A far far cry from the happy hunting horns of the first part, the second part of Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 is a bitter adagio. To modern ears, its aesthetic of dark gangster drama is less galant, and more "Godfather."

(Look at our past seasons to find episodes covering Brandenburg Concertos 3, 4, 5, and 6.)

Performance of Brandenburg 1 by the Netherlands Bach Society

"Horns, horns, horns, in dark Mindolluin's sides they dimly echoed. Great horns of the north wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last." (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King)

It's time for our yearly miniseries celebrating the famous Brandenburg Concertos! This year: Brandenburg 1.

The horn call has an undeniable power. Here, Bach uses it to great effect at the opening two measures of this rousing piece. We explore the baroque horn and its idiosyncrasies.

(Look at our past seasons to find episodes covering Brandenburg Concertos 3, 4, 5, and 6.)

Performance of Brandenburg 1 by the Netherlands Bach Society

-The second part of our look into Cantata 78, where we look at the opening chorus.

For an overview of this cantata and a deeper look at the wonderful duet and the rest of the parts, see the episode previous.

For this lamentation hymn about Christ's anguish used as ransom for our salvation, Bach chose to accompany the tune with a "lament bass." To start, he sets up this sad descending bass line as a repeated pattern under a varying texture (passacaglia). The stress on beat 2 of 3 is a Sarabande metric figure, reminding us of his more famous passacaglia "Crucifixus" in the B Minor Mass.

When voices enter, the tortured chromaticism is imitated and they herald the coming of the soprano melody, which would have been recognized by the churchgoers on that Sunday in 1724. Variations in musical texture always match the line of text currently being sung. In the many variations, the lamenting line can be in any instrument or voice, and may also be inverted and ascend in a sort of wailing prayer.

BWV 78 as performed by the Netherlands Bach Society