Gregory Butler – författare

The sixth volume in the Bach Perspectives series opens with Joshua Rifkin''s seminal study of the early source history of the B-minor orchestral suite. Rifkin elaborates on his discovery that the work in its present form for solo flute goes back to an earlier version in A minor, ostensibly for solo violin. He also takes the discovery as the point of departure for a wide-ranging discussion of the origins and extent of Bach''s output in the area of concerted ensemble music. 

In other essays, Jeanne Swack presents an enlightening comparison of Georg Phillip Telemann''s and Bach''s approach to the French overture as concerted movements in their church cantatas. Steven Zohn views the B-minor orchestral suite from the standpoint of the "concert en ouverture." In addition, Zohn responds to Rifkin by suggesting Bach may have scored the early version of the B-minor orchestral suite for flute.

Gregory Butler focuses on Bach''s Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings in E Major (BWV 1053) as a pastiche created by a process of assemblage of three earlier heterogeneous movements. Pieter Dirksen delves into the source history of the Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings in F Minor (BWV 1056) and concludes it represents a transcription of an earlier violin concerto in G minor. David Schulenberg investigates the generic ambiguity of the concerto in the early eighteenth century and how it diverged from the sonata to become a distinct genre. Completing the volume is Christoph Wolff''s examination of the ""Siciliano"" as a slow movement in Bach''s concertos and its implications for the source history of his Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings in E Major (BWV 1053).