The concertos of Vivaldi, Bach, Handel and their contemporaries are some of the most popular, and the most frequently performed, pieces of classical music; and the assumption has always been they were full orchestral works. This book takes issue with this orthodox opinion to argue quite the reverse: that contemporaries regarded the concerto as chamber music. The author surveys the evidence, from surviving printed and manuscript performance material, from concerts throughout Europe between 1685 and 1750 (the heyday of the concerto), demonstrating that concertos were nearly always played one-to-a-part at that time. He makes a particularly close study of the scoring of the bass line, discussing the question of what instruments were most appropriate and what was used when. The late Dr RICHARD MAUNDER was Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge.

A History of the Concerto may be read from cover to cover, but readers may also use the extensive index to focus on specific concertos and their composers. Numerous musical examples illuminate critical points. While some readers may want to study the more detailed analyses with scores in hand, this is not essential for an understanding of the text.

This new investigation of the Brandenburg Concertos explores musical, social, and religious implications of Bach's treatment of eighteenth-century musical hierarchies. By reference to contemporary music theory, to alternate notions of the meaning of "concerto," and to various eighteenth-century conventions of form and instrumentation, the book argues that the Brandenburg Concertos are better understood not as an arbitrary collection of unrelated examples of "pure" instrumental music, but rather as a carefully compiled and meaningfully organized set. It shows how Bach's concertos challenge (as opposed to reflect) existing musical and social hierarchies. Careful consideration of Lutheran theology and Bach's documented understanding of it reveals, however, that his music should not be understood to call for progressive political action. One important message of Lutheranism, and, in this interpretation, of Bach's concertos, is that in the next world, the heavenly one, the hierarchies of the present world will no longer be necessary. Bach's music more likely instructs its listeners how to think about and spiritually cope with contemporary hierarchies than how to act upon them. In this sense, contrary to currently accepted views, Bach's concertos share with his extensive output of vocal music for the Lutheran liturgy an essentially religious character.

Early in his career, Bach began to transcribe for the keyboard a number of concertos for violin, oboe, and other instruments by such baroque masters as Vivaldi and Telemann. His purpose: to study and explore the works of other composers as well as to supply good clavier music for his own performances. This collection of sixteen of these celebrated transcriptions is reprinted from the definitive Bach-Gesellschaft edition prepared by Ernst Naumann and presented in a study format designed to give amateur and professional pianists and harpsichordists a lifetime of pleasurable study and use. Six of these glorious keyboard works are known to be transcriptions of Vivaldi violin concertos. Three are based on concertos written by Duke Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar, the son of Bach's employer at Weimar. One is based on a violin concerto by Telemann, another on an oboe concerto by Alessandro Marcello, and another on a concerto by Benedetto Marcello. The sources of the remaining works are unknown. Vivaldi, whose music Bach probably first heard in 1712, was to provide a strong influence on the young composer. Bach would eventually assimilate the Italian's style and use it with his own contrapuntal heritage and the Northern idiom in creating what we recognize today as the typical Bach style. These transcriptions, which represent his introduction to the new idiom, richly display a dynamic virtuosity that makes their performance an exhilarating experience.

The composition of the solo concerto studied as an evolving debate (rather than a static technique), and for its stylistic features.