Bach flute concerto?

[barfle]

I noted earlier that I suffered a hard disk failure right around New Years, and one of the things I lost was a large collection of classical music, gathered from wherever it seemed available. I had another copy of everything at work, but I had just gotten things fairly well organized on my home machine when the drive decided to make a few vital sectors "bad." Now, I'm in the process of reorgainzing a rather jumbled mess, and I have a piece or two that are giving me fits.

I have a music file that is titled "Flute Concerto in e.mp3." I got it from mp3.com when they were giving away music from the "Cologne New Philharmonic Orchestra." Since then, mp3.com has changed hands, and the CNPO's web site doesn't seem to mention the piece. There is data in the file that also says it's a Bach concerto, BWV 1059.

The problem is, BWV 1059 is in the middle of a list of harpsichord concertos (according to wikipedia), and none of them sound like it. BWV 1059 itself is not listed as existing. There seems to be three movements, and they certainly sound like JS Bach could have written them, but I can't find any information about a Bach flute concerto in E, or BWV 1059 in any detail. There's a jsbach.org website that says 1059 is for harpsichord, but they also say James Galway has a recording of it. I'm sooooooo confused!

The Galway recording says it's BWV 1035, which is for flute in e, but it's a "sonata." I'm afraid I don't know the difference.


Has anyone heard of this piece, and does the extra information make any sense?

[Shapley]

This recording by Galway includes a Bach Concerto in E, listed as BWV-1059/BWV-35.

I believe Rampal has a listing for the same concerto, but I can't find the CD on Amazon or B&N.

Googling BWV-1059 yields listings for either a Harpsichord Concerto in E minor or an Oboe Concerto in D minor.

Not being a musician, is it possible that the key had to be changed to E, or at least was changed to E, when transcribing the work for flute?

V/R
Shapley

[piqaboo]

This sounds like a call for ! Bones !.

Hey Bones, how's the beach?

[barfle]

Shap, that's the one I found, and although it's sort of encouraging, it's also confusing. But hopefully, that's a way for me to learn more about that BWV thingy.

Piq, the plan is for lunch with Bones and Stravinsky sometime next week, although it hasn't been tied down yet.

I have several musical queries that I may provide him with. At least I'm backing up my progress every night. I've attempted to impose a one hour per evening time limit on organizing all that stuff, but it always seems to go past two hours.

[barfle]

Shap, the previews match up with my files, so that's the right stuff. Many thanks. I know I found that recording, but the place I found it didn't have the previews to listen to.

If there is anyone who has a clue about the BWV listings, I'd appreciate a tutorial. Wikipedia, as I noted, said 1059 was for harpsichord, and they say 35 is for a cantata titled Geist und Seele wird verwirret and features an alto soloist.

At least I have these three pieces cataloged according to something that makes some sense somehow.

[navneeth]

BWV 1059 for oboe. Now playing.

[Shapley]

I can sense the origins of Morricone's Gabriel's Oboe in this work.

[bignaf]

BWV numbers are not chronological; Rather, they list pieces of similar type consecutively.
from casual research:
BWV 1059 seems to be a concerto for harpsichord, the music of which is also found in the sinfonia (overture) of a Bach cantata (BWV 35). there is also a 9 bar fragment of an oboe concerto which is the same as music in the harpsichord concerto. the assumption is that Bach transcribed the oboe concerto for keyboard. the oboe concerto has been reconstructed based on the harpsichord concerto and the cantata. this has been arranged for flute and transposed up to e minor. the listing of it in E is someone being lazy and not writing minor.

[Shapley]

Thanks, Big.

I had been watching the Robert Greenberg lecture series on DVD, although I haven't had time to continue my education in the past few weeks. In his section on Timbre, he talks about the need to transcribe works into various keys depending on the instrument(s) it is to be played on, although it was all Greek to me. This seemed to be one such case, where a work for Harpsichord in E minor was transcribed to D minor for Oboe, in order fulfil some sort of Timbre requirment that is beyond my limited ability to understand. I'll probably have to rerun those lessons in order to get a better understanding of what he is talking about.

V/R
Shapley

[bignaf]

not too complicated, oboes get really honky in low register, and might not even have had the low notes if it remained in d minor, so pushing it up a step will help that.