Brandenburg Concerto 3
and the viola

The Brandenburg Concerto 3 is another of my favourite ones as a player, together with the Brandenburg Concerto 6 (I love all Brandenburg Concertos anyway, because Bach always gives interesting parts to all instruments, including violas).

---

---

Instruments used in the
Brandenburg Concerto 3

As with all Brandenburg Concertos, the group of instruments is always different. In the Brandenburg Concerto 3 the orchestra is composed of three violins, three violas, three cellos and continuo (violone and harpsichord). Each instrument has the same importance, plays a separate part, except for the three cellos and continuo in the last movement. First violin and first viola show off some embellished passages in the third movement.

The movements

The Brandenburg Concerto 3 is in three movements, [Allegro] (although not specified), Adagio, Allegro (click on the picture to listen to different samples or watch the videos of the whole work).

The second movement has puzzled a lot of people among performers, conductors and scholars. It’s because Bach wrote only one bar with only two chords and the Adagio indication. So, what did he mean? Should the performers play the chords as they are? Should there be some improvisation by some of the players? In this case, who should play it? The first violin? The harpsichord? Or why not the first viola (which Bach himself might have played)? And should it be played before the chords or between them or both? Someone even suggested there might have been another movement that got lost...

Anyway, today the two chords are rarely played as they are,most of times it is the first violin that plays/improvises a cadenza. These chords, however played, leave a feeling of suspension that leads to the final movement.

The third movement is in two parts, with repeats. The instruments proceed mostly in blocks, with 1st, 2nd, 3rd violin one after the other in canon presenting the first idea in a fast tempo, followed by the three violas together and then by the three cellos and continuo, all of them playing the same idea.

Then we have violins alternating with the block of bassesand then with violas, followed by the violas alternating with the block of basses. The violins soon introduce a new element, again 1st, 2nd, 3rd violin one after the other followed by the violas, with basses accompanying with repeated notes.

Throughout the movement all instruments go on playing theoriginal theme, sometimes one after the other, other times alternating each other and other times as blocks of instruments, this way creating different sonorities, lighter and thicker.

Buy printed sheet music - Buy CDs

---

Go from Brandenburg Concerto 3 to Brandenburg Concerto 6

---

---

Tweets by @MonicaCuneViola

---