Capriccio in B-flat Major, On the the Departure of his Most Beloved Brother, BWV 992
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

The departure in 1704 of Bach's older brother Johann Jacob to join the army of King Carl XII of Sweden as an oboist was a source of concern for the whole family. For the occasion, Bach-who was then nineteen-wrote his Capriccio in B-flat Major, On the the Departure of his Most Beloved Brother, a charming and affectionate work. It is one of the few examples of programmatic music by Bach, for it depicts the actual departure of his brother on a carriage: each movement has a subtitle that describes the events. The opening Arioso is subtitled "a coaxing by his friends to dissuade him from the journey." The Andante "is a picturing of various calamities that might overtake him in foreign parts," and Bach depicts these calamities by modulating into wrong keys. The Adagissimo is "a general lament of his friends," and in the Andante "come the friends, since they see it cannot be otherwise, to take their leave of him." The fifth movement-Aria de Postiglione-echoes the horncall of the carriage that will carry the brother away, and the final movement is a "Fugue in Imitation of the Postilion's Horncall."