A concerto (plural: concerti or conceros) generally refers to a piece where a solo instrument is featured as the main voice and the orchestra is playing off of it. This was largely a development of the Baroque era and has been major form for composers ever since.
Concertare can have two opposite, or complementary, meanings in Italian: it can mean “to contend or dispute” as well as “to agree”.
In Baroque music the concerto began as a small orchestra playing in the foreground of a larger one. This was called a Concerto Grossi. Over time some composers began giving a solo instrument extended passages to play. Soon, the solo instrument was foregrounded alone, and the concerto was born.
Antonin Vivaldi did more than anyone to create the standard form of the concerto. The ritornello is wehen solo passages alternate with passsages of the orchestra playing all at once (known as tutti). His “Four Seasons” is likely the most famous of all the concertos. He is also most responsible for the 3 part structure, the first part being fast, the second slow, the third fast.
Bach inherited a fully developed polyphonic concerto form. Typically he exploited it fully, to the limits of both the players of the time and the instruments themselves. Many of these pieces are among his most famous, for instance, The Brandenburg Concertos.
Be sure to pay attention to the different combinations of instruments in each of these concertos:
Concerto for flute, violin, harpsichord and strings in A minor, BWV 1044
Concerto for harpsichord and strings in D minor, BWV 1052
Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor, BWV 1043
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