Each of Bach's harpsichord concertos, save perhaps one, is really a new arrangement made by him of a concerto conceived for another solo instrument (invariably violin or oboe). A similar origin can be ascribed to the Concerto for flute, violin, harpsichord, and strings in A minor, BWV 1044 (the Triple Concerto, as it is known), though in the case of this most unusual of all Baroque concertos it is not another concerto, but rather two separate keyboard works that Bach plundered. The occasion for which Bach crafted the Triple Concerto is unknown, but it very likely falls among those works composed for performance by the Leipzig Collegium Musicum; a tentative composition date of ca. 1730-1735 is usually assigned. Whereas in most of the harpsichord concertos Bach remains relatively true to his sources—the original solo part is of course fleshed out in wholly new ways and the tutti scoring is sometimes adapted to suit, but the course of the music usually remains largely untouched—in BWV 1044, Bach treats his two sources very freely indeed, so much so that one cannot really call the work a transcription or arrangement; it is, rather, a new composition "after" the other two. The two sources are: for the first and last of the Concerto's three movements, the Prelude and Fugue in A minor for harpsichord, BWV 894; and for the middle movement, the middle movement of the Organ Sonata in D minor, BWV 527. Throughout the triplet-driven opening Allegro, which takes its material only from the prelude half of BWV 1044, the harpsichord is utterly superior to the flute and the violin, who spend most of their time working out countermelodies to and brief commentaries on the harpsichord's often dense oratory (the Concerto is properly called a concerto for "harpsichord, flute, and violin," though one will hardly ever find the soli listed in that order). In the Adagio, ma non tanto, e dolce second movement, however, the flute and violin come to the fore, the former engaging in a pleasant pastoral dialogue with the harpsichord while the latter accompanies them with strolling pizzicati. Bach converts the fugue of BWV 1044 into an Alla breve movement, throughout which the harpsichordist again reigns supreme.

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