The Musical Offering (German title Musikalisches Opfer or Das Musikalische Opfer), BWV 1079, is a collection of canons and fugues and other pieces of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, based on a musical theme by Frederick II of Prussia (Frederick the Great) and dedicated to him. Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (Bach Works Catalogue) is the numbering system used to identify musical works by Johann Sebastian Bach. ... In music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration (e. ... In music, a fugue (IPA: ) is a type of contrapuntal composition. ... Music is a form of art that involves organized and audible sounds and silence. ... The 1748 Haussmann portrait of the composer Bach redirects here. ... Frederick II of Prussia (German: ; January 24, 1712 – August 17, 1786) of Hohenzollern dynasty, ruled the Kingdom of Prussia from 1740 to 1786. ...

The music

The theme from the king

The collection has its roots in a meeting between Bach and Frederick II on May 7, 1747. The meeting, taking place in the king's residence in Potsdam, resulted from Bach's son Carl Philipp Emanuel being employed there as court musician. Frederick wanted to show a novelty to Bach: the pianoforte had been invented a few years earlier, and the king owned such an experimental instrument, allegedly the first Bach ever saw. Bach, who was well known for his skill at improvising, was given the following theme by Frederick to improvise a fugue upon the Thema Regium ("theme of the king"): May 7 is the 127th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (128th in leap years). ... // Events January 31 - The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Dock Hospital April 9 - The Scottish Jacobite Lord Lovat was beheaded by axe on Tower Hill, London, for high treason; he was the last man to be executed in this way in Britain May 14 - First battle of Cape... Potsdam is the capital city of the state of Brandenburg in Germany. ... Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (March 8, 1714 – December 14, 1788) was a German musician and composer, the second of five sons of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach. ... The piano Piano is a common abbreviation for pianoforte, a large musical instrument with a keyboard (see keyboard instrument). ... Improvising is the art of organizing sound and/or motion during performance. ...

The main theme from Johann Sebastian Bachs The Musical Offering File links The following pages link to this file: The Musical Offering Categories: GFDL images ...

According to the press of the day, Bach succeeded in improvising a fugue.

Two weeks after the meeting, Bach published a set of pieces based on this theme which we now know as The Musical Offering. Bach inscribed the piece "Regis Iussu Cantio Et Reliqua Canonica Arte Resoluta" (the theme given by the king, with additions, resolved in the canonic style), the first letters of which spell out the word ricercar (an old name for a fugue). A ricercar (or ricercare; the terms are interchangeable) is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. ...

Structure, instrumentation

In its finished form, The Musical Offering comprises:

• Two ricercars, written down on as many staves as there are voices:
  • a ricercar a 6 (a six voice fugue)
  • a ricercar a 3 (a three voice fugue)
• Ten canons:
  • Canones diversi super Thema Regium:
    • 2 Canons a 2
    • Canon a 2, per motum contrarium
    • Canon a 2, per augmentationem, contrario motu
    • Canon a 2, per tonos
  • Canon perpetuus
  • Fuga canonica
  • Canon a 2 "Quaerendo invenietis"
  • Canon a 4
  • Canon perpetuus, contrario motu
• Sonata sopr'il Soggetto Reale – a trio sonata featuring the flute, an instrument which Frederick played, consisting of four movements:
  • Largo
  • Allegro
  • Andante
  • Allegro

Apart from the trio sonata, which is written for flute, violin and basso continuo, the pieces have few indications of which instruments are meant to play them. In musical notation, the staff or stave is a set of five horizontal lines on which note symbols are placed to indicate pitch and time. ... In music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration (e. ... The trio sonata is a musical form which was particularly popular around the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century. ... The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. ... This does not cite its references or sources. ... Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer musical notation used to indicate intervallic content (the intervals which make up a sonority), later chords, in relation to a bass note. ...

The ricercars and canons have been realised in various ways: The ricercars are frequently performed on keyboard instruments, an ensemble of chamber musicians with alternating instrument groups, comparable to the instrumentation of the trio sonata, often playing the canons. But also recordings on one or more keyboard instruments (piano, harpsichord) exist, as well as with a more ample orchestra-like instrumentation. Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. ...

As the printed version gives the impression to be organised for (reduction of) page turning when sight-playing the score, the order of the pieces intended by Bach (if there was an intended order), remains uncertain, although it is customary to open the collection with the Ricercar a 3, and play the trio sonata toward the end. The Canones super Thema Regium are also usually played together.

Musical riddles

Some of the canons of the Musical Offering are represented in the original score by not more than a short monodic melody of a few measures, with a more or less enigmatic inscription in Latin above the melody. These compositions are called the riddle fugues (or sometimes, more appropriately, the riddle canons). The performer(s) is/are supposed to interpret the music as a multi-part piece (a piece with several intertwining melodies), while solving the "riddle". Some of these riddles have been explained to have more than one possible "solution", although nowadays most printed editions of the score give a single, more or less "standard" solution of the riddle, so that interpreters can just play, without having to worry about the Latin, or the riddle. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ...

One of these riddle canons, "in augmentationem" (i.e. the length of the notes gets longer), is inscribed "Notulis crescentibus crescat Fortuna Regis" (may the fortunes of the king increase like the length of the notes), while a modulating canon which ends a tone higher than it starts is inscribed "Ascendenteque Modulationis ascendat Gloria Regis" (may the king's glory rise like the ascending modulation). In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key (tonic, or tonal center) to another. ...

Reception

Little is known about how Frederick would have received the score dedicated to him, and whether he tried to solve any riddle or played the flute part of the trio sonata. Frederick was reputedly not fond of complicated music, and soon after Bach's visit he was on his next war campaign, so it is possible it was not well received.

20th century adaptations and citations

Arrangements

The "Ricercar a 6" has been arranged on its own on a number of occasions, the most prominent arranger being Anton Webern, who in 1935 made a version for small orchestra, noted for its Klangfarbenmelodie style (i.e. melody lines are passed on from one instrument to another after every few notes, every note receiving the "tone color" of the instrument it is played on): Anton Webern (December 3, 1883 – September 15, 1945) was an Austrian composer. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... A philharmonic orchestra An orchestra is an instrumental ensemble, usually a fairly large instrumental ensemble with string, brass, woodwind sections, and possibly a percussion section as well. ... Klangfarbenmelodie (German for sound-color-melody) is a musical technique that involves breaking up a musical line or melody out from one instrument to between several instruments. ...

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (870x565, 29 KB)The opening measures of Weberns arrangement of Bachs six part Ricercar showing klangfarbenmelodie. ...

Sofia Gubaidulina later used the Royal Theme of the Musical Offering in her violin concerto Offertorium. Orchestrated in an arrangement similar to Webern's, the theme is deconstructed note by note through a series of variations and reconstructed as a Russian Orthodox hymn. Sofia Gubaidulina in Sortavala 1981 Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina, (Russian София Асгатовна Губайдулина) (born October 24, 1931) is a Russian-Tatar composer of deeply religious music. ... Offertorium (Russian Жертвование) is a concerto for violin and orchestra composed by Sofia Gubaidulina in 1980 and revised in 1982 and 1986. ...

Bart Berman composed three new canons on the Royal Theme of the Musical Offering, that were published in 1978 as a special holiday supplement to the Dutch music journal Mens en Melodie (publisher Elsevier). [1] Bart Berman (Rotterdam, December 29, 1938) is a Dutch-Israeli pianist and composer, best known as an interpreter of Franz Schubert and 20th century music. ... Elseviers logo. ...

As reference

The Musical Offering is cited and deliberately interpreted by Douglas Hofstadter in his famous book Gödel, Escher, Bach. Douglas Richard Hofstadter (born February 15, 1945) is an American academic. ... GEB cover Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (commonly GEB) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas Hofstadter, published in 1979 by Basic Books. ...

Reinhard Boess: Die Kunst des Raetselkanons im ’musikalischen Opfer’, 1991, 2 vols., ISBN 3-7959-0530-3

James R. Gaines: Evening in the Palace of Reason. Fourth Estate, 2005, ISBN 0-00-715658-8 (Johann Sebastian Bach meets Frederick the Great) Frederick the Great Frederick II of Prussia (Friedrich der Große, Frederick the Great, January 24, 1712 – August 17, 1786) was the Hohenzollern king of Prussia 1740–86. ...

See also

• Johann Sebastian Bach
• List of compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach
• Bach compositions printed during the composer's lifetime
• Perpetuum mobile
• Canon (music)
• Fugue

The 1748 Haussmann portrait of the composer Bach redirects here. ... There are over 1000 known compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. ... See List of compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach for the complete list of Bach compositions - the present list only lists those compositions by Bach that were printed during his lifetime: since some of these editions got a bit scattered over the BWV catalogue, this list is only intended to provide... Perpetuum mobile (Latin), moto perpetuo (Italian), mouvement perpétuel (French), literally meaning perpetual motion, are terms applied to pieces of music, or parts of pieces, characterised by a continuous steady stream of notes, usually at a rapid tempo. ... In music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration (e. ... In music, a fugue (IPA: ) is a type of contrapuntal composition. ...

External links

• Canons of the Musical Offering
• The Mutopia Project has some of the music of The Musical Offering