The Capriccio on the departure of a beloved brother (Italian: Capriccio sopra la lontananza del suo fratello dilettissimo), BWV 992, is an early work by Johann Sebastian Bach, possibly modeled on the Biblical Sonatas of Johann Kuhnau. The story that Bach performed it at age nineteen when his brother Johann Jacob left to become an oboist in the army of Charles XII of Sweden is questionable. But the chosen tonality of B-flat major seems to be a deliberate reference to the family's name ("B" in German is B-flat in English).
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BWV in the context of Schübler Chorales
Sechs Chorale von verschiedener Art: auf einer Orgel mit 2 Clavieren und Pedal vorzuspielen (lit. 'six chorales of diverse kinds, to be played on an organ with two manuals and pedal'), commonly known as the Schübler Chorales (German: Schübler-Choräle), BWV 645–650, is a set of chorale preludes composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. Johann Georg Schübler, after whom the collection came to be named, published it in 1747 or before August 1748, in Zella St. Blasii. At least five preludes of the compilation are transcribed from movements in Bach's church cantatas, mostly chorale cantatas he had composed around two decades earlier.
The fact that Bach had gone to the trouble and expense of securing the services of a master engraver to produce a collection of note-for-note transcriptions of this kind indicates that he did not regard the Schübler Chorales as a minor piece of hack-work, but as a significant public statement. These six chorales provide an approachable version of the music of the cantatas through the more marketable medium of keyboard transcriptions. Virtually all Bach's cantatas were unpublished in his lifetime.
BWV in the context of Mass in B minor
The Mass in B minor (German: h-Moll-Messe), BWV 232, is an extended setting of the Mass ordinary by Johann Sebastian Bach. The composition was completed in 1749, the year before Bach's death, and was to a large extent based on earlier work, such as a Sanctus Bach had composed in 1724. Sections that were specifically composed to complete the Mass in the late 1740s include the "Et incarnatus est" part of the Credo. It is structured in four major sections and scored for five soloists, a choir that is five-part in many sections and divided in the "Osanna", and a Baroque ensemble including brass and wind instruments.
In the legacy of his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, it appears as the "Great Catholic Mass" (die große catholische Messe), referring to the fact that all parts of the Catholic mass are set to music.
BWV in the context of List of chorales of Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach's chorale harmonisations, alternatively named four-part chorales, are Lutheran hymn settings that characteristically conform to the following:
- four-part harmony
- SATB vocal forces
- pre-existing hymn tune allotted to the soprano part
- text treatment:
- homophonic
- no repetitions (i.e., each syllable of the hymn text is sung one time)
Around 400 of such chorale settings by Bach, mostly composed in the first four decades of the 18th century, are extant: