Brandenburg Concerto No.

5 Mvmt 3
 Key words
1) Instrumentation and Sonority
2) Structure
3) Tonality
4) Harmony
5) Rhythm, Metre and Tempo
At the top of your Bach
6) Melody Score write each on in
each of your 7 colours
7) Texture
 LOs: To develop my knowledge and understanding of music history; to identify
characteristics aurally; to expand my knowledge and use of subject-specific vocabulary.

The Baroque Period : 1600-1750 (approx).

From the birth of opera and oratorio to the
death of J.S.Bach
Baroque: derived from a Portugese word, barocco, meaning
an irregularly-shaped pearl or piece of jewellery. Associated
with the highly ornamented style of architecture and art of
the 17th century.

Main composers: Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Corelli, Scarlatti,

Monteverdi, Purcell, Rameau

Patronage/Contexts
 LOs: To develop my knowledge and understanding of music history; to identify
characteristics aurally; to expand my knowledge and use of subject-specific vocabulary.

The Baroque Features

- Ornamented melodic lines
- Creation of Major/ Minor Music
- Use of Diatonic chords (I, II, IV, V, VI) to compose
- Basso Contunio
- New musical textures of Monophonic, homophonic &
polyphonic
- Musical devices such as Pedals, Sequences and
Suspension
- Concerto Grosso: Concerto for more than one soloist
 J.S. Bach

• 1685-1750, German (spent whole life there)

• Orphaned aged 10
• Was a Kapellmeister (choir master) in courts when
he wrote the Brandenburg Concertos.
• Later became an organist in Leipzig, Germany
• Had 20 children, some of whom later became
composers
 Background information
• Concerto Grosso composed between 1711 &
1720
– Has a concertino and ripieno
– Dialoguing Has instruments ‘in dialogue’, playing
one after the other, swapping ideas
– Antiphony (call & response), two different groups
• Dedication to the Margrave of Brandenburg
 Instrumentation Ripieno
Concertino

Harpsicord,
Solo Flute Double bass &
Cello= Basso Ripieno Viola
Solo Violin Continuo

Ripieno
Baroque Flute- an older version
Violin
of the modern flute made of
wood
 Instrumentation
• Concerto Grosso
• Use of a Continuo (continuous bass)
Harpsichordist
- At times soloist
- Directs the Ensemble
- At times part of the continuo
- ‘Realises’ figured bass
-Musical short hand to show the chord.

Tells you how

many notes
above to play
 Instrumental techniques
• Figured bass- in Cembalo Concertato part
(harpsicord)

• No dynamics are in the music- instead there are

terraced dynamics- louder when more
instrumentalists are playing. Task
- Annotate your
• Melodic decoration- Trills (tr) and slurs score with the
examples here
- Challenge: Can
you find your
own examples?
 Structure- Ternary Form
Section A Section B Section A

Bars 1- 78 Bars 79- 232 Bars 233-310

• Task- can you label the different sections on your score?

• Challenge- identify the internal structure of each section
 Tonality
Section A Section B Section A

Bars 1- 78 Bars 79 - 147 Bars 233-310

B minor
D Major (relative minor) D Major (brief
(brief moments of moments of A
A major) Bar 148 - 163 major)
A major
Bars 163- 232
B minor again

This music is Diatonic (stays in a 2#s (sharps)

key, not dissonant/ clashing) F# & C#
 Task
- Annotate your score with the

Texture examples below

- Challenge: Can you find your
own examples?
Many Sounds

• Polyphonic/ Contrapuntal (baroque device)

• Begins in a Fugal Style- each instrument imitating the same
theme (bars 1- 34)
 Task
- Annotate your score with the
examples below
- Challenge: Can you find your Texture (continued)
own examples?
• While the ripieno play the flute and violin
sometimes play in unison (e.g. bar 33 &34)

• Start Section B (Bar 79) there is a tonic pedal

in the bass ( bars 79-83 and 90- 95)
Key at bar 79= B minor
First degree of the scale= Tonic
Therefore a repeated B= Tonic pedal
 Task
- Annotate your score with the
examples below
- Challenge: Can you find your
Melody
own examples?

• Much of the music is in conjunct (stepwise) style (e.g.

bar 2), though there are leaps (e.g. fourths in bar 1).
• Often the conjunct music is extended to scalic runs,
especially in the harpsichord part.
• There is a rising sequence at bar 137 (same short
phrase repeated several times, going up one note each
time).
• There are occasional ornaments, with trills (e.g. bar
19) in the harpsichord part.
• There are appoggiaturas in the main middle section
theme when it returns in A major (e.g. bar 148).
 Task
- Annotate your score with the Dominant 7th=
chord V7
examples below
- Challenge: Can you find your Harmony
own examples?
• The harmony uses the standard chords of the time (i.e.
predominantly chords I, IV and V, with occasional use of II
and VI), including dominant sevenths in various inversions.
• The harmony is functional (mainly uses chord I, IV and V).
• The harmony uses mainly root position and first inversion
chords.
Root (block) 1st Inversion
chord (flipped) chord

• Perfect cadences announce the ends of sections (eg bar 77-

78).
• Suspensions are used occasionally (i.e. 9–8 suspension at
bar 130).
 Tempo, metre and rhythm
The metre is 2/4, duple time – two beats to the
bar
• The music could also be notated in 6/8
compound time. It is essentially a Baroque gigue
(a dance in compound duple time).
Dotted
Triplet Rhythm

• It uses triplets and dotted rhythm throughout.

• The harpsichord part in particular has many
semiquaver runs. Task
- Identify triplets, dotted rhythms and
semiquaver runs on your score
- Challenge: can you find homorhythm?
Test time!
 Grade boundaries
14: level 8
12-13: level 7
11-10: level 6
9: level 5
8-7: level 4
6-5: level 3
4-3: level 2
2-0: level 1
 GCSE questions
1) Find two examples of different musical textures in the movement. Write a bar
number followed by the single word describing the texture: monophonic,
homophonic or polyphonic.
2) Describe the difference in sound between the harpsichord and the piano.
3) In what way is the flute phrase at bar 79 a variant of the opening theme? Name
both a similarity of rhythm and a similarity of interval.
4) Listen to the opening theme (bars 1-2). How many times can you hear/ identify it
in the movement?
5) Apart from playing the written notes, the harpsichordist was important in other
ways. Briefly describe one other role of this instrument.

Challenge
1) Explain how this piece demonstrates some of the key features of the Baroque
style
2) In the 20th Century Sir Michael Tippett wrote a Concerto for Double String
Orchestra. Listen to the opening movement and compare it to this Bach Baroque
movement. Can you identify some similarities and differences?