Long Lost Bach Concerto

February 9, 2009 7:01 PM

Help me identify a long-lost piece by J.S. Bach that my orchestra used to play in middle school! Notation excerpt attached.

For many years I have been trying to identify a piece that that I played on the cello with my middle school orchestra two decades ago. I have no recordings of it -- it's just in my head. The casual title was "Concerto in E Minor" by J.S. Bach. I don't remember the BWV number on the piece. Obviously, Bach's output included thousands of pieces. I've gone through every "Concerto in E minor" by Bach on YouTube, and none of these was the correct piece. I've even gone through every Bach piece in a minor key on Youtube, knowing that perhaps this piece that we played back in the day might have been transposed from a different key. No dice. I am positive that the piece was in a minor key. I'm pretty sure it was written by Bach, and I'm pretty sure it was a concerto, but I'm even going through every classical music piece I can find on YouTube that is in E Minor to see if I can find my lost piece, and I come up empty.

It's a piece in a moderately fast tempo. I recall how the piece sounds, but in terms of precise notes, I only recall the first eight measures of the cello part. Click here to see the first eight bars: http://www.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?64db24abb8.png

Please help me find my long lost Bach concerto!

posted by fenwaydirtdog to media & arts (11 comments total)

Hmmm...tough one, since this could be a cello line from, many, many, many, different pieces...If you could think of the tune or any other melody parts it would be a big help. I know you said you couldn't, but without a little more, anyone would be hard pressed....sorry....
posted by snoelle at 7:15 PM on February 9

When you say "long-lost," do you mean long-lost to you, or long-lost to the world?

The Brandenburg Concertos gathered dust for about a century before they were found and performed for the first time. So they certainly qualify as long lost. Just saying.
posted by alms at 7:30 PM on February 9

Might have to get a few Bach CDs and give them a listen... I'm doubting anything done in middle school would be too obscure.
posted by gjc at 7:41 PM on February 9

There is no Bach concerto in E Minor. I do see one video labelled as such on Youtube, but the title is in error: it should be E Major. Are you sure it was a concerto? If so, you only have about a dozen concertos in minor keys to listen to (listed here). If you remember what instrument(s) the concerto was for, that would narrow it down further.
posted by ssg at 8:08 PM on February 9

ssg beat me to the jsbach.org list of works in e-minor. Imslp.org - the International Music Score Library Project - is naturally a good place to start looking at scores (you'll see mostly complete scores and not individual instrument parts). I think they've got most if not all of Bach, but some other music score sites are listed here. Good luck!
posted by Dave 9 at 8:14 PM on February 9

Also, though I hate to make the job harder, an individual movement of a multi-movement piece might be in a minor key even if the piece as a whole is named for a major key. For example, Brandenburg Concerto #4 is "in G" but the second movement is in the relative minor key of ... e minor. If, as you say, your piece was named only casually, and you recall that it comprised only one movement in a single "moderately fast tempo," you might have been given only one movement from a multi-movement piece (whether concerto or not).
posted by Dave 9 at 8:58 PM on February 9

A couple of things to consider:
1) A concerto usually has a soloist or a group of soloists. If you can remember if there were any soloists, it might help to narrow down your options.
2) If there aren't any soloists, it probably isn't a concerto and you need to look into other genres. An orchestra suite is a good contender, but there aren't any in E minor. I checked the B minor, but nothing that looks similar to your notation.
3) I think your barlines are in the wrong place. I suspect that the first two quarters are actually beats three and four in 4/4 meter (or beat 2 in 2/2 meter). This rhythm would suggest that your piece is a Gavotte. Gavottes were commonly included in suites, but you might have played an arrangement of a suite for keyboard or other instrument. This is especially likely since it was a middle school orchestra. I'd look into the keyboard suites and partitas (although, there are only a couple in E minor).
posted by imposster at 9:18 PM on February 9

A couple of other thoughts:
1) Since G major is relative to E minor, you might also check the suites in G major, but I find it is unlikely for a gavotte to be in the relative minor key.
2) Since it is unlikely that the gavotte in a suite would be in a relative minor, you might look into the suites in minor keys and see if any of the gavottes sound familiar. (Since it could have been transposed.)
2) There are lots of Bachs out there and you might have been playing something by C.P.E. or others.
posted by imposster at 9:22 PM on February 9

Are you sure it was in E minor and not D or G minor (ie, are you misremembering the name of it) - there are many more Bach concertos in D minor and G minor
posted by girlgenius at 10:28 PM on February 9

Bach had Albinoni's violin concerto op.2 in e minor in his music library. It is sometimes marketed with Bach's name ("from Bach's music library" or something).
The bass line of the beginning bars of the first mvt is quite like your example, albeit rhythmically slightly different. Then it modulates to someplace else. Here is a U Tuub recording of this piece.
posted by Namlit at 3:50 AM on February 10

Solved! Although also from the baroque period, the concerto in question is not by Bach. It is actually Charles Avison's Concerto No. 8 in E minor, 3rd movement (Allegro). Oops. I guess I can't trust my eighth grade brain fully from two decades ago. I will give myself credit, though, that I remembered it was a baroque concerto in e minor, and that I did remember the cello part note-for-note. The way I found it is that I kept searching for a concerto in e minor under various high school sheet music collections, and listening to each of these titles in iTunes. Sure enough, I found the glorious tune from my youth. You can listen to a 30-second clip here.

This got me researching Avison, with whom I was not familiar. In case you didn't know, he was an English composer from Newcastle who lived from 1709-1770. You can learn more about him here.

Thank you to those who tried to help me -- I did learn a number of new Bach pieces in this enjoyable musical odyssey on the quest for this lovely piece of my childhood.
posted by fenwaydirtdog at 9:50 PM on February 11 [1 favorite]