KNOW YOUR CLASSICS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 516, 13 May 1949, Page 26

KNOW YOUR CLASSICS

HIS is one of a further series of articles written for "The Listener" by BESSIE POLLARD. As with the preceding series, published some time ago, the aim is to help the student and the interested listener towards a more complete appreciation of good music. (19) Brandenburg Concerto No.4 in G(J.S. Bach) [N 1717 Bach relinquished his position as Court Organist at Weimar and became Capellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen, His new office turned his creative abilities towards instrumental music. Through his patron he met Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg, who cémmissioned Bach ‘to write for his own orchestra; two years later Bach forwarded the set of six concertos which now bear the Margrave’s name. Each Concerto of the series is scored for a different ensemble; as a whole one feels that the Concertos were experiments in the Concerto Grosso style which were discussed fully in The Listener of 13.9.48, Readers will remember that a feature of this form is the group of solo instruments (the Concertino) supported by the orchestral forces called the Ripieno. In the Fourth Brandenburg Concerto in G, the soloists’ group is scored for violin and two flutes, while the orchestral ensemble is made up of violins I and II, viola, ’cello, bass, and harpsichord-continuo, In the MSS., Bach terms the flutes, "due Fiauti d’Echo," no doubt because in the Andante movement, the flutes and solo violin echo the tutti passages, ° The first movement-Allegro-is long, extending for some 427 bars. The flutes announce the main theme, made up of a broken chord motif which is the "germ" of the whole movement- E

In bar 13, the solo violin gives out an important counter-theme ("A" below); at bar 35 the flutes present a new counter-subject ("B" below)-

The exposition, or setting out of material section, ends with a cadence divided between violins and flutes-for convenience the upward stems stand for the flutes, and the downward for the strings-

The second movement-Andante-features a favourite device of the péeriodthe "echo" effect. Soloists and orchestra nenie:* with a loud phrase, which is echoed softly by the soloists only

The Finale-Presto-is a lively Fugue; the viola announces ‘the subject accompanied by a ‘cello and continuo theme which foreshadows the ~ttern of the counter-subject-here is the viola subject- :

Bach’s "Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G" will be ‘heard from Station 4e4 at 7.30 p.m. on Thursday, May 19.