Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, BWV 1047 — Analysis

A Baroque ensemble with trumpet, recorder, oboe and violin, inspired by Bach’s Second Brandenburg Concerto
Each concerto in the collection dedicated to the Margrave of Brandenburg in 1721 explores a different instrumental combination. In the Second, trumpet, recorder, oboe and violin share the solo conversation.

Bach’s Second Brandenburg Concerto brings together four instruments whose sounds are produced in markedly different ways: trumpet, recorder, oboe and violin. The trumpet’s brilliance is immediately striking, yet the concerto’s interest extends to the way these four soloists share their material. A phrase first heard from the strings passes to the wind instruments; one melodic idea continues beneath another. Listening becomes a movement between individual colours and the relationships that give those colours a common purpose.

The work belongs to the six concertos Bach assembled in an elegantly written score and dedicated in 1721 to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg (see the Work Guide for more). The collection’s original title, Six Concerts avec plusieurs Instruments, draws attention to its varied instrumental resources. The familiar name “Brandenburg” identifies the recipient of the dedication. It does not establish where the works were composed, and their numbering should not be read as a chronology of composition.

BWV 1047 cannot be assigned a precise composition date with the same confidence as its dedication. The surviving presentation score provides a firm endpoint, while the work’s earlier development remains uncertain. It is generally associated with Köthen, where Bach served as Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold. More precise dates and proposals about earlier stages belong to the scholarly discussion rather than to the securely documented outline. No definitive date, venue or personnel can be supplied for its first performance.

The concerto follows the Italian fast–slow–fast plan, but its three movements establish different kinds of ensemble relationship. The first creates a densely interconnected exchange between soloists and tutti. The Andante reduces the forces to three melodic instruments with continuo. The finale begins by introducing the soloists through successive statements of a theme. The trumpet is silent throughout the central movement, so its return at the beginning of the finale changes the sound world at once.

This discussion follows the orchestral version transmitted in the 1721 collection. Bach’s flauto is understood as the recorder, also used in the Netherlands Bach Society performance accompanying the article. The guiding question is how four such different voices achieve coherence while retaining their identities: who introduces the material, who carries it forward, and how the addition or withdrawal of the other players changes its weight.

Movements / Structure

The outer movements in F major frame an Andante in D minor. Instrumentation strengthens the tonal contrast: at the centre, only recorder, oboe, solo violin and continuo remain. The first movement has no tempo marking in the dedicatory source. “Allegro”, frequently used in recordings and editions, describes its fast character without being an original marking by Bach.

Movement Marking and metre Key Design and role
I No tempo indication; alla breve, 2/2 F major Ritornello design with closely connected returns and solo episodes. Continuous activity introduces the four solo voices within a shared musical fabric.
II Andante; 3/4 D minor Imitative writing for three melodic instruments over continuo. Reduced forces bring the exchanges into sharper focus and establish a more inward character.
III Allegro assai; 2/4 F major Fugal organisation within a concertante movement. Trumpet introduces the theme, followed by the other soloists, before the ripieno adds its support.

The changes in participation give the sequence its shape. In the first movement, collective activity surrounds the individual voices. In the second, those voices become the entire melodic foreground. In the third, the texture takes shape through the accumulating entries, allowing us to hear the ensemble being assembled from within.

Musical Analysis

I. No tempo indication: continuous motion and four solo voices

The first movement begins with the ensemble already in motion. A short upbeat leads into a recurring rhythmic pattern, and quick passagework carries one phrase into the next. The trumpet sounds above the active lines of the woodwind and violins. F major supplies a clear tonal point of departure, while the different kinds of movement within the texture give the opening its energy. Sustained sounds, repeated notes and running figures occupy the same musical space without performing identical tasks.

The principal formal guide is the ritornello: an opening body of material that returns between solo episodes. Its recurrences remind us of the movement’s identity and confirm important stages in the tonal journey. Yet Bach does not always draw a conspicuous boundary between “orchestra” and “soloist”. The solo instruments participate in the opening tutti, and elements of the ritornello continue to circulate during the episodes. The ear recognises returning gestures and patterns even when the music offers no pause to announce a new section.

Following the initial statement, the solo violin introduces a compact idea distinguished by a trill. Oboe, recorder and trumpet subsequently come forward with related material. This succession offers a useful introduction to the four participants. Remembering the opening of the phrase makes it possible to follow its changing character as it passes from bow to breath, and from one wind instrument to another. The phrase remains recognisable, although the attack and continuation of the sound change with each player.

These appearances stay within the common pulse. Instruments that move into the background may continue to support, answer or prepare the next entry. Sequences, in which a pattern is repeated at different pitches, allow the harmony to move while preserving a familiar contour. The journey towards C major, the dominant, and into related tonal areas expands the opening stability without interrupting the rhythmic flow. Continuity and tonal change can therefore be heard together: a recognisable figure leads us into a different harmonic setting.

The trumpet retains a particular prominence even when it shares material with its partners. Its opening writing includes clear arpeggiated movement and prolonged high notes with trills; elsewhere it takes on more active melodic passagework. These roles produce different effects. At one point the instrument crowns the texture with a sustained, luminous sound; at another it enters more fully into the ongoing exchange. Its line is most revealing when heard in relation to the others, rather than as a succession of conspicuous high notes.

The bass line is equally important to orientation. Repeated notes in the opening material support the tonal foundation, while moving figures elsewhere contribute to the phrase’s momentum. Continuo binds the upper parts together and helps make harmonic changes perceptible. Following this lower line for a short stretch can clarify the direction of the music precisely when the soloists are most densely interwoven. The upper voices may attract attention, but their shifting relationships become easier to understand when their harmonic support remains in view.

Towards the close, familiar patterns return as F major becomes firmly established and the ensemble regains its fuller presence. The ending feels prepared by the material’s recurrences and harmonic direction, rather than imposed on an unbroken display of virtuosity. Having heard so much activity distributed across the ensemble, we enter the Andante with a heightened awareness of what happens when most of that ensemble falls silent.

II. Andante: three voices above a steady tread

The trumpet and ripieno strings are absent from the Andante. Recorder, oboe and solo violin remain over the line assigned to cello and harpsichord. The move to D minor, the relative minor of F major, introduces a darker harmonic colour. The reduction in forces is just as consequential: the beginning and ending of each melodic phrase can be heard more closely, without the surrounding weight of a tutti.

The violin begins on the third beat of the first bar. A dotted note gives weight to the continuation, followed by smaller note values and inflected melodic movement. The oboe starts a corresponding entry in bar 3, and the recorder follows in bar 5. Here imitation is an audible process: a recognisable opening arrives after a delay while the preceding voice continues. The instruments do not simply wait to deliver complete solos in turn. They occupy different stages of the same material at the same time.

The opening eight bars of the Andante, showing the successive violin, oboe and recorder entries.
Example 1 — II. Andante, mm. 1–8. Violin begins in bar 1, oboe in bar 3 and recorder in bar 5, above the continuo’s moving quavers. The complete four-part layout of this movement is shown; cello and harpsichord share a bass staff. Source: Johann Sebastian Bach, Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe, vol. XIX, ed. Wilhelm Rust, Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1871, p. 46; digital copy, IMSLP #02040.

Beneath the three melodic parts, the continuo maintains continuous quavers. This regular subdivision keeps the 3/4 metre gently moving even when an upper voice pauses or sustains a note. The texture consequently contains two experiences of time: a dependable underlying motion and melodic phrases that seem to breathe more freely above it. Their freedom remains connected to the bass, which makes the harmonic progression clear without dictating an identical rhythm to every part.

Expressive tension arises where the lines meet. A note may be held while its harmonic support has already changed, producing a temporary friction that resolves as the voice moves on. Trills, small descending figures and rests gain significance through their place in the phrase and its harmony. Tempo affects how these details are perceived. A very heavy pace can detach them from the larger motion; an excessively quick one may leave too little time for the listener to register their harmonic resolutions.

As the material circulates, changes of tonal direction are supported by the bass. Continuity does not depend on the return of a powerful orchestral block. It comes from the relationship between the phrases and from the way one melodic line completes or overlaps another. A listener can move between the three instruments while remaining within the same unfolding musical thought. Their distinct sounds help the ear separate the strands, especially where one voice sustains a note and another begins a more mobile figure.

At the end, F sharp in the violin sounds over D in the bass. This major third brightens the final chord, an ending commonly described as a Picardy third. It does not turn the movement as a whole into a movement in D major; it changes the colour of its final resting point. The finale will restore F major through a much more pronounced change of pace and instrumental presence.

III. Allegro assai: the trumpet begins a fugal conversation

The finale opens with trumpet and continuo. After an entire movement of silence, the trumpet returns by presenting the principal idea on its own. The subject has a clear profile of leaps, trills and quick-moving notes. The 2/4 metre and Allegro assai marking give the phrases a brisker, more compact impulse than the broader pulse of the first movement. We are immediately directed towards a specific melodic line, with the bass providing its foundation.

The oboe, violin and recorder follow in that order. Their entries make a fundamental fugal process easy to hear: the subject passes to a new voice while the preceding one continues with other material. Each arrival adds to what is already sounding. The second voice does not displace the first, and the growing texture contains several simultaneous paths connected by the same thematic point of reference.

This opening differs substantially from the beginning of the concerto. The first movement presented a full ensemble situation at once; here, accumulating entries are the event. Increasing intensity requires no long crescendo. A new statement, an additional melodic strand and a widening sound space are enough to change the weight of the music. Because the process is introduced so clearly, a listener need not know the terminology of fugue to follow the way the texture develops.

The ripieno strings remain silent for the first 46 bars and begin to participate in bar 47. Their delayed arrival allows the solo quartet to establish the thematic network before additional orchestral weight is introduced. When the strings enter, their principal contribution is harmonic and rhythmic support. The sound becomes fuller, while attention remains on the solo lines we have already learned to recognise. An apparently simple change in scoring therefore has a formal consequence: it confirms an established musical argument rather than initiating a new one.

The movement proceeds through thematic returns and episodes. In the episodes, smaller elements circulate, repeat at different pitches and move the harmony into other tonal areas. A recognisable statement of the subject restores a clearer point of orientation. Fugal technique thus works alongside the concerto’s logic of return: a shared idea supplies continuity, while its distribution among the instruments keeps changing the experience of that idea.

The trumpet’s virtuosity belongs within this network. Sustaining the high range, articulating rapid notes and placing entries accurately all require close coordination with the other soloists. Listening only to the brightest upper line obscures the responses that give it context. Violin, oboe and recorder continue to carry the musical argument when the trumpet temporarily withdraws. Their activity prevents its rests from being heard as pauses in the larger movement.

As the concerto approaches its close, thematic recognition and the firm establishment of F major give the individual lines a common direction. The brilliant ending grows out of their cooperation. Having heard the ensemble take shape one voice at a time, we can now recognise its combined presence as the outcome of a process, with each instrument contributing to the final sense of arrival.

Four soloists and changing balances

In a concerto grosso, the smaller solo group is called the concertino, and the larger body the ripieno. These names identify functions within a composition. The number of players, their thematic responsibilities and the extent of their shared activity can vary. In BWV 1047 the four soloists take part both in individual appearances and in processes sustained by the group as a whole.

The two fast openings demonstrate the distinction particularly well. In the first movement, the concertino is already part of the initial tutti. In the finale, it has considerable time to establish the argument before the ripieno joins. The difference concerns more than loudness: it changes who is responsible for introducing and developing the material. In the Andante, the complete withdrawal of the ripieno allows three soloists to supply the entire melodic foreground.

Thematic equality must therefore be distinguished from acoustic balance. A recorder and a trumpet do not have the same projection or weight of sound. Performance involves decisions about articulation, phrasing, ensemble size and the response of the room. Preserving the inner lines is central to interpretation, because those lines help reveal the movement’s design. The most conspicuous sound is not always the one carrying the information we need next.

The natural trumpet and the art of clarino playing

The trumpet of Bach’s time had no valves. Its available notes were governed by the length of the tube and its natural harmonic series. In the lower range these notes are widely spaced; higher up, they lie closer together and offer greater possibilities for melodic movement. Clarino playing exploits this upper region, requiring exact control of the lips, breath support and intonation.

In the Second Brandenburg, that capability becomes a compositional resource. The trumpet keeps its brilliant identity while participating in melodic relationships with instruments possessing quite different technical possibilities. The finale’s subject makes the relationship especially clear. Its outline suits the trumpet, yet it can also be taken up by oboe, violin and recorder. The interest lies in hearing a shared musical thought survive these changes of sound and articulation.

Performances today employ different solutions, from reconstructions of historical instruments to modern piccolo trumpets. Instrument choice affects tone, response and projection. Fluency in the high notes is consequently only one aspect of a performance: the trumpet must also leave the relationships with the other instruments clear. The exact historical configuration of the instrument and the concerto’s performing pitch remain subjects of specialist discussion. The notation establishes what the instrument is asked to do without settling every question about how its original sound was produced.

🪶 A Chapter in the Life of the Work

Two dispatches, different recipients

On 24 March 1721, at Köthen, Bach dated the dedication of a manuscript collection of six concertos. Its recipient was Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg, an aristocrat with musical interests and his own ensemble in Berlin. In his French dedication, Bach recalled an earlier meeting: he had performed before the Margrave, who had asked him to send some compositions. The carefully prepared collection fulfilled that request.

The documentary trail does not continue into a securely recoverable first performance of the Second Concerto. We cannot say when the Margrave heard it or reconstruct his reaction. The dedicatory manuscript itself survived and is now held by the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. Within it, the concerto remains part of a musical offering addressed to a particular person and signed by its composer.

More than two and a half centuries later, the first movement was selected for a dispatch with a very different destination. In 1977, each of the two Voyager spacecraft carried a Golden Record: a gold-plated copper disc containing images and sounds from Earth. A selection committee chaired by the astronomer Carl Sagan prepared this account of the planet’s life and cultures for a possible encounter with an unknown recipient.

The music included the first movement of BWV 1047, performed by the Munich Bach Orchestra under Karl Richter. NASA’s official list gives its duration as 4 minutes 40 seconds. The distinction matters: the spacecraft carry this particular recorded performance of the first movement. They do not carry the complete three-movement concerto or Bach’s manuscript of 1721.

Bach’s music thus found a place alongside sounds and music from different traditions in a new attempt to present the human world. That change of setting does not reveal a hidden intention in the concerto. The decision made in 1977 belongs to its reception history. A work once offered to a European aristocrat had acquired a place in a collective portrait of Earth.

From that later journey, a listener can return to the full span of the composition. The brilliant activity chosen for the record is followed by the more intimate exchanges of the Andante and the trumpet’s renewed presence in the finale. The Voyager story offers a memorable way into the concerto; hearing all three movements restores the contrasts and proportions that surround its famous opening.

🎧 Listening Guide

On a first hearing of the opening movement, remember the initial tutti’s rhythmic character. When the short solo appearances begin, listen for the idea with the trill passing from violin to the wind instruments. Recognising the relationship between those phrases is a more useful starting point than trying to follow every rapid passage.

On a second hearing, spend a little time with the bass line. Notice when it supports a stable harmonic area and when its motion helps carry the music elsewhere. When opening material returns, compare the weight of the ensemble with the thinner texture immediately before it. Familiar music can regain prominence through a change in participation as well as through a change in harmony.

In the Andante, begin with the violin. Hear the oboe take up a related opening and the recorder follow shortly afterwards. Stay with each for a phrase, remembering that the preceding voice is still moving. The continuo’s quavers offer a reliable guide beneath all three. At the final chord, listen for the brighter colour introduced by the major third.

In the Allegro assai, the first entries provide the clearest map: trumpet, oboe, violin, recorder. Follow the beginning of the subject while allowing the other lines to become its changing surroundings. Later, listen for the first contribution from the ripieno strings. The sound gains weight, but the soloists retain responsibility for the thematic activity already established.

🎶 Further Listening

These performances of the same concerto offer contrasting points of attention. Comparison is most revealing when guided by a specific question: how clearly can the four solo voices be heard, and how does their relationship with the accompanying ensemble change?

  • Netherlands Bach Society — Shunske Sato, live at TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht, 2 October 2018. Neil Brough plays trumpet, Emma Black oboe and Pedro Castro recorder. The video helps connect thematic entries to individual players and makes the changes of participation between movements especially easy to follow.
  • Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, harmonia mundi, 2021 recording, HMM902686.87. The BWV 1047 soloists are Rupprecht Drees, Christoph Huntgeburth, Xenia Löffler and Bernhard Forck. A second historically informed perspective, particularly useful for comparing continuo scoring and its relationship with the solo quartet; the performers discuss their decisions in the accompanying booklet.
  • Academy of St Martin in the Fields — Neville Marriner, Philips/Decca. The modern-instrument chamber-orchestra tradition supplies a different comparison. Focus on the weight of the strings and on the way the trumpet’s colour is integrated into the ensemble’s larger line.

📚 Further Reading

Further study can move from the musical text to questions of source history and performance. The following publications serve these different purposes.

  • Malcolm Boyd — Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos, Cambridge University Press, 1993. A self-contained introduction to the collection, covering its sources, instrumentation and performance traditions. The discussion of the Second Concerto begins on p. 75.
  • Heinrich Besseler — Sechs Brandenburgische Konzerte, Neue Bach-Ausgabe VII/2, and Kritischer Bericht, Bärenreiter, 1956. The critical edition and its accompanying report provide the foundation for systematic study of the musical text and source relationships.
  • Klaus Hofmann — “Zur Fassungsgeschichte des zweiten Brandenburgischen Konzerts”, in Bachs Orchesterwerke, ed. Martin Geck, Witten, 1997, pp. 185–192. A specialist continuation on the question of possible earlier versions, helping distinguish surviving evidence from later reconstruction.
  • Peter Wollny — “J. S. Bach – Brandenburg Concertos”, booklet for the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin recording, harmonia mundi HMM902686.87, 2021. A concise scholarly account of the historical setting, accompanied by an interview with the performers about practical interpretative decisions.

🔗 Related Works

These works extend the dialogue between instrumental groups and suggest different solutions to the question of concertante balance.

  • Johann Sebastian Bach — Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major, BWV 1049: violin and two recorders establish a different relationship between individual virtuosity and the solo group. Comparing the finales is particularly rewarding.
  • Antonio Vivaldi — Concerto for Two Trumpets in C major, RV 537: the trumpet is heard within a more homogeneous solo partnership, with more clearly delineated exchanges with the strings.
  • Arcangelo Corelli — Concerto grosso in D major, Op. 6 No. 4: the concertino of two violins and cello provides a string-based point of comparison with Bach’s four contrasting solo colours.
  • Georg Philipp Telemann — Concerto for Recorder and Bassoon in F major, TWV 52:F1: the dialogue between two wind instruments of markedly different range and colour extends the question of how contrasting solo voices establish a shared argument.

🎼 Closing Reflection

After the concerto has ended, try recalling a phrase before deciding which instrument played it. Its contour may return first, followed by its colour: a trace of the bow, a breath, the brightness of a high note. Memory often brings together what the ear had followed separately.

📖 Bibliography and Sources

The analysis is based on direct examination of the Bach-Gesellschaft score, with instrumentation and the identity of the reference version checked against the Neue Bach-Ausgabe publication information. Composition dating is treated separately from the date of the dedication. NASA’s own records document the concerto’s later inclusion on the Golden Record, while performance personnel were checked against the presenting organisations and recording catalogues.

Score and primary document

Bach, Johann Sebastian. Concerto II, BWV 1047. Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe, vol. XIX, ed. Wilhelm Rust. Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1871. Digital copy, IMSLP #02040, especially pp. 33–45, 46–47 and 48–56. Example 1 is taken from p. 46.

Bach, Johann Sebastian. French dedication of Six Concerts avec plusieurs Instruments, Köthen, 24 March 1721. Autograph presentation score, Am.B.78, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. The dedication was consulted in the transcription and English translation reproduced in the Bärenreiter preface to Sechs Brandenburgische Konzerte, pp. XII–XIII; direct consultation of the digital autograph is not claimed.

Editorial and musicological sources

Besseler, Heinrich, ed. Brandenburgisches Konzert Nr. 2 F-Dur, BWV 1047, BA 5202. Bärenreiter, 1956; second printing, 2001. Title page, editorial note and instrumentation.

Sechs Brandenburgische Konzerte, Bärenreiter TP 9. Preface, especially pp. XII–XVII: dedication, chronology, formal questions and performance tradition.

Wollny, Peter. “J. S. Bach – Brandenburg Concertos.” Booklet for Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, HMM902686.87. Harmonia mundi, 2021, p. 7. Interview with Georg Kallweit and Bernhard Forck, p. 6; performance personnel, p. 3.

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. “Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047”. Used to cross-check the three-movement layout and delayed ripieno entry in the finale.

University of New South Wales, Music Acoustics. “Brass instrument (lip reed) acoustics: an introduction”, especially “Harmonics of the natural trumpet and horn” and “Valves and slides”.

Reception and performance documentation

NASA. “Golden Record Sounds and Music”, “Music from Earth” table: work, performance and duration of the first movement.

NASA. “Golden Record Overview” and “Instructions for Aliens”: contents, disc material and selection committee. See also “Voyager’s Special Cargo – The Golden Record” for the two spacecraft and the launch year.

Netherlands Bach Society, All of Bach. “‘Brandenburg’ Concerto No. 2 in F major”, BWV 1047: recording date, 2 October 2018; personnel and venue. Selected video.

Harmonia mundi. Brandenburg Concertos, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, HMM902686.87, 2021. Decca Classics. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos / Marriner, Philips, UPC 00028947093428.