Capriccio on the departure of a beloved brother, BWV 992 explained

The Capriccio on the departure of a beloved brother (Italian: Capriccio sopra la lontananza del suo fratello dilettissimo), BWV 992, is an early work by Johann Sebastian Bach, possibly modeled on the Biblical Sonatas of Johann Kuhnau.^[1] 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.^[2] But the chosen tonality of B-flat major seems to be a deliberate reference to the family's name ("B" in German is B-flat in English).

Structure

1. Arioso: Adagio – 'Friends Gather & Try to Dissuade Him from departing'
2. (Andante) – 'They Picture the Dangers Which May Befall Him'
3. Adagiosissimo (or Adagissimo) – 'The Friends' Lament'
4. (Andante con moto) – 'Since He Cannot Be Dissuaded, They Say Farewell'
5. Allegro poco – 'Aria of the Postilion' (Aria di postiglione)
6. 'Fugue in Imitation of the Postilion's Horn' (Fuga all'imitazione della cornetta di postiglione)

Notes and References

1. David Schulenberg, The Keyboard Music of J.S. Bach, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2007), p. 86.
2. The New Bach Reader: a Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents, 2nd ed., edited by Hans T. David and Arthur Mendel, revised and enlarged by Christoph Wolff (New York: W.W. Norton, 1998), p. 42.