# A simple question about the Brandenburg Concerti



## Aurelian (Sep 9, 2011)

Was the Margrave happy with the 6 concerti?


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

He never told us.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Isn't the reason they survived was that the scores were basically never used?


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## Andrew Kenneth (Feb 17, 2018)

"Bach sent the package of scores along with a cover letter to the Margrave in 1721 as a kind of resume/job application. These manuscript copies, probably the only copies of these pieces which existed, were dedicated to the Margrave as a means of soliciting a new post when he grew weary as Kappellmeister at Köthen, a small town in Germany dating back to the Middle Ages. However, a musical post at the behest of the Margrave of Brandenburg never came to fruition. At best, we assume the nobleman read the letter, gave the manuscript scores a cursory glance, and decided against pursuing the matter further. He filed the letter and scores along with other papers into his library, never to be seen again during the Margrave's or Bach's lifetime. As far as we know, the Margrave never responded to Bach's solicitation. Bach's letter, which also survives, is in the humble tone typical of the era when composers were regarded as craftsmen and not artists who relied on benevolent employer/patrons for their livelihoods."
full article => https://tristanarts.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/the-patronage-that-never-was-j-s-bach-the-earl-of-brandenburg-and-six-concertos-by-stephen-whitehead/

Wikipedia adds this =>
Margrave "Christian Ludwig seems to have lacked the musicians in his Berlin ensemble to perform the concertos. The full score was left unused in the Margrave's library until his death in 1734, when it was sold for 24 groschen (as of 2014, about US$24) of silver. The autograph manuscript of the concertos was only rediscovered in the archives of Brandenburg by Siegfried Wilhelm Dehn in 1849; the concertos were first published in the following year."
wikilink => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_Concertos


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