We know from an anecdote recorded in the early 19th century that Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his two concerti for three harpsichords and strings (BWV 1063-64) with the express purpose of playing them with his two eldest sons Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel. In all likelihood these pieces originated in the early 1730s, when both brilliant youngsters were still at home, possibly with an eye to introducing his sons via these concerti to the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, of which father Bach had assumed leadership in 1729. This pair of triple concertos undoubtedly form arrangements of lost originals with solo melody instruments. But in contrast with the concertos for a single harpsichord (as well as two of the concerti for two harpsichords), no autograph sources are known for them. They only survive in copies, the earliest of which are by Bach’s pupil Johann Friedrich Agricola, who made them around 1740 (Concerto in C major BWV 1064) and after 1750 (Concerto in D minor BWV 1063) respectively.

Using no less than three solo harpsichords, while highly original as an idea in itself, may thus have a pedagogical rather than a purely musical background. When judged on musical grounds, the aesthetic of these two concerti is in fact somewhat problematic, something which becomes increasingly clear when they are compared to the Concerto for four harpsichords (BWV 1065), which probably originated in the same period and under similar circumstances. In contrast with the ones for three harpsichords, this arrangement is based on a non-Bach original, namely a concerto for four violins by Antonio Vivaldi. In the original work, in spite of having to accommodate four soloing violins, Vivaldi manages to maintain his typically transparent, open texture which translates itself quite succesfully into Bach’s transcription for four harpsichords. However, the three-harpsichord concerti, which are undoubtedly based on earlier works composed by Bach himself, are inherently much more contrapuntal and tightly woven, resulting in versions which are simply too opaque to be entirely succesful as performance pieces. One is confronted with an inflation of both harpsichord sound and musical texture. There are just too many notes when no less than six hands on three harpsichords along with a complete string section have been provided with parts. From this perspective it would appear legitimate to go on a search for the lost originals through the path of reconstruction. However, the lack of an autograph working score, which as a rule provides many clues to the originals (as is the case with the concerti for single harpsichord), means that there is a large degree of speculation involved.