Capriccio on the departure of a beloved brother


The Capriccio on the departure of a beloved brother, 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 in Sweden is questionable. But the chosen tonality of B-flat major seems to be a deliberate reference to the family's name.

Structure

  1. Arioso: Adagio – 'Friends Gather & Try to Dissuade Him from departing'
  2. – 'They Picture the Dangers Which May Befall Him'
  3. Adagiosissimo – 'The Friends' Lament'
  4. – 'Since He Cannot Be Dissuaded, They Say Farewell'
  5. Allegro pocco – 'Aria of the Postilion'
  6. 'Fugue in Imitation of the Postilion's Horn'