Johann Sebastian Bach - booksnow.scholarsportal.info

1 92 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH.work, which was both composed and engraved piecemeal, containsone fugue in three parts and one in six, eight canons, afugue with answer on the fifth in canon form, a sonata in fourmovements, and a two-part canon over a free basso contimio.All these are worked out more or less upon the same theme.Bach gave to both the three-part and the six-part fuguethe name of Ricercar. In the case of the second, the nameseems to be accounted for by the fact that it was a hithertounheard-of undertaking to write a strict six-part fugue forclavier alone without pedals. The idea would, probably,not have occurred to Bach had not King Frederick, on theoccasion of Bach's pla5-ing at Potsdam, expressed a wishto hear an extempore six-part fugue played by him. At thetime Bach complied with the king's request, improvisingthe fugue upon a fitting theme chosen by himself. Inthis work he wished to show that he could also treat thegiven theme, although it was not so well adapted for thepurpose, in a six-part fugue. Such a composition, of course,implies a close interweaving of the parts, more especiallywhen it is played by two hands alone. If we compare itwith the C sharp minor fugue in the first part of the" Wohltemperirte Clavier," which contains, not indeed six,but five obbligato parts, and if we notice how much moreintelligible it is than the fugue in the "Musical Offering," itwill appear that Bach has, intentionally, made all the sixparts work together. The mechanical difficulty of the pieceis a second reason for calling it a Ricercar. There are noother special feats of ingenuity, in the use of counterpoint,or clever episodical developments. An old-fashioned st3'le,the effect of which is heightened b}- the use of the Tempusimperfectum, and which agrees very well with the harmonicrichness, and the bold chromatic treatment running throughthe whole work, are the contrasting elements from whichthe individual character of this mighty work isdeveloped.^*^^Berlin ; it is from Emanuel Bach's effects. As to the original edition, seeApp. A., No. 8.361 In the original edition Bach had the six-part Ricercar printed in score, inorder to present the intricate interweaving of the parts in a clearer form to theeye. In the autograph it is brought together on two staves.