Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 BWV 1049

Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 BWV 1049 - II. Andante

José Rodríguez Alvira

The movement is in E minor. Bach makes use of the responsorial style where the soloists (concertino) and the orchestra (ripieno) respond to each other.

An 18-bar section presents the thematic material on which the movement is based. The soloists respond to the orchestra (ripieno - ceniocertino:

A second section modulates to A minor. Now the orchestra responds to the soloists:

From A minor, we modulate to B minor:

We repeat measures 18 to 28, transposed a descending fourth. This time we start in B minor, so we end in the key of E minor:

We conclude the movement with measures 55 to 71, a highly varied recapitulation of the first measures:

E minor key.
From the first measures, we see the use of the responsorial style. The orchestra or ripieno (in blue) begins, and the soloists or concertino (in green) respond.
When the orchestra plays, the lead violin and flutes double the first violins.

Three important motives appear from the first measure: motive (a) that is transformed by inversion (b) and expanded into a third (c).
With these motifs, the thematic material of the movement is developed..

In the first 8 bars, the questions and answers between ripieno and concertino are two bars long.
In measure 9, they are reduced to one measure.
From measure 13, the orchestra and soloists conclude the section with a cycle of fifths.

Philomusica of London (orchestra), Boyd Neel (conductor), Geoffrey Gilbert, Phillip Goody (flutes), Emanuel Hurwitz (violin)
Musical Masterpiece Society (Philips), 1955. Reissue Schattdorf: Gagnaux Collection
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The cycle of fifths from measure 13 onwards is a series of dominant chords (B - E - A - D - G) leading to the VI degree, C major.
Bach achieves an interesting chromaticism by anticipating the sevenths of the next chord (G natural when going from E dominant to dominant).
This results in a dominant chord passing through a minor seventh chord to reach the next dominant (E - Em7 - A).
The last dominant chord (G) uses two chromatic notes: the D# leads to E and the F# to G.

E minor key.
The orchestra responds to the soloists.
In measure 21, we arrive at A minor.
Orchestra and soloists play from bar 24.
The flutes follow their role as soloists, the first violin doubles the solo violin.
We end up in A minor.

We begin in A minor with the orchestra.
Flute 1 plays solo in measures 29 and 31.
At measure 32, we arrive at E minor.
In bar 35, we reach B minor.
A dialogue between soloists and the orchestra begins.
In measure 40, the cycle of fifths of measure 13 is repeated.
The section ends in B minor.

Repetition of measures 1 to 18 transposed a descending fourth. Before, we modulated from E minor to A minor; now, we return to E minor from B minor.

A minor key.
Cello, violone, and continuo present the primary thematic material over A minor's dominant chord.
A minor VI degree chord is used as a Neapolitan sixth of E minor to return to the primary key (measure 59).
The soloist play sequence of fifths (bar 61).
The key of E minor is affirmed in measure 67.
The movement ends with a cadence to the dominant.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. José Rodríguez Alvira.
Published by teoria.com

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