The Musical Offering, BWV 1079
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
On May 7, 1747, Johann Sebastian Bach arrived at the palace of Frederick the Great in Potsdam, where his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was employed as harpsichordist. Frederick, who was himself a flutist and musical connoisseur, had invited "old Bach" to come and play the instruments at the court and to exhibit his legendary skills in improvisation and counterpoint, skills that for Frederick were relics of an older generation. The event was covered in many German newspapers. Frederick, we are told, was about to start his evening concert, when he learned that Bach had arrived. According to one Berlin newspaper,
His August Self immediately gave orders that Bach be admitted and went, at his entrance, to the so-called "forte and piano," and without any preparation personally condescended to play Capellmeister Bach a theme that the latter should improvise into a fugue. This was accomplished so successfully by the aforementioned Capellmeister that not only His Majesty was pleased to show his satisfaction, but also all those present were seized with astonishment...
Frederick then challenged Bach to improvise a fugue in six voices on the same subject. However, since the subject was clearly chosen to be a difficult one, and since Bach found that "the improvisation did not want to succeed as befitted such an excellent theme," he chose another subject on which he improvised a six-voice fugue to the amazement of the king and the court.
On his return to Leipzig, Bach wrote a collection of music exploring the possibilities of Frederick's theme. His Musicalisches Opfer (Musical Offering) was engraved at his own expense and sent to Potsdam with a dedication to the king. Together with The Art of the Fugue, it is one of the great monuments of contrapuntal art from Bach's later years.
He uses Frederick's highly chromatic theme throughout the Musical Offering as the subject of fugues (ricercari) in three and six voices, as well as for ten different kinds of canons, and it is worked into the movements of a trio sonata. In the canons, not only are there some in which voices imitate each other exactly, but in other cases one voice may play a version of the theme, while a second voice plays it upside-down, backwards, or at a different speed. The feat is even more remarkable when one considers that not only did Bach not choose the subject himself, but that the chromatic theme given to him is actually quite awkward as a subject for counterpoint.
Stylistically The Musical Offering ranges from the "antique" style of the canons and the six-voice ricercar -- even the older term "ricercar," rather than "fugue" is a nod to earlier times -- and the more "modern" style of the trio sonata. No doubt the royal court looked on Bach as something of a curiosity from a past era, but the trio sonata was Bach's bow to the tastes at court.
With the exception of the trio sonata, which is for flute, violin and continuo, no instruments are specified in The Musical Offering. The three-voice ricercar, however, is written on two staves as if for keyboard, and it may possibly be close to the three-voice fugue that Bach improvised on the keyboard at Potsdam. The great six-voice ricercar is his solution to Frederick's challenge to improvise a six-voice fugue on his theme, a challenge that he at first declined. In Bach's engraved edition, it is printed in open score, i. e. with each of the six voices on a separate staff, but there is also a manuscript version for keyboard, and it could be no accident that the six voices always fall within the reach of ten fingers. However, six voices on a keyboard, particularly when they frequently cross over each other, tend to sound chordal and can obscure the lines of counterpoint, whereas the counterpoint is clearer with six separate instruments. Bach wrote no other six-voice fugues for keyboard alone, and this one has none of the idiomatic keyboard figuration that is in the three-voice ricercar. Thus it is often performed with six different instruments, although it is also sometimes heard to impressive effect on the harpsichord.
The flute part of the trio sonata is one of the most difficult pieces in the repertoire of the one- or two-keyed Baroque flute. Being in C minor -- Eb major for the slow movement -- it requires difficult cross-fingerings and has many weaker, "covered" notes. Why Bach wrote such a part for flute is difficult to say. One intriguing suggestion has been offered that, since Frederick had asked Bach to improvise a six-voice fugue on such a difficult subject, Bach may have reversed the challenge by giving Frederick, an accomplished amateur flutist, a daunting flute part to play.
Boston Baroque Performances
The Musical Offering, BWV 1079
January 24, 1974
University Lutheran Church, Cambridge, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Carol Epple, flute
Daniel Stepner, violin
Anthony Martin, violin
Laura Jeppesen, viola da gamba
Sarah Cunningham, viola da gamba
Jane Hershey, viola da gamba
Adrienne Hartzell, cello
Martin Pearlman, harpsichord