Symmetry and proportion: Generative and formative procedures of J. S. Bach's 'Brandenburg Concerto No. 3'

Believing the literature concerning Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 offers insufficient explanations of the construction of this piece, I developed a more complete picture of Bach's compositional process by focusing on generative and formative procedures invoked in this work. Christoph Wolff is helpful in this regard. Illuminating commonly accepted fallacies concerning Bach's compositional technique, Wolff points out that Vivaldi's concertos, though widely believed to have shaped Bach's notion of musical form, instead taught him about "musical thinking." This language has specific meaning for Wolff, who quotes Johann Nicolaus Forkel, stating that the term refers to Ordung, Zusammenhang, and Verhaltnis or in Wolff's translation, "order/organization, connection/continuity and relation/proportion." Additionally, Wolff states that "what Bach calls 'musical thinking' is simply the conscious application of generative and formative procedures, the thorough rationalization of the creative act." My discussion focuses on the relationship between thematic material and harmony, keeping in mind Bach's ideas concerning "musical thinking."...