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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 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 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")]]
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.
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).
===Structure, instrumentation===
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 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.
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.
===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.
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).
==
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==
===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):
[[Image:Webern's Ricercar arrangement opening.PNG|550px|The opening of Webern's arrangement of "Ricercar a 6"]]
===As
''The Musical Offering'' is cited and deliberately interpreted by [[Douglas Hofstadter]] in his famous book ''[[Gödel, Escher, Bach]]''.
==See also==
* [[Johann Sebastian Bach]]
* [[List of compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach]]
* [[Bach compositions printed during the composer's lifetime]]
* [[Perpetuum mobile]]
* [[Canon_%28music%29]]
* [[Fugue]]
==
* [http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/musoffcanons.html Canons of the Musical Offering]
* 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]
[[Category:Compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach]]
[[fi:Musikalisches Opfer]]
[[de:Musikalisches Opfer]]
[[hu:Musikalisches Opfer]]
[[ja:音楽の捧げもの]]
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