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On page 130 of the Bach Jahrbuch for 1912, Arnold Schering suggested that Johann Sebastian Bach's Concerto in D Minor for Three Harpsichords and Orchestra, BWV 1063 (Leipzig: 1735-1742),  might have originally been scored for violin, flute and oboe soloists. An examination of the ranges of the parts allotted to the right hand in each of the three solo harpsichord parts indicates that, in fact, the right hand voice of Harpsichord I could be easily be played on the violin. Harpsichords II and III, unfortunately, do not demonstrate the same ease of interpretation for the flute and oboe, therefore, considerable work was required on my part to get these voices into the correct ranges.

One fact that Schering did not expound upon is the need for yet a fourth soloist to handle the obbligato part which Bach spread out among the left hands of the three harpsichord soloists. I believe that the bassoon best serves this cause, although viola da gamba or 'cello could be substituted.

Another way to reconstruct this work would have been to have the flute and oboe play primarily during the ritornelli of the outer movements and in the tutti of the central binary form, the solo violin taking the bulk of the episodic material. To be sure, the former idea was utilized by Bach for the solo violin and solo flute parts in the outer movements of the Concerto for Flute, Violin, and Harpsichord, BWV 1044 where the solo harpsichord gets to play most of the episodic material. But then, that concerto is a fanciful arrangement of two works which were not originally concertos, namely the Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 894, and the slow movement of the Sonata III for Organ in D Minor, BWV 527.

One possibility that must not be overlooked is that this work might have been originally conceived as a concerto to be played simply by three harpsichords without any other accompanying parts, more or less like Bach's so-called Italian Concerto, BWV 971. Because of the complexity of the work at hand, it seems only proper to include further details regarding its individual movements:

First Movement

The relation between this initial movement and that of the Harpsichord Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1052 is obvious. Both contain unison and harmonized versions of their respective ritornelli. Only here in BWV 1063, the first harmonized version follows immediately upon the heels of the unison presentation without any intervening episode. Another interesting aspect of this movement's construction is the fact that Ritornello VI and Episode VI can be put together to form a harmonized ritornello with an internal episode. This occurs because the third part of the ritornello, which is missing from Ritornello VI, is included at the end of Episode VI.

Second Movement

In this binary-form Siciliana, the repeats of each part are treated as florid variations for the soloists. Among the 20 intabulations of concertos made by Bach for organ or harpsichord, the Giga finale of Vivaldi's Op. 4, No. 6 [BWV 975] is treated in like manner. A cadenza is embedded in the cadential formula at the end of Bach's Siciliana. It leads to the dominant of d minor, the tonic of the finale. The use of the siciliana rhythm in the slow movement is also found in Bach's E Major and A Major Harpsichord Concertos [BWV 1053 and BWV 1055 respectively]; but BWV 1063 presents an occasion where the binary-form structure usually associated with such dance movements has actually been utilized.

Third Movement

Each of the three soloists is allotted one private episode in this fugue finale. These are as follows: Episode I for solo violin, Episode II for flute, and Episode IV for oboe. In their present state, the episodes for flute and oboe required only modest changes in range in order to get them into the tessituras of their respective instruments. The remaining Episodes III, V, and VI, include all the soloists. A unit consisting of Ritornello III and Episode III is recapitulated as Ritornello V and Episode V.