Venetian Three-Voice Ripieno String Scoring in J. S. Bach’s Early Concerted Works

Abstract: In this study, I argue that when Johann Sebastian Bach traveled to Dresden in the fall of 1717 to take part in a keyboard contest with the French claveciniste Louis Marchand, he encountered Venetian composers at the electoral court whose music had a powerful impact on the compositional style of the concerted instrumental and vocal music he composed while in the Saxon capital and soon after. This Venetian influence manifested itself above all in a specific instrumentation—three-voice ripieno string scoring. This scoring differs from the more normal four-voice ripieno string scoring for two violins, viola, and continuo, in that there is only a single violin voice, either because the two violins are doubled at the unison or because there is only a single violin part. Being able to date certain of the composer’s works to the period from approximately late 1717 through early 1718 has important ramifications for the chronology of the composer’s early concerted instrumental music as a whole. As such, I would suggest that this scoring can serve as an important “chronological marker” in Bach’s works, both vocal and instrumental.