According to the interpretation provided by the author of the article, “Brandenburg Concertos” by J. S. Bach as elaborated collection of music express the composer’s system of ideas on ancient and modern art, the harmony of the world and society, and the religious foundations of human life. The existing arguments pro and contra the integrity of the cycle, ideas about the motives of its creation are critically examined. The main hypothesis of the article is that the disposition of works within the collection was carefully thought out by Bach, and all the hard-to-explain features of individual concertos (such as the nature of the use of Violino Piccolo concertato in the First Concerto, the choice in favor of the baroque trumpet in F in the Second, the two-movement structure of the Third, the unusual functions of the concertato instruments in the Fourth and Fifth, the absence of virtuoso effects in the Sixth) are dictated by the special intention of Bach.
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