The Musical Offering
The Musical Offering (German: Musikalisches Opfer or Das Musikalische Opfer), BWV 1079, is a collection of keyboard canons, fugues, and other pieces of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, all based on a single musical theme given to him by Frederick the Great (King Frederick II of Prussia), to whom they are dedicated. They were published in September 1747. The Ricercar a 6, a six-voice fugue that is regarded as the high point of the entire work, was put forward by the musicologist Charles Rosen as the most significant piano composition in history, partly because it is one of the first. This ricercar is also occasionally called the Prussian Fugue, a name used by Bach himself.
Movements
- Musical Offering: I. Ricercare a 3 voci
- Musical Offering: II. Tema e variazioni: Tema
- Musical Offering: II. Tema e variazioni: Var. I. Canon a 2, cancrizans
- Musical Offering: II. Tema e variazioni: Var. II. Canon perpetuus super thema regium
- Musical Offering: II. Tema e variazioni: Var. III. Per motum contrarium
- Musical Offering: II. Tema e variazioni: Var. IV. Canon in unisono
- Musical Offering: II. Tema e variazioni: Var. V. Per motum contrarium (Quaerendo invenietis)
- Musical Offering: II. Tema e variazioni: Var. VI. Per motum contrarium: Inversus Var. Vae
- Musical Offering: II. Tema e variazioni: Var. VII. Fuga canonica in epidiapente
- Musical Offering: II. Tema e variazioni: Var. VIII. Per augmentationem contrario motu
- Musical Offering: II. Tema e variazioni: Var. IX. Canon per tonos
- Musical Offering: II. Tema e variazioni: Var. X. Canon perpetuus a 4
- Musical Offering: III. Sonata: I. Largo
- Musical Offering: III. Sonata: II. Allegro (with orchestral interpolations)
- Musical Offering: III. Sonata: III. Andante
- Musical Offering: III. Sonata: IV. Allegro giusto (‘Canon Concertante’, i.e. Canon Perpetuus)
- Musical Offering: IV. Fuga (Ricercar) a 6 voci