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The Musical Offering (German title Musikalisches Opfer or Das Musikalische Opfer) is a collection of canons 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 collection has its roots in a meeting between Bach and Frederick II on May 7, 1747. Bach, who was well known for his skill at improvising, was given the following theme by Frederick to improvise a fugue upon:
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 letter of which spells out the word ricercar (an old name for a fugue).
In its finished form, The Musical Offering comprises a Ricercar a 6 (a six voice fugue), a Ricercar a 3 (a three voice fugue), ten canons and a trio sonata featuring the flute, an instrument which Frederick played.
The riddle fugues (or more apropriately: riddle canons): 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: the performer is supposed to interpret the music as a multi-part piece, 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 augmentation" (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 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).
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. They have been realised in various ways. Sometimes a chamber group plays them, sometimes they are played on a single harpsichord (or two where one is impractical).
The "Ricercar a 6" has been arranged on its own on a number of occasions, the most prominent arranger being Anton Webern, who made a version noted for its Klangfarbenmelodie style, for orchestra.
The Musical Offering is cited and deliberately interpreted by Douglas Hofstadter in his famous book Gödel, Escher, Bach.
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