J.S. Bach: Italian Concerto, BWV 971 (1735)

arr. Katherine Needleman for Doublereed or Clarinet Ensemble

I. Allegro

II. Andante

III. Presto

Arranged by Katherine Needleman 2023

Instrumentation: three oboes, two oboes d’amore, two English horns, bassoon, contrabassoon

Alternate Instrumentation: Clarinet Ensemble of Eight Players: 1 E-flat clarinet, 5 B-flat clarinets, and 2 B-flat bass clarinets

Duration: approximately 13:30

Arrangement premiere: Curtis Institute of Music, May 9, 2023

Listen here.

Included in purchase are score and nine parts, which will be delivered in PDF to your email address within 24 hours of purchase. Also available are alternate score and parts for the replacement of the two oboes d’amore with regular oboes. Both of these versions purchased simultaneously are two scores and eleven parts total. A clarinet ensemble edition with score and parts for 8 players (1 E-flat clarinet, 5 B-flat clarinets, and 2 B-flat bass clarinets) is also available. A performance can be heard here.

J.S. Bach's Italian Concerto BWV 971 has been with me many decades. When I was assigned the piece as a young pianist who barely played the oboe, I thought the melody of the second movement would be better suited to the oboe than my right hand even at that time. It took about 35 years for this idea to come to fruition. As a new professor of oboe at the Curtis Institute of Music, I arranged this piece for oboe band for our first Oboe Class Recital as a “new” studio, with new teachers, some new students, and to celebrate the first live class recital in several years due to the cancellations from the COVID-19 pandemic. The two new teachers, Philippe Tondre and I, played the pair of oboe d’amore parts, with the students playing the three oboe parts and pair of English horn parts. The ensemble was filled out by bassoon professor, Daniel Matsukawa, and (contra)bassoon student, Diego Peña. It is my hope that this ensemble of three oboes, two oboes d’amore, two English horns, bassoon, and contrabassoon could become a legitimate ensemble of some nature because I love its sound.

The music itself clearly implies (to me, at least) the solo vs. tutti of a concerto and I have orchestrated this accordingly. The dynamics and articulations (in addition, obviously, to the orchestration) are all mine, designed to suit and unify the doublereed instruments of our time. I have freely let go of Mr. Bach’s dynamic and articulation suggestions as they cannot be directly translated into this ensemble from a two manual harpsichord.