HWV 296a.

Festive Ensemble Brandenburgs Nos. 1 and 2

The Brandenburg Concertos are considered a potpourri of Bach's concertos for a wide range of instruments, available at the Cöthen orchestra with Bach as Capellmeister. The pastoral first concerto of Germanic hunt music is scored for two hunting horns, three oboes and bassoon with strings (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TlG6LMQR9M), with interplay among all three groups as a concerto ripieno for solo instruments. An earlier, abbreviated version is found as the Sinfonia, BWV 1046a (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrz8LRaL2Qk, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00002019), which may have originated as the opening of Bach's "Hunting Cantata," BWV 208, Tafelmusik in 1713 in Weißenfels or in 1716 in Weimar (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV208.htm).

The Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047 is another regal, festive work for high natural "clarino" trumpet in F, treble recorder, oboe and violin with strings (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haRanlw9eSg). The first movement of this concerto was chosen as the first musical piece to be played on the Voyager Golden Record (https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record). An earlier version as a Concerto da camera for the four soloists and continuo, without strings, a "concertino concerto," also is a copy from Bach student Christian Friedrich Penzel (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00002020). It is found in a reconstruction, BWV 1047R, "Concerto da camera," by Klaus Hofmann, Bärenreiter BA 5196 (1998).⁷ It is possible that this early version also was composed for the Weißenfels Court trumpet virtuoso Johann Caspar Altenburg, says Malcolm Boyd.⁸ The strings in ripieno were added "to bring it more in line with No. 1 or else to achieve an equal balance within the set between concerti Grossi (Nos. 2, 4, and 5) and ensemble concertos (Nos. 1, 3 and 6)," says Richard D. P. Jones.⁹ In 1755, Penzel also copied Brandenburg No. 3 https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00002021). His sources for the first three Brandenburg Concertos are presumed to be a Leipzig collection possibly found at the Thomas School or the Collegium musicum. "Bach undoubtedly performed them in Cöthen and probably later on in Leipzig," says Bergquist (Ibid: 8).

No. 3, Strings, Missing Slow Movement

In the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major, BWV 1048, Bach turns to the string orchestra alone, scoring for three each violins, viola and violoncellos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyDWtvCd9Xo). It is among the earliest of the Brandenburgs, "at least as far as the first movement is concerned," says Malcolm Boyd (Ibid.: 78), a tripartite ABA' For the second, slow movement, "Although there is no direct evidence to support it—it was likely that these [Adagio second movement] chords are meant to surround or follow a cadenza improvised by a harpsichord or violin player, says Wikipedia (Ibid.). <<Modern performance approaches range from simply playing the cadence with minimal ornamentation (treating it as a sort of "musical semicolon"), to inserting movements from other works, to cadenzas varying in length from under a minute to over two minutes. Wendy Carlos's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Carlos] three electronic performances (from Switched-On Bach, Switched-On Brandenburgs, and Switched-On Bach 2000) have second movements that are completely different from each other.

Occasionally in the third concerto, the third movement from Bach's Sonata for Violin and Continuo in G, BWV 1021 [marked Largo, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM_17JzH8U4] is substituted for the second movement as it contains an identical 'Phrygian cadence' as the closing chords. The Largo from the Sonata for Violin and Obbligato Harpsichord in G major, BWV 1019 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBNAv3cBrHY], has also been used.>> Another possible slow movement substitution is the concerted Largo in the Organ Trio Sonata No. 6 in D Major, BWV 530 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZevLZv4erOo), suggests Boyd (Ibid.: 81), who cites the precedence of Bach having transcribed the slow movement of his Organ Sonata No. 3 in D minor, BWV 527, for the middle movement of the Triple Concerto in A Minor, BWV 1044. Another suggestion is that Bach may have played a harpsichord solo, possibly a section of the early Toccata in F-sharp minor, BWV 914, says Norman Carrell.¹⁰ The closing "Allegro is another exceptional movement," says Boyd (Ibid.: 82). It "is the only concerto movement by Bach to use the binary dance form of two sections" in the style of a gigue The exception is the Sinfonia opening the 1726 sacred Cantata 35, which Bach also transcribed to open Harpsichord Concerto No. 8 in D minor, BWV 1059, c.1738, thought to have been the first movement of a lost Cöthen concerto for violin or oboe.

Nos. 4-5: Intimate Harpsichord, Flute, Violin

For the Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G Major, BWV 1949, Bach composed a double concerto for violin and two recorders with a full string orchestra (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHyzQf38F6w). Bach also had favored the combination of violin and flute with continuo in the Trio Sonata, BWV 1038 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcpQhFVSZ-g; the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in for flute, violin and harpsichord (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtAdBjZhfA4); and the Triple Concerto for violin, flute, harpsichord and strings, BWV 1044 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBd9wRJ68Po&list=OLAK5uy_n30SMAjPCv6INLEe48NlqzyilGGICbw8E&index=11. It "is one of the most substantial in the whole set," says Boyd (Ibid.: 83), using all the instruments in all three movements. The opening Allegro has a minuet rhythm in 3/8 metre in the dual form of ritornello and da capo structures. The slow movement Andante is a sarabande style in 3/4 in three sections with the recorders eclipsing the violin. The third movement Presto, "is the tightest and most satisfying convergence of ritornello form and fugue in all Bach's music," says Boyd (Ibid.: 84f) with an alla breve 2/2 tempo without dance-style triple metre, "shifting the 'weight' of the composition from the first to the last movement." About 1738, Bach transcribed this as the Concerto No. 6 in F Major for Harpsichord, two recorders and strings, BWV 1057 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_abEuZWVEsM), "almost certainly for performance at meetings of the collegium musicum at Gottfried Zimmermann's premises," says Boyd (Ibid.: 85).

The harpsichord comes to the fore in Bach's Brandenburg Concert No. 5 in D Major, BWV 1050 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtAdBjZhfA4), where it probably became the first keyboard concerto in the Baroque era and a harbinger of the popular piano concerto beginning in the Classical Period. There was an earlier version of this concerto, BWV 1050a, in a parts copy of Johann Christoph Farlau (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00002485), with a more abbreviated harpsichord cadenza in the first movement Allegro, which "is the longest and most complex" of the Brandenburgs, says Boyd (Ibid.: 87). During Bach's Berlin visit in 1719 he secured a new harpsichord for the Cöthen court and may have begun Concerto No. 5 at that time, says Boyd. "It is also thought that Bach wrote it in 1719 for a competition at Dresden with the French composer and organist Louis Marchand; in the central movement, Bach uses one of Marchand's themes," says Wikipedia (Ibid.). The slow movement Affettuoso, marked Adagio in the earliest version, has "a clearly articulated ritornello structure," says Boyd (Ibid.: 90). In the last movement Allegro "Bach superimposed a ritornello design on a fugue with the third structure of a da capo aria," he says. There is an intermediate version of this concerto which includes the extended cadenza and from which Bach prepared the final edition. This concerto probably was the last Bach composed of the set of six while "The available manuscript sources suggest that of the six Brandenburg Concertos only the fifth circulated widely during the period immediately following Bach's death," says Boyd.

No. 6, Lower String Music

Like the third concerto for strings Bach closes the second half of his concerto collection with a more intimate, reflective string ripieno concerto, the Sixth Concerto in B-flat Major, BWV 1051, this time for two violas and two violas da gamba (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-2UElyRMyI). Because of its unusual scoring for a family of four violas, Bach's last Brandenburg Concerto is the rarest to be heard in concert while originally being dated to as early as 1708-10, Bach's first years in Weimar. "It seems unlikely though" that Bach could composed the opening Allegro in a fully-developed ritornello structure or the last movement Allegro in "as neat and conventional a da capo structure," says Boyd (Ibid: 14). The two violas alone play the slow movement "Adagio ma non tanto" in early trio-sonata style with harpsichord with a elaborated, three-measure Phrygian cadence. The finale Allegro "is perhaps the most tuneful of all Bach concerto movements," says Boyd (Ibid.: 95), and "may, indeed, be regarded as a sprightly first cousin of the beguiling Sinfonia" from the Nativity section of the Christmas Oratorio (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CXsN91oOHg). While eminently suitably for the Cöthen ensemble and most appropriate for Prince Leopold, Bach and the two court gambists may have performed it on vacation at the Carlsbad spa in 1718 or 1720. The work may date to 1713 where it may have begun as an arrangement of an early trio sonata in the introduction to a lost cantata, says Boyd (Ibid.: 14).

Concerto Movements Used in Leipzig

While much has been written about the origins of the first Brandenburg Concerto as the 1713 Sinfonia in F Major, BWV 1046a, the third movement Allegro (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXBmygI-N3M) was added later before 1721 and much later was adapted in 1726 as a concerted opening chorus of secular Cantata 207 for full orchestra where trumpets replace horns and inserted a chorus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0ypkKbOdRI) and again parodied in 1735 as Cantata 207a (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yODGh-m4Ovo&vl=en, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV207-D3.htm). This blending of gigue and passepied and vocal insertion "is the only instance in Bach's concertos of a movement which adopts this structure in all its details" as a free-da capo structure, says Boyd (Ibid. 63). "Bach adapted both the concerto Allegro and the cantata chorus from a still earlier vocal composition" for SATB chorus, suggests Boyd (Ibid.: 67), noting that between 1718 and 1721, Bach annually composed four vocal congratulatory serenades for Leopold's birthday (December 10) and New Year's Day with half lost. "Boyd's hypothesis has been fleshed out by Michael Talbot, who shows in detail how the lost cantata might have furnished material for BWV 207, 1046, and 1046a," says Alfred Dürr.¹¹

Bach also transcribed the first concerto fourth movement minuet Trio II, BWV 1046/4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCJB2d9N49U : 7:02) as a continuo duet with closing wind ritornello in the Cantata 207 soprano-bass duet, No. 5 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evf789_wkGQ). Also in 1726, Bach used the first movement Allegro of the first Brandenburg Concerto as the introductory sinfonia to the sacred Cantata 52, "Falsche Welt, dir trau ich nicht!" (False world, I do not trust you!) for the 23rd Sunday after Trinity (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZummflBbjA8).

The opening Allegro movement of the third concerto Bach later transcribed in 1729 as an orchestral sinfonia opening Cantata 174, "Ich liebe den Höchsten von ganzem Gemüte" (I love God most high with all my heart) for the second day of Pentecost, scored for Corno da caccia I/II, Oboe I/II, Taille, Violino I-III, Viola I-III, Violoncello I-III, Continuo (+ Fagotto, Violone). There are changes in notation from the original Margrave manuscript and the adaptation a decade later, showing a "conflict between style and chronology," says Boyd (Ibid.: 79). This suggests there was an intermediate fair copy in Cöthen for a court performance about 1719, which also suggests that the entire Brandenburg collection probably was not performed together but individually, as also was most likely in Leipzig.

Bach is thought to have composed many other ensemble concertos in Cöthen, according to Christoph Wolff (Ibid: 200), because of the great cost of manuscript paper and bookbinding, amounting to "well over 350 compositions, mainly chamber and orchestral music, but also serenades and other vocal works." This music remained in the court library but was lost through a fire decades later. The only other extant work which may have been considered a candidate for inclusion in the Brandenburg Concerto collection is the third Gamba Sonata in G Minor, BWV 1029.¹² Otherwise, there are only an occasional movement in one of the Brandenburg Concertos and handful of remnant concerto movements found in Bach's third sacred cantata cycle in 1726 when he mined his ensemble repertory for transcriptions of sinfonias and arias and choruses.

Postlude: As popular as Bach's Brandenburg Concertos are, there are only a few monographs extant, cited in the Footnotes: notably Norman Carrell 1963 book which includes photographs of Bach's instruments, Malcolm Boyd's concise 1993 study, and Michael Marissen's scholarly 1995 work. An overview of Marissen's book, The Social and Religious Designs of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos is found at Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1869429.The_Social_and_Religious_Designs_of_J_S_Bach_s_Brandenburg_Concertos: <<This new investigation of the Brandenburg Concertos explores musical, social, and religious implications of Bach's treatment of eighteenth-century musical hierarchies. By reference to contemporary music theory, to alternate notions of the meaning of "concerto," and to various eighteenth-century conventions of form and instrumentation, the book argues that the Brandenburg Concertos are better understood not as an arbitrary collection of unrelated examples of "pure" instrumental music, but rather as a carefully compiled and meaningfully organized set. It shows how Bach's concertos challenge (as opposed to reflect) existing musical and social hierarchies.>>

The Neue Bach Ausgabe (NBA) critical commentary on the Brandenburgs, authored by Heinrich Bessler and Alfred Dürr, appeared early on in 1956 (https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/shop/product/details/DV5105_56/) and despite more recent, source-critical and divergent fundings of various versions of the concertos, it remains an indisputable, authentic source. It is No. 2 in the NBA Orchestral Works Series VII (https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/catalogue/complete-editions/bach-johann-sebastian/nba/series-vii/#content) which also studied the Orchestral Suites and the solo and multiple-instrument concerto, as well as Lost Solo Concertos in Reconstructions in 1971 (https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/shop/product/details/BA5034_41/).

The most recent study of Bach's orchestral music is Siegbert Rampe and Dominik Sachmann's Bachs Orchestermusik: Entstehung - Klangwelt - Interpretation (Bach's Orchestral Music: Origin - Sound World - Interpretation (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2000), https://www.baerenreiter.com/shop/produkt/details/BVK1345/. It is a thorough study of 38 works, primarily the Brandenburg Concertos, the Orchestral Suites and the violin, oboe, and harpsichord concertos. Of special interest is the authors' chronology of Bach's concertos, in Weimar and Cöthen, from 1709 to 1720, with the Brandenburg Concertos as follows: No. 1, BWV 1046a early version, 1709-1712; No. 3, BWV 1038, 1714; No. 5, BWV 1050a, early version, 1718; No. 6, early version for two violas, 1719; No. 1, BWV 1046/3, 1719; No. 5 final version, BWV 1050, 1720; No. 4, BWV 1049,1720; and No. 2, BWV 1047, 1720. "This sweeping chronological hypothesis" must be considered questionable," says Christoph Wolff in his essay, "Sicilianos and Organ Recitals: Observations on J. S. Bach's Concertos."¹³ Wolff, best known for his definitive Bach biography, "The Learned Musician," 2000, updated 2013, devotes a chapter to the Brandenburg Concertos in his forthcoming, Bach's Musical Universe: The Composer and His Work (Amazon.com), which deals with Bach major works.

In the six Brandenburg Concertos, "Bach sought the maximum variety not only of scoring and instrumental disposition, but of concerto forms and styles," says Jones (Ibid.: 73). Beginning in 1717, Bach had direct connections to the nearby Saxon court in Dresden which presented "such richly and variously scored concertos," he observes (Ibid.: 70), and set the gold standard for instrumental music in 1730. Meanwhile, Bach's experience with the concerto slow movements had a profound effect on these movements as found in the sacred vocal works created in Leipzig. There were three types of slow movement, observes Werner Breig:¹⁴ the bass model ostinato as found in the Arioso principle in Cantata 156 from the Clavier Concerto No 5 slow movement (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xueopsTHesw); https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ52VubO3dgCantata 146 opening chorus from the Clavier Concerto No. 2 slow movement; and imitative movement as in the Adagio in the Concerto for Violin and Oboe, BWV 1060, Bach's most popular reconstruction.

FOOTNOTES

¹ Nicholas Kenyon, "Brandenburg Concertos," in Bach the Music, Bach 333, the J. S. Bach New Complete Edition (Berlin: Deutsche Grammaphon, 2018: 151), https://www.bach333.com/en/.
² Christoph Wolff, Chapter 7, "Capellmeister in Cöthen, 1717-23," in Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, updated ed. (New York: W. W. Norton, 2013: 232); https://books.google.com/books?id=ronZdkhQouMC&pg=PA232&lpg=PA232&dq=Christoph+Wolff+Learned+%22Every+one+of+the+six+concertos%22&source=bl&ots=DwukHd-OAP&sig=ACfU3U0kSLjIFmH-6dSFcu7K7sS4Wq0aFg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjMiJzM6sLmAhWbBc0KHfrHAYEQ6AEwCnoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=Christoph%20Wolff%20Learned%20%22Every%20one%20of%20the%20six%20concertos%22&f=false.
³ Peter Bergquist, "Bach's Orchestral Triumph," liner notes: 9 (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2013/Jan13/Bach_Brandenburgs_CD94615.htm).
⁴ Nicholaus Harnoncourt, "Brandenburg Concertos," liner notes, Eng. trans. Stewart Spencer, https://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/BWV1046-1051-Harnoncourt.htm: O-3.
⁵ Michael Talbot, "Instrumental music," "Antonio Vivaldi," in The New Grove Italian Baroque Masters, The Composer Biography Series (New York: W. W. Norton, 1980: 293f.
⁶ Michael Marissen, Chapter 2, "The Six Concerts as a Set," in The Social and Religious Designs of J. S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995: 85).
⁷ Bach "Concerto da camera," BWV 1047R https://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=10&sid=7887600b-a451-4786-bb93-a27510fbf574%40sessionmgr102&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=unm.39908405&db=cat05987a.
⁸ Malcolm Boyd, Chapter 2, "Genesis and reception" in Bach". The Brandenburg Concertos, Cambridge Music Handbooks (Cambridge University Press, 1993: 15).
⁹ Richard D. P. Jones: Part I.3, "The Brandenburg Concertos and other Instrumental Works," in The Creative Development of Johann Sebastian Bach, Vol. 1, 1695-1717: Music to Delight the Spirit (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004: 71).
¹⁰ Normal Carrell, "Brandenburg Concerto No. 3," in Bach's Brandenburg Concertos (London: George Allen & Unwin Lyd., 1963: 78f).
¹¹ Alfred Dürr, Part 3, Secular Cantatas, Chapter 3, "For Leipzig University Celebrations," in The Cantatas of J. S. Bach, rev. & Eng. trans. Richard D. P. Jones (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005: 861, Footnote 1); citing Talbot, "Purpose and Peculiarities of the Brandenburg Concertos," in Bach und die Stile, eds. Martin Geck and Klaus Hofmann, conference report (Dortmund: Klangfarben Musikverlag, 1999: 255-89, esp. 271-6); https://books.google.com/books?id=riPSBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA861&lpg=PA861&dq=Michael+Talbot+Brandenburg&source=bl&ots=6HiPAQasXo&sig=ACfU3U1nEmysmXcTGt0H8VWDe4q3C-S7xQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiE3LysxMfmAhVEU80KHfysANEQ6AEwB3oECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=Michael%20Talbot%20Brandenburg&f=false.
¹² Third Gamba Sonata, BWV 1029 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrI6BGB0KuQ), suggested as a Seventh Brandenburg Concerto for viol consort (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ9yjy1_4QE, https://groups.io/g/Bach/topic/chamber_music_viola_da_gamba/64414172?p=,,,20,0,0,0::recentpostdate%2Fsticky,,,20,2,0,64414172: paragraph beginning "The third gamba sonata . . . .").
¹³ Christoph Wolff, "Sicilianos and Organ Recitals: Observations on J. S. Bach's Concertos" in J. S. Bach's Concerted Ensemble Music, The Concerto, Bach Perspectives, Vol.7, ed. Gregory Butler (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008), publication of the American Bach Society. A previous Bach Perspectives 4 in 1999 had dealt with Concepts of Ritornello and Concerto in Gregory G. Butler's "The Question of Genre in the Fourth Brandenburg Concerto," and Jeanne Swack's "Modular Structure and the Perception of Ritornello in Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos." Wolff in 2008 argued that the early Cöthen violin concertos, BWV 1041-43, dated later to Leipzig and also suggested that the earliest violin concerto versions of Harpsichord Concertos Nos. 1 and 2, BWV 1052-3, actually dated to 1725 and originated organ concertos. He bolstered his thesis with a later article, "Did J. S. Bach Write Organ Concertos? Apropos the Prehistory of Cantata Movements with Obbligato Organ," in Bach Perspectives 10 in 2016.
¹⁴ Werner Breig, "The instrumental music," in The Cambridge Companion to Bach, ed. John Butt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997: 133).

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To Come: Concertos for keyboard, violin, and oboe; reconstructions.

William L. Hoffman wrote (December 26, 2019):
Michael Marissen's New York Times article, "There's More Than You Think in Bach's 'Brandenburgs' (Dec. 12, 2018) is found at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/arts/music/bach-brandenburg-concertos.html

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (December 26, 2019):
[To William L. Hoffman, in response to his 2nd message above] I have always found Phillip Pickett's understanding of the Brandenburg Concertos ( J.S.Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos, a New Interpretation) so particularly compelling and informative. The essay was included with the liner notes for the New London Consort's recording of the Brandenburg Concertos, on L'Oiseau Lyre records in 1993.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160304115755/http://members.iinet.net.au/~nickl/brandenburgs.html

William L. Hoffman wrote (December 28, 2019):
[To Kim Patrick Clow] Kim: Thank you for this great article. Just one anecdote. The inventory of the Margrave's library in 1734 is impressive, particularly the some 250 instrumental works of mostly Italians, including 177 for diverse instruments (Malcolm Boyd: Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos: 18). Bach was in good company and must have known about this library.

Kim Patrick Clow wrote (December 28, 2019):
[To Wiliam Hoffman] My pleasure :-)

Zachary Uram wrote (December 28, 2019):
[To William L. Hoffman, in response to his 1st message above]