Bach: The Musical Offering

The Musical Offering is a major composite work by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) that was dedicated to King Frederick II (“the Great”) of Prussia and published in 1747—one of the few works printed during the composer’s lifetime. It includes two keyboard fugues, a trio sonata for flute, violin, and basso continuo (harpsichord with bass instrument), and ten mostly enigmatic canons, all focusing on the “royal theme” provided by the king.

Introduction

The Musical Offering took shape soon after Bach’s 1747 visit to the Royal Prussian court in Potsdam, near Berlin. Dedicated to King Frederick II, who had provided the musical theme, Bach created a work consisting of various instrumental settings for keyboard and other instruments that showcases both the wide-ranging applicability of the royal theme and his mastery of polyphonic composition. Since the Prussian king was an accomplished flutist, the work included, as a special gift for him, a trio sonata with a part for flute.

History

The Musical Offering stands out as Bach’s only instrumental work whose genesis is clearly documented. The story begins with the composer’s visit to the royal court in Potsdam on May 7–8, 1747—one of the most notable events in his life. Frederick II, an accomplished flutist with a strong musical education, had repeatedly asked Bach’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714–88), who had served as his court harpsichordist since 1738, whether his father might visit. Bach finally accepted the invitation and made the trip to Potsdam. Informed of Bach’s arrival, the king gave orders that Bach be admitted to the regular evening chamber music at the royal court. He made him try out the keyboard instruments in his residence, including some new fortepianos (early versions of pianos), and all in attendance admired Bach’s virtuosity and artistry. The king then challenged the composer by asking him to improvise a fugue on a given musical theme. Bach complied and improvised a three-part fugue on the theme dictated by the king. However, when the king requested a six-part fugue on the same theme, Bach politely declined but offered to perform instead a six-part fugue on a theme of his own choice.

Bach: "Ricercar a 6" from The Musical Offering, BWV 1079

German newspapers reported in detail on the event and described how Bach’s performance went on “so happily… that not only His Majesty was pleased to show his satisfaction but also all present were seized with astonishment.” The papers also noted that Bach found the royal theme “so exceedingly beautiful that he intends to set it down on paper as a regular fugue and have it engraved in copper.” After returning to Leipzig, Bach wrote out two fugues, including the one in six-parts he felt unprepared to improvise. But beyond this, he expanded the project's scope significantly by including a variety of settings of the royal theme. On September 30, 1747, the Leipzig newspaper announced the publication of The Musical Offering and noted: “The elaboration consists in 1.) two fugues, one with three parts, one with six obbligato parts; 2.) in a sonata for transverse flute, violin, and continuo; 3.) in diverse canons, among which is a fuga canonica”—a combination of a canon and a fugue.

Analysis

The Musical Offering is a heterogeneous (varied in form) monothematic (based on one theme) collection, and—with the exception of its four-movement trio sonata—does not form a unified work with a fixed order of musical settings. This is evident not only from Bach’s newspaper announcement cited above, but also from the work’s publication in three separate fascicles, or installments. Because every setting is based on the royal theme, which Bach calls “Thema regium” and “Soggetto reale,” the collection serves both as a tribute to the king and as a demonstration of Bach’s mastery of polyphonic composition.

Fascicle I contains the two keyboard Ricercars (à 3 and à 6), which expose the royal theme in fugue settings for three and six voices. The first fugue is notated in regular keyboard score (two staves), but the second in open score (six staves) to clarify its complex six-part texture. By naming them “Ricercar” (Italian for “to search” or “research”), a term often used for 17th-century fugues, Bach draws on both improvisational and learned fugue traditions, as described in Johann Gottfried Walther’s Musical Dictionary (1732). Thus, the two Ricercars are supposed to illustrate contrasting approaches to fugal composition. Ricercar à 3 is followed by a “Canon perpetuus” in enigmatic notation; Ricercar à 6 by two riddle canons with the instruction “Quaerendo invenietis” (“Seek and ye shall find”).

Fascicle II contains, within a separate title folder (“Sonata sopr’il Soggetto Reale,” or “Sonata on the Royal Theme”), a set of three partbooks for flute, violin, and continuo. The sonata, Bach’s last chamber music work, is designed according to the traditional four-movement structure and maintains a polyphonic approach throughout. Yet, in this special tribute to the flutist king, Bach also explores a diverse range of styles for each movement. The third movement (Andante) is particularly noteworthy for its innovative “Empfindsamkeit” manner—a sensitive style particularly popular among the musicians at the royal courts in Potsdam and Berlin. The trio sonata is followed by a three-part “Canon perpetuus” (resolved in the partbooks).

Fascicle III, entitled “Canones diversi super Thema Regium” (“Various canons on the Royal Theme”), contains five canons and a “Fuga canonica” in enigmatic (unresolved) notation. The set of six two-part (one instrument to a part) canons begins with a crab canon (one part played simultaneously forward and backward like a palindrome). There follow four canons that employ different devices, such as unison (same part, different starting points), contrary motion (one part upside-down), augmentation plus contrary motion (one part with longer notes, upside-down), and modulation through the keys. In the king’s dedication copy, canons four and five contain manuscript inscriptions in Latin (translation: “As the notes increase, so may the king’s glory grow” and “As the modulations rise, so may the king’s glory ascend”). The three-part canonic fugue is placed at the end.

The king’s dedication copy contains a Latin acrostic: RICERCAR = Regis Iussu Cantio Et Reliqua Canonica Arte Resoluta (“the song/theme given by the king, with additions resolved in canonic style”). This manuscript inscription figuratively connects the six canons in Fascicle III with the four sprinkled across Fascicles I and II. The altogether ten canons provide The Musical Offering with a scholarly facet of contrapuntal theory.

Critical Thoughts

The idea and design of Bach’s Musical Offering—as a collection of various musical compositions on a single theme—is inspired by two earlier large-scale monothematic works: the Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, of 1741 and the early manuscript version of The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080, completed around 1742. Both large-scale works had a major impact on the composer’s instrumental compositions in his last decade, the 1740s. The 30 Goldberg Variations are all based on the ostinato bass pattern of the introductory aria, and The Art of Fugue, in both the early manuscript and posthumously published versions, pursue the various categories of fugal and canonic composition based on a single principal theme. Moreover, the Goldberg Variations led to the creation of 14 Canons, BWV 1087, which are all based on the first eight notes of the opening aria’s bass pattern; they serve as a conceptual model for the ten canons in The Musical Offering.

Legacy

The reception and performance history of The Musical Offering is unremarkable until the 20th-century rise of the recording industry—this work’s heterogeneous nature makes it better suited for recording rather than live performance. Presenting the work in its entirety draws particular attention to the difficulties of the instrumentation of the canons, and of organizing its diverse sections. Bach left no instructions since he did not expect it to be performed as a cycle. The only original numbering pertains to the canon sequence within the “Canones diversi” (Fascicle III). Over time, two primary organizational models for the performance of the complete work have emerged: (1) The two Ricercars, followed by the ten Canons, and concluding with the Trio Sonata; and (2) Ricercar à 3, followed by the “Canones diversi” group, the Trio Sonata, the four remaining Canons, and the Ricercar à 6. 

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Article by Christoph Wolff