page_title: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5
section_title: Early version (BWV 1050a)
hierarchical_section_title: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 / History / Early version (BWV 1050a)
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Ein Zimmer im Bachhaus Eisenach
context_page_description: Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his fifth Brandenburg Concerto, BWV 1050.2, for harpsichord, flute and violin as soloists, and an orchestral accompaniment consisting of strings and continuo. An early version of the concerto, BWV 1050.1, originated in the late 1710s. On 24 March 1721 Bach dedicated the final form of the concerto to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg.
context_section_description: BWV 1050a (1050.1), the extant early version of the fifth Brandenburg Concerto, survives in a manuscript copy, consisting of performance parts, which was produced between 1744 and 1759. In this version the concerto is in six parts (a sei):
  Soloists (concertato instruments, together forming the concertino):
  traverso
  violin concertato
  harpsichord concertato
  Accompaniment, i.e. ripieno and continuo parts:
  violin
  viola
  violone (playing in eight-foot pitch)
  The violone part is only extant for the first movement. In this version of the concerto the three movements are indicated as "Allegro", "Adagio" and "Allegro". The harpsichordist's left hand plays the continuo line, doubled, with simplifations and omissions, by the violone. The accompaniment is minimal as to not overpower the naturally quiet single-manual harpsichord: firstly the accompaniment is reduced in numbers, with no second violin nor cello parts and only one bass part, and secondly the accompaniment gets instruction to play quietly most of the time. The ritornellos used by Bach in this concerto, for instance the extremely Vivaldian ritornello of the first movement, stay very close to early 18th-century Italian an Italianate violin concerto models, thus making a time of origin shortly after the concerto transcriptions of the mid-Weimar period likely.
  An occasion to work with a traverso performer may have presented itself during a visit the composer made to Dresden in September 1717, shortly before he moved to Köthen, a visit which is primarily remembered for the aborted contest with Marchand. Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin was a virtuoso traverso player working for the Dresden court since 1715. Bach may have known Buffardin through his brother Johann Jacob, who had been a pupil of the French flautist in 1712. Bach also knew two top Dresden violinists: Volumier, the concertmaster who had invited the composer to Dresden, and Pisendel. If Bach wrote the concerto for Dresden it seems to allude to the strife regarding the Italian versus the French style which occupied its musicians at the time, Bach delivering a work which without complexes combined characteristics of both styles. Another coincidence is that the concerto's middle movement is built on a theme composed by Marchand, as if Bach wanted to show off to his prospective competitor how he could elaborate that theme quite differently from its composer's original treatment.
  The possibility of a performance of the early version of the fifth Brandenburg Concerto in Dresden in 1717 was first tentatively proposed by harpsichordist and musicologist Pieter Dirksen in the early 1990s. Although the hypothesis rests on a complex of circumstantial indications without direct evidence, it has been picked up by Bach scholars.
caption: A single-manual harpsichord conserved in the Bach House in Eisenach
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot S50", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2006:09:08 16:49:59", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "196", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2036", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3871", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:09:08 16:49:59", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:09:08 16:49:59", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "189/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, auto mode, red-eye reduction mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "227/32", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1200", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "1600", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1200", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1556", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1600000/283", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "300000/53", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Portrait"}