# How would you describe The Brandenburg Concertos?



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I'd say heroic and proud; life loving! They are so full of pride and spirit. That's what draws me to them.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

In fact, that's how I'd describe the majority of the output from the Baroque and Classical Eras as a whole.


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## Pyotr (Feb 26, 2013)

The greatest orchestral compositions of the Baroque era.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Pyotr said:


> The greatest orchestral compositions of the Baroque era.


They are fantastic.


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## Guest (Jul 29, 2018)

Interesting to listen to.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

They were discussing them on my Classical Radio station today, and supposedly Bach did not get paid for these works and they were largely ignored. Also, the moniker "Brandenburg Concertos" came much later after they were composed.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I seem to remember that they were presented to the Margrave of Brandenburg as kind of a job application. But the Margrave never even acknowledged their receipt. Does anybody know if any were performed, in their original forms, in Bach's lifetime?


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Describe the Brandenburgs? Hmmm ....
Well, if one considers that Bach's Passions and B Minor Mass and Cantatas and Motets and other "sacred" works serve to show us what Heaven "sounds" like, I suggest that the secular Brandenburg Concerti serve to show us that Bach is God himself. 'Cause who else could have written them? Except someone who also knows what Heaven sounds like. Humbling experiences, those Concerti.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

SONNET CLV said:


> Describe the Brandenburgs? Hmmm ....
> Well, if one considers that Bach's Passions and B Minor Mass and Cantatas and Motets and other "sacred" works serve to show us what Heaven "sounds" like, I suggest that the secular Brandenburg Concerti serve to show us that Bach is God himself. 'Cause who else could have written them? Except someone who also knows what Heaven sounds like. Humbling experiences, those Concerti.


I'm agnostic, but Baroque and Classical Era do make me feel godly spirits.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

The most popular and best integral set of concertos ever composed. They were composed almost 300 years ago but, if they had never been composed and were composed today, they would completely redefine and reinvigorate worldwide interest in classical music. They would cast all other modern music to dust, be played everywhere in concert, and would be talked about in the classical music press ad infinitum. They will never be out of fashion and will always be relevant.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

The first point for me is that they are all so different - not like a set at all.


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## Ras (Oct 6, 2017)

I heard some musician on the radio say that *he considered all of Bach's music sacred music* - even the instrumental music like the Brandenburgs and the other concertos and the orchestral suites. I'm not sure I agree with that, but Bach wrote: *"Soli Deo gloria" - "Glory to God alone"* on his manuscripts.
From wiki:
>>>Soli Deo gloria is a Latin term for Glory to God alone. It has been used by artists like Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, and Christoph Graupner to signify that the work was produced for the sake of praising God. The phrase has become one of the five solae propounded to summarise the Reformers' basic beliefs during the Protestant Reformation. 
As a doctrine, it means that everything that is done is for God's glory to the exclusion of mankind's self-glorification and pride. Christians are to be motivated and inspired by God's glory and not their own. <<
John Eliot Gardiner named his own record label: SDG.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Brandenburgy. 

(I'll get my coat)


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## Guest (Jul 30, 2018)

KenOC said:


> I seem to remember that they were presented to the Margrave of Brandenburg as kind of a job application. But the Margrave never even acknowledged their receipt. Does anybody know if any were performed, in their original forms, in Bach's lifetime?


They were to some extent compiled from other instrumental movements that Bach had composed, much like the B minor mass. I believe some were adapted from Sinfonia's from Bach's cantatas. I don't think Bach would waste music, so I'm sure it was all performed at some time or another.


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

The Brandenburg concertos are some of the most life affirming music I know.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Among his best loved works. Spirited & festive from a productive & happy time in his life. Cheerful variety with soulful slow movements. Memorable!


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Love these works, though I admit I listen the most to 2,3 and 5 and am somewhat guilty of neglecting the other ones.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Maybe as subversive.

Michael Marissen's book The Social and Religious Designs of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos proposes that they are a "carefully compiled and meaningfully organized set, [challenging] existing musical and social hierarchies." For example, he "takes the most prestigious instruments and gives them very little to do, deflating their status, and trivial instruments, like the viola and the recorder, are brought to high status."

Whether it's their true intent or not, it is an interesting interpretation.


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## Hugo9000 (Aug 6, 2018)

Merl said:


> Brandenburgy.
> 
> (I'll get my coat)


I was going to joke that perhaps Brandenburgy was preferable to Branden-bourgeois, then I remembered that's essentially what they are called in French, just remove the "n-": _Les concertos Brandebourgeois_. haha!


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