Brandenburg Concerto No. 3

At a glance

• What it isNo. 3 in G major of the six Brandenburg Concertos. Between two fast movements stands a short Adagio of two chords.
• Who, when, whyin 1721, while working in Köthen, Bach made a fair copy of six concertos and dedicated them to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg.
• What to listen forthe moments when the nine parts sound with one voice and then split into three groups trading phrases.

Listen for

• One voicethe first movement begins with all the strings sounding a vigorous theme together.
• Three groupssoon the violins, violas and cellos toss short figures back and forth. Follow the same pattern as it moves from high to low.
• Two chordsplayers fill the middle movement's two chords with improvisation, or insert another slow piece. Then the fast finale follows like a dance.

When it was written

In March 1721 Bach sent the margrave the scores of six concertos together with a courteous dedication written in French. He wrote that he had once played before the margrave in Berlin and had been asked then to send him some music. Some see in it the hopes of a Bach looking for a new position.

Yet there is no record that the concertos were ever performed at the margrave's court. After the margrave's death the manuscript passed elsewhere, and the music became widely known only when it was published in the nineteenth century. Each of the six has a different combination of instruments, so the set is regarded as Bach's experiment with instrumental combinations.