Lesson 80: Advanced Ensemble, Part 2 — Baroque Ensemble and Bach's Fourth Brandenburg

Play a recorder part of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 against a recording of the full ensemble.
Move between solo voice and section-member roles within the same movement.
Read the recorder part in relation to the violin obbligato and the ripieno strings.

Lesson 68 — soloist-against-orchestra awareness.
Lesson 79 — section playing discipline.
Access to a recording of Brandenburg 4.

Solo mode vs section mode within a movement.
Score reading in relation to other voices.
Blending in tutti, projecting in solo.

Bach gave two recorders a concerto next to a virtuoso violin. The recorders have to mean it.

Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 is the canonical mixed-Baroque-ensemble piece for the recorder. Two recorders (originally flauti d'echo, played today on alto recorders) share the soloist role with a solo violin, against a string ensemble plus continuo. The recorders' role is both solo (in conversation with the violin) and ensemble (in tutti passages with the strings). Moving between those modes within a single movement is the technical content of the lesson.

The opening figure

The Brandenburg 4 opens with a ritornello in which the recorders state the main theme alongside the strings. Their line is both melodic and accompanimental at different moments. Read the part with the full score open; mark which bars are solo and which are tutti.

Solo mode vs section mode

Within the Brandenburg 4 the recorders shift between two playing modes, often within a single bar:

Solo mode: the recorders are exposed, with continuo only, often in dialogue with the solo violin. Play with concerto awareness from Lesson 68: be the music, project, articulate clearly.
Section mode: the recorders double a string line or fill out a tutti texture. Blend with the section, match the strings' articulation, do not project.

Mark every transition between the two modes in your score. A mode shift mid-phrase is more common than you would expect.

Drill — a solo passage

A passage from the second movement where the recorder is exposed against continuo only. Practise it as a solo, with full soloist awareness from Lesson 68.

Drill — a tutti passage

A passage where the recorder doubles the string section. Practise it as if the strings were playing alongside — soft attack, blended articulation, no individual projection.

Practice plan

Week 1 — learn your part as solo: Hardest-bar procedure on every exposed passage. Get the solo passages performance-ready before considering the ensemble.
Week 2 — play against a recording: Find a recording of the Brandenburg 4 (any good period-instrument set). Play your part with the recording. Listen for the mode shifts; check whether you are blending in tutti passages and projecting in solo ones.
Week 3 — full movement performance, recorded: Record yourself playing along with the recording, end-to-end. Listen back to evaluate whether the two modes read as distinct.

Now play these

Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 — recorder parts: The piece of this lesson. The library entry has the recorder parts; the full score must come from your library or IMSLP.
Baroque Music for Recorder Ensemble: A Renaissance-style continuation of the consort work from Lesson 79.
Sammartini: Concerto in F major — Siciliana: A solo recorder concerto for further concerto practice.

When you can play your Brandenburg 4 part against a recording with clear mode shifts between solo and section, an audible difference in articulation and projection between the two modes, and a recording you would let a conductor hear, move on to Lesson 81.