Description
In 1747 at Potsdam, asked to improvise on a theme given by Frederick the Great, Bach is reported to have declined to improvise a six-voice fugue on the spot. Back home he wrote this six-part ricercar on the royal theme, and it was dedicated to the king the same year as part of the Musical Offering. It is notated in open score on six staves.
In C minor and 2/2, the king's chromatically descending theme enters in each of six voices in turn and builds up layer upon layer. Compared with the improvisatory motion of the three-part ricercar, it moves with the calm tread of the older style, and the thickness of the voices is what to listen for. It has 2,693 notes in 414 seconds, and its range runs from B-flat 1 to C6, the lowest note below the left end of a 61-key keyboard, though an octave shift fits it on one.
Rated advanced. With six voices shared between two hands, the main challenges are passing voices between the hands and fingerings that keep long notes held. Lower the playback speed to hear which voice carries the theme, and repeat passages isolated with the A-B loop. Keep checking with the hand colours which hand each voice has been given to.
A broad collection of standalone piano pieces not belonging to any specific set, offering hundreds of varied character pieces to explore and compare.
Browse all songs in Piano Pieces →Sheet Music
Sheet music provided by Mutopia Project
About the Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Johann Sebastian Bach was the towering figure of German Baroque music, serving for decades as Cantor of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. Renowned for his mastery of counterpoint, he laid the foundations of keyboard music with works such as The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Inventions. This site includes minuets and polonaises from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, the Inventions and Sinfonias, and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier. The Notebook pieces are catalogued with BWV Anh. (appendix) numbers, but many are by other composers - Petzold's minuets among them - or by no one known, and most of their song pages give the current view of who wrote them.
View all works by Bach →