Violin Concerto in A minor (Bach)

{{short description|Violin concerto by Johann Sebastian Bach}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}

{{Use British English|date=January 2025}}

{{Infobox Bach composition

| name = Violin Concerto in A minor

| bwv = 1041

| composer = J. S. Bach

| image = Bach BWV 1041 Allegro Assai.png

| image_upright = 1.4

| caption = The first twelve bars of the third movement

| movements = 3

| duration = 15 minutes

| composed = {{Start date|1717}}–1723

| instrumental = {{hlist|Violin|strings|continuo}}

| misc = {{Audio sample

| type = song

| header = Recordings

| file = Violin Concerto No.1 in A minor - I. Allegro moderato - Chamber Orchestra - United States Marine Band.mp3

| description = I. Allegro moderato (U.S. Marine Band)

}}{{Audio sample

| type = song

| header = no

| file = Violin Concerto No.1 in A minor - II. Andante - Chamber Orchestra - United States Marine Band.mp3

| description = II. Andante (U.S. Marine Band)

}}{{Audio sample

| type = song

| header = no

| file = Violin Concerto No.1 in A minor - III. Allegro assai - Chamber Orchestra - United States Marine Band.mp3

| description = III. Allegro assai (U.S. Marine Band)

}}

}}

The Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041, is a violin concerto by Johann Sebastian Bach. It shows the influence of Italian composers such as Bach's older contemporary Vivaldi.

Bach is known to have studied Vivaldi's music from around 1714 when he was working at Weimar.Vivaldi's influence was discussed by Bach's first biographer Forkel in Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work. Italian influence can be seen in keyboard music he composed around that time. However, the date of the concerto is the subject of dispute as the original score has not survived. It could have been written at any of three locations:

• Weimar. Most scholars think it was written after Bach left Weimar in 1717 (the violinist {{Interlanguage link|Lina Tur Bonet|de}}, who suggests it was written there,{{Cite web |title=Himmelsburg [liner notes] |url=http://www.glossamusic.com/glossa/reference.aspx?id=569 |access-date=29 May 2024 |website=Glossa}} adheres to the minority position).
• Köthen. It is "generally thought to have been composed at Köthen".{{Cite book |last=Stowell |first=Robin |title=J. S. Bach |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-19-866208-2 |editor-last=Boyd |editor-first=Malcolm |series=Oxford Composer Companions |page=492 |chapter=Violin Concertos |editor-last2=Butt |editor-first2=John}} Bach worked at the court there in the period 1717–23 and his duties included directing a small orchestra.
• Leipzig. It could have been written at Leipzig, as the only autograph source to survive is a set of parts Bach copied out (along with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Ludwig Krebs, and an unknown copyist) in Leipzig {{Circa|1730}} from a now lost score or draft. Christoph Wolff has argued that the work may have been written during Bach's time as director of Leipzig's Collegium Musicum.{{Cite book |last=Wolff |first=Christoph |title=Bach: essays on his life and music |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-674-05926-9 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |pages=234–237 |chapter=Bach's Leipzig Chamber Music}} John Butt takes a similar view, suggesting that Bach wrote it "probably soon after taking over the Leipzig Collegium Musicum in 1729".{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}}