Bach - Ricercar a 6 from The Musical Offering BWV 1079 | Netherlands Bach Society

The Musikalisches Opfer is a special collection of chamber music within the work of Johann Sebastian Bach, written for Frederick the Great of Prussia. Musikalisches Opfer means ‘a musical offering’, and that is precisely how the collection originated. In May 1747, Bach was introduced to Frederick, who had heard that Bach was a great improviser and asked him on the spot to improvise a fugue on a given theme. According to the sources, Bach made a brilliant job of it and showed such enthusiasm about the ‘royal theme’ that he promised to have the fugue engraved ‘on copper’ and printed. No sooner said than done. Two months later, Bach published a series of compositions: a trio sonata, a three-part and a six-part ricercar and ten canons, all inspired by the king’s theme. In the rest of the Ricercar a 6, the theme recurs another 6 times; further apart and more surprising. As in its three-part counterpart, Bach actually keeps things simple. The theme recurs without contrapuntal tricks, unlike examples by the grand masters of the genre, Gabrieli and Frescobaldi, whose ricercars open up all the registers of counterpoint. True creativity is found in the ‘episodes’, the passages containing no theme material. Here, Bach often writes variations on motifs from the countertheme, up to three at a time and all nicely proportioned, whereas the Ricercar a 3 is more inclined to let the musical ideas do their own thing. We thank MWH4impact foundation for their generous support of this...