Capriccio on the departure of a beloved brother

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.^[1] 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 in Sweden is questionable.^[2] 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).

Structure edit

Performed by Silvia Kind

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Arioso: Adagio – 'Friends Gather & Try to Dissuade Him from departing'
(Andante) – 'They Picture the Dangers Which May Befall Him'
Adagiosissimo (or Adagissimo) – 'The Friends' Lament'
(Andante con moto) – 'Since He Cannot Be Dissuaded, They Say Farewell'
Allegro poco – 'Aria of the Postilion' (Aria di postiglione)
'Fugue in Imitation of the Postilion's Horn' (Fuga all'imitazione della cornetta di postiglione)

References edit

^ David Schulenberg, The Keyboard Music of J.S. Bach, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2007), p. 86.
^ The New Bach Reader: a Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents, 2nd ed., edited by Hans T. David and Arthur Mendel, revised and enlarged by Christoph Wolff (New York: W.W. Norton, 1998), p. 42.

[1] David Schulenberg, The Keyboard Music of J.S. Bach, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2007), p. 86.

[2] The New Bach Reader: a Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents, 2nd ed., edited by Hans T. David and Arthur Mendel, revised and enlarged by Christoph Wolff (New York: W.W. Norton, 1998), p. 42.

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