Sistine Chapel and The Musical Offering: Difference between pages

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'''''The Musical Offering''''' (German title '''''Musikalisches Opfer''''' or '''''Das Musikalische Opfer'''''), [[BWV]] 1079, is a collection of [[canon (music)|canon]]s 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.
The '''Sistine Chapel''' (Italian: ''Cappella Sistina'') is a [[chapel]] in the [[Palace of the Vatican]], the official residence of the Roman Catholic [[Pope]] in the [[Vatican City]]. It was built between [[1475]] and [[1483]], in the time of [[Pope Sixtus IV]], and is one of the most famous [[church]]es of the [[Western World]]. The name ''Sistine'' is derived from the Italian ''sistino'' meaning of or pertaining to Sixtus IV.
 
==The music==
Its known worldwide both for being the hall in which [[papal election|conclaves]] and other official ceremonies are held, including some [[Papal Coronation|papal coronation]]s, and for having been decorated by [[Michelangelo]]. It is located to the north of [[St. Peter's Basilica]], after the Scala Regia, and originally served as the [[Palatine chapel]] inside the old Vatican fortress.
===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 Bach|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 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:
 
[[Image:Musical offering.png|frame|none|The ''Thema Regium'' ("theme from the king")]]
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<div style="float:right; margin-left:10px; margin-right:10px; width:200px; text-align:center">
[[image:sistine.chapel.entire.500pix.jpg|200px|none|thumb|The interior of the Sistine Chapel]]
[[image:sistine.left.600pix.jpg|200px|none|thumb|Left section of the ceiling, after restoration]]
[[image:sistine.leftcentre.600pix.jpg|200px|none|thumb|Left centre section of the ceiling, after restoration]]
[[image:sistine.rightcentre.600pix.jpg|200px|none|thumb|Right centre section of the ceiling, after restoration]]
[[image:sistine.right.600pix.jpg|200px|none|thumb|Right section of the ceiling, after restoration]]
</div>
 
According to the press of the day, Bach succeeded pretty well in producing an instant fugue, although he must have confided afterwards he felt not very much at ease playing the new type of instrument.
==Architecture==
The chapel is rectangular and measures 40.93 meters long by 13.41 meters wide (the [[dimensions]] of the [[Temple of Solomon]], as given in the [[Old Testament]]). It is 20.70 meters high and is roofed by a flattened barrel vault, with small side vaults over the 6 centered windows. The pavement (15th century) is in [[opus alexandrinum]] (see [[opus]]).
 
Two months 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 spells out the word ''[[ricercar]]'' (an old name for a fugue).
A [[transenna]] in [[marble]] by [[Mino da Fiesole]], [[Andrea Bregno]] and [[Giovanni Dalmata]] divides the chapel into two parts; the wider one, together with the [[altar]], is reserved for proper religious ceremonies and other [[clergy]] uses, and the smaller one for the faithful. The passage (''cancellata'', gateway) was originally in gilt [[iron]] and more central; it was moved toward the faithful area to grant a wider space for the [[pope]]. By the same artists is the ''Cantoria'', the space for the [[chorus]].
 
===Structure, instrumentation===
During important ceremonies, side walls are covered with a series of tapestries (by [[Raffaello Santi|Raphael]]) depicting events from the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles.
In its finished form, ''The Musical Offering'' comprises:
*Two ricercars, written down on as many [[Musical staff|stave]]s as there are voices:
** a ricercar a 6 (a six voice fugue)
** a ricercar a 3 (a three voice fugue)
*Ten [[canon (music)|canon]]s
*A four-movement [[trio sonata]] featuring the [[flute]], an instrument which Frederick played.
 
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.
The architectural plans were made by [[Baccio Pontelli]] and the construction work was supervised by [[Giovannino de Dolci]] between [[1473]] and [[1484]], at the orders of Sixtus IV.
 
The ricercars and canons have been realised in various ways: The ricercars are frequently performed on keyboard instruments, an ensemble of [[chamber music]]ians 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.
The first [[mass]] in the Sistine Chapel was celebrated on August 9, [[1483]], as a ceremony by which it was consecrated and dedicated to the Assumption of the [[Mary, the mother of Jesus|virgin Mary]].
 
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.
==Frescos==
[[Image:Creation of Adam.jpg|left|thumbnail|250px|The [[Creation of Adam]] is the most famous Fresco in the Sistine Chapel]]
 
===Musical riddles===
The wall paintings were executed by [[Perugino|Pietro Perugino]], [[Sandro Botticelli]], [[Domenico Ghirlandaio]], [[Cosimo Rosselli]], [[Luca Signorelli]] and their respective workshops, which included [[Pinturicchio]], [[Piero di Cosimo]] and [[Bartolomeo della Gatta]].
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.
 
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 [[Modulation (music)|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).
The subjects of the pictures were historical religious themes, selected and divided according to the medieval concept of the partition of the world history into three epochs: before the ten commandments were given to Moses, between Moses and Christ's birth, and the Christian era thereafter. They underline the continuity between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, or the transition from the [[Mosaic law]] to the Christian religion.
 
==Reception==
[[Michelangelo Buonarroti]] was commissioned by [[Pope Julius II]] in [[1508]] to repaint the ceiling, originally representing golden stars on a blue sky; the work was completed between [[1508]] and [[November 1]], [[1512]]. He painted the [[Last Judgement]] over the [[altar]], between [[1535]] and [[1541]], being commissioned by [[Pope Paul III]] Farnese. Michelangelo felt that he was a more developed sculptor than a painter, but he accepted the offer.
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's musical taste supposedly did not very much cherish ''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==
===The ceiling===
===Arrangements===
In 1508 Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius II to paint the vault, or ceilling of the chapel. It took him until 1512 to complete. To be able to reach the ceiling, Michelangelo needed a support; the first idea was by [[Donato Bramante|Bramante]], who wanted to build for him a special scaffold, suspended in the air with ropes. But Michelangelo suspected that this would leave holes in the ceiling once the work was ended, so he built a scaffold of his own, a flat wooden platform on brackets built out from holes in the wall, high up near the top of the windows. He stood on this scaffolding while he painted.
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):
 
[[Image:Webern's Ricercar arrangement opening.PNG|550px|The opening of Webern's arrangement of "Ricercar a 6"]]
The first layer of plaster began to grow mold because it was too wet. Michelangelo had to remove it and start again, but he tried a new mixture, called [[intonaco]], created by one of his assistants, [[Jacopo l'Indaco]]. This one not only resisted mold, but also entered the Italian building tradition (and is still now in use). Michelangelo used bright colors, easily visible from the floor.
 
===As reference===
On the lowest part of the ceiling he painted the ancestors of Christ. Above this he alternated male and female prophets, with Jonah over the altar. On the highest section Michelangelo painted nine stories from the Book of Genesis.
''The Musical Offering'' is cited and deliberately interpreted by [[Douglas Hofstadter]] in his famous book ''[[Gödel, Escher, Bach]]''.
 
==See also==
Michelangelo was employed to paint only 12 figures, the Apostles, but when the work was finished there were more than 300. His figures showed the Creation, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and The Great Flood. The sketches are a really precious and curious document. Michelangelo used male models, even for the females, because female models were more rare and costly than male ones.
* [[Johann Sebastian Bach]]
* [[List of compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach]]
* [[Bach compositions printed during the composer's lifetime]]
* [[Perpetuum mobile]]
* [[Canon_%28music%29]]
* [[Fugue]]
 
== External links ==
===The Last Judgement===
* [http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/musoffcanons.html Canons of the Musical Offering]
[[Image:Last judgement.jpg|left|thumbnail|200px|[[St Bartholomew]] displaying his flayed skin (a self-portrait by Michelangelo) in The Last Judgement]]
* The [[Mutopia Project]] has some of the music of [http://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/make-table.cgi?preview=1&searchingfor=1079&Composer=BachJS&Instrument=&Style=&timelength=1&timeunit=week&lilyversion= The Musical Offering]
The '''[[Last Judgement]]''' was an object of a heavy dispute between Cardinal Carafa and Michelangelo: the artist was accused of immorality and intolerable obscenity, having depicted naked figures, with genitals in evidence, inside the most important [[church]] of [[Christianity]], so a [[censorship]] campaign (known as '''the "Fig-Leaf Campaign"''') was organized by Carafa and Monsignor Sernini ([[Mantua]]'s ambassador) to remove the frescoes. When the Pope's own Master of Ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena said "it was mostly disgraceful that in so sacred a place there should have been depicted all those nude figures, exposing themselves so shamefully, and that it was no work for a papal chapel but rather for the public baths and taverns." Michelangelo worked his semblance into the scene as [[Minos]], judge of the underworld. It is said that when da Cesena complained to the Pope, the pontiff responded that his jurisdiction did not extend to hell, so the portrait would have to remain.
 
The genitalia in the fresco were later covered by the artist [[Daniele da Volterra]], whom history remembers by the derogatory nickname 'the breeches-painter'.
 
===Restoration and controversy===
 
The chapel has been recently restored ([[1981]] through [[1994]]). This restoration has been surrounded by a heated controversy in the art world, some claiming it a success and a breakthrough revelation, while others saying it ruined the masterpiece. Some conservationists complained about the loss of a brown [[patina]] that harmonised what they called the 'ice-cream colours' revealed in restoration. The bright colours were in fact necessary for the frescoes to stand out in the gloom of the chapel, with its high, narrow windows &ndash; an effect lost as the chapel is now lit by electric light, making the colours seem a little lurid.
 
== Quotes ==
[[Giorgio Vasari]] (about Michelangelo's frescoes):
:This work has been and truly is a beacon of our art, and it has brought such benefit and enlightenment to the art of painting that it was sufficient to illuminate a world which for so many hundreds of years had remained in the state of darkness. And, to tell the truth, anyone who is a painter no longer needs to concern himself about seeing innovations and inventions, new ways of painting poses, clothing on figures, and various awe-inspiring details, for Michelangelo gave to this work all the perfection that can be given to such details.
 
[[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]:
:Without having seen the Sistine Chapel one can form no appreciable idea of what one man is capable of achieving.
 
== Inspired works ==
The ceiling is the subject of a [[2005]] [[play]] by [[Nigel Planer]], ''On The Ceiling''.
 
Episode 4 of Season 1 of [[Animaniacs]] spoofs Michelangelo's painting of the Sistine Chapel and the controversial nudity behind it.
 
==Further reading==
*[[Marcia Hall|Hall, Marcia B.]] [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=ur2&camp=1789&tag=averyws-20&creative=9325&path=tg/detail/-/0810935309/qid=1119292139/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1?v=glance%26s=books%26n=507846 Michelangelo: The Frescoes of Sistine Chapel]. New York: Harry N Abrams, 2002. No other one-volume work on the Sistine Chapel offers such a clear, concise introduction to this perennially popular subject.
*[[Michael Hirst|Hirst, Michael]]. [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=ur2&camp=1789&tag=averyws-20&creative=9325&path=tg/detail/-/0810938405/qid=1119292139/sr=8-16/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i3_xgl14?v=glance%26s=books%26n=507846 The Sistine Chapel: A Glorious Restoration]. New York: Harry N Abrams, 1994. Featuring nearly 300 color photographs by Takashi Okamura and specialized, academic essays by 10 Italian, British and American art historians, curators and restorers, this impressive album documents the restored ceiling and wall frescoes--depicting biblical scenes, the prophets and sibyls and the Last Judgment -- in all their primordial force.
*[[Michael Hirst|Hirst, Michael]] and [[Gianluigi Colalicci]]. [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=ur2&camp=1789&tag=averyws-20&creative=9325&path=tg/detail/-/0810981769/qid=1119291696/sr=8-3/ref=pd_bbs_3?v=glance%26s=books%26n=507846 The Sistine Chapel]. New York: Harry N Abrams, 1999. A collection of essays on the restoration of the famous ceiling, it also contains 312 stunning illustrations along with numerous full-size plates, close-ups, and a gatefold of the entire collage.
*Carlo Pietrangeli, Michael Hirst, Gianluigi Colalucci, Fabrizio Mancinelli, John Shearman, Matthias Winner, Edward Maeder, Pierluigi De Vecchi, Nazzareno Gabriellil, Piernicola Pagliara, (photography Takashi Okamura) ''The Sistine Chapel: A Glorious Restoration'' (Harry N. Abrams, 1994) shows the ceiling at great length in colour photos taken after the contentious cleaning
 
==Web links / virtual tours==
*[http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/CSN/CSN_Main.html Vatican Museums Online: Sistine Chapel]
*[http://www.christusrex.org/www1/sistine/0-Tour.html Master Plan & Pictures: Cappella Sistina]
*[http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/tours/sistina/ Web Gallery of Art: Visit to the Sistine Chapel in Vatican]
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/560315.stm BBC News: Sistine Chapel Restored (1999)]
*[http://www.arches.uga.edu/~msopal29/ The Restoration of the Sistine Chapel: Right or Wrong?]
 
==See also==
{{pic}}
* [[The Creation of Adam]]
 
[[Category:ChapelsCompositions by Johann Sebastian Bach]]
[[Category:Paintings]]
[[Category:Renaissance art]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic Church art]]
[[Category:Vatican City]]
[[Category:Election of the Pope]]
 
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