Capriccio Sopra La Lontananza

Description

Along with his major cycles such as the English and French suites, the Goldberg Variations or the Well-Tempered Clavier, Bach also left a wealth of single pieces with a great diversity of titles,they stem in large part from his early youth and student period around the years 1700-1710. The title of the present work translated as “Capriccio on the departure of his most beloved brother” reveals that this is programmatic,onomatopoeic music of the kind that was very popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. In its six short and imaginatively-titled movements Bach shows a different side of himself from the usual polyphonist. Perhaps we owe this piece to the departure of his brotherJohann Jacob Bach,who entered service in Sweden in 1704.