Johann Sebastian Bach was a Baroque composer: Baroque began 1600 until about 1750. The wealthy played in their living rooms as man made more instruments nifty. There’s George Frideric Handel, George Frideric Handel! Johann Sebastian Bach; Georg Philipp Telemann. Antonio Vivaldi, Antonio Vivaldi! We all know his “Autumn” song. At first this music raised a brow as much too complicated, but masterpiece after masterpiece it’s now quite sophisticated. Ohhhh, this is the musical timeline! It starts with the Early Age. Then it’s Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical, Romantic, and not to forget the Modern Day!

Do you remember what a “concerto” is? It is a musical piece in which one instrument, or a small group of instruments, get a special solo part and stands out front to play it. In Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, he chose a small group of instruments to play the special solo part. In this one, he composed the parts for two French horns (the best instrument in the orchestra), three oboes, and one bassoon. These instruments contrast with the string orchestra and harpsichord in many different combinations to create interesting music. Bach constantly changes the texture of the orchestra—the sound quality of the music—to create thicker and thinner textures as the piece goes on.

The Brandenburg Concertos were written for a nobleman in Brandenburg, Germany. Bach composed Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in 1721 and composed six Brandenburg Concertos altogether. We have already listened to another one this year. Although there are six total concertos, each concerto has multiple movements, or different parts of the song. We are listening to the first movement of this concerto. It has a fast tempo, so this movement is called “Allegro”. Do you have your instruments or your batons ready to play or conduct?

Review questions:

1. What is the name of the composer and which musical era is he from?

2. What is the name of this piece? What is it named after?

3. Which instruments are in this piece?

4. What is a concerto?

5. Why is this movement called “Allegro”?

6. What is (objectively) the best instrument in the orchestra? 😉