Ouverture No.4 in d-major, BWV 1069

In its eventual form, the Ouverture No. 4 is an opulent achievement, calling for three trumpets and timpani in addition to three oboes, strings, and continuo. Bach makes cunning use of his forces, employing the woodwinds, the trumpets and timpani (working together), and the strings as essentially disparate groups sometimes playing in tandem and sometimes in very distinct opposition. Following the standard layout of an orchestral suite, this one opens with a French-style Ouverture in which oboes and strings wind in about each other in sustained lines. The trumpets and timpani add pomp and circumstance by superimposing sharply articulated punctuation over this harmonically dense writing.