Program Notes

Notes for: July 15, 2008

On May 11, 1747, the palace of Prussian King Frederick the Great at Potsdam issued the following press release, which was picked up by newspapers in Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig and Magdeburg:

In large measure, Frederick, an accomplished flutist and himself a composer, had invited Bach to Potsdam because of Bach’s reputation as a composer and improviser. But the king’s motivations were also political. In November, 1745, in the course of a war against Saxony, his troops had occupied Leipzig for a year, upsetting the city’s social and economic life. After the Prussian withdrawal, the Russian ambassador to Prussia, an admirer of Bach, persuaded the king to invite Leipzig’s most famous musician to Potsdam as a peace offering. The details were then worked out by Bach’s oldest son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, who had recently become music director in Halle in Prussian territory.

Accordingly, on May 7, Frederick spotted Bach’s name in the guest list for his evening concert of chamber music. “Gentleman,” the king said, “old Bach has come,” and he invited Bach to try out the palace’s collection of keyboard instruments. Then came the challenge to elaborate the Royal Theme into a fugue, although, according to Bach’s son Wilhelm Friedemann, who accompanied his father, the idea was proposed by Bach rather than by the king.

On his return to Leipzig in mid-May, Bach set to work to fulfill his promise of writing out his elaboration of the king’s theme. But the project grew to two fugues for the keyboard; a trio sonata for flute, violin and thorough bass; and 10 canons (a concentrated form of counterpoint). Bach himself entitled the complete work a Musical Offering.

The entire packet was delivered to the king with a flowery dedication dated July 7. The project had been expanded, the dedication stated, “to work out this right Royal theme more fully. . . to glorify, if only in a small point, the fame of a Monarch whose greatness and power, as in all the sciences of war and peace, so especially in music, everyone must admire and revere.”

There is no record of royal gratitude for the work or even of its performance at Potsdam. But Bach himself ordered a print run of 200 copies, absorbed all the costs, distributed half of the copies at no charge to his friends, and sold the rest for one thaler per copy (about $72 in today’s currency). This price was his usual fee for playing at weddings and funerals and, in this case, netted him a small profit.

Today, the fugues and canons of the Musical Offering are mainly of academic interest – they are too complex for performance. The trio sonata, on the other hand, is considered one of Bach’s finest chamber works. With the flute part written specifically for Frederick, the sonata blends Bach’s mastery of contrapuntal writing with the more melodic and harmonically varied musical language favored by the younger composers at the Potsdam court.

The trio sonata is in four movements, with the Royal Theme taking a different form in each movement. In the opening largo, it is merely suggested. In the following allegro, it is used as a cantus firmus – that is, as a sustained “foundation tune” for a contrapuntal structure above it. In the third movement, andante, the theme is broken into shorter motives. In the closing allegro, the theme is the subject of a dance-like fugue.

The term “trio sonata” was the most common chamber-music designation during the Baroque period (roughly 1600 to 1750). A trio sonata was not a trio in the later sense of three instruments of equal importance. To the contrary, it originally called for four performers of unequal prominence playing three music lines – two featured instruments and an accompaniment consisting of a keyboard continuo to fill in the harmony and a cello or viola da gamba to reinforce the bass. Eventually, as the technical and tonal resources of the harpsichord were developed, the viola da gamba or cello was dispensed with, but the harpsichord continued in its continuo role.

Notes for: August 1, 2017

On May 11, 1747, the palace of the Prussian King Frederick the Great at Potsdam issued the following press release:

Frederick, an accomplished flutist and himself a composer, had invited Bach to Potsdam because of Bach’s reputation as a composer and improviser. When Bach arrived, Frederick first invited him to try out the palace’s collection of keyboard instruments. Then came the challenge, successfully met, to turn Frederick’s Royal Theme into a three-part fugue. But when Frederick next asked for a six-part fugue, Bach instead chose a theme of his own.

After his return to Leipzig in mid-May, Bach began to compose a massive work on the Royal Theme that included not just the original three-part fugue, but a six-part fugue; a trio sonata for flute, violin and thorough bass; and 10 canons (a concentrated form of counterpoint). Bach entitled the complete work Musical Offering. The entire packet was delivered to the king with a flowery dedication dated July 7. There is no record of royal gratitude for the work or of its performance at Potsdam.

Today the complex fugues and canons of the Musical Offering are mainly of academic interest. The Trio Sonata, on the other hand, is considered one of Bach’s finest chamber works. With the flute part written for Frederick, the sonata blends Bach’s mastery of contrapuntal writing with the more melodic and harmonically varied musical language favored by the younger composers at the Potsdam court.

The Trio Sonata is in four movements, with the Royal Theme taking a different form in each movement. In the opening Largo, it is merely suggested. In the following Allegro, it is used as a cantus firmus – that is, as a sustained “foundation tune” for a contrapuntal structure above it. In the third movement, Andante, the theme is broken into shorter motives. In the closing Allegro, the theme is the subject of a dance-like fugue.

The term “trio sonata” was the most common chamber-music designation during the Baroque period. It originally called for four performers playing three music lines – two featured instruments and an accompaniment consisting of a keyboard continuo to fill in the harmony and a cello or viola da gamba to reinforce the bass. Eventually the viola da gamba or cello was dispensed with, but the harpsichord continued in its continuo role.

Notes for: July 30, 2024

If Bach had not met Frederick the Great, one of his greatest masterpieces never would have seen the light of day. In 1747 Bach traveled to Frederick’s Potsdam court to visit his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, a musician employed by the king. Frederick, a flutist, was about to begin the evening’s chamber music performance when Bach arrived. Frederick immediately announced, “Gentlemen, Old Bach is come,” cancelled the performance, and began escorting Bach on a palace tour of his collection of the new forte pianos.

As Bach tried out one instrument after another, Frederick gave him a difficult 21-note theme and asked him to improvise a 3-part fugue. Bach, a master improviser, responded with a dazzling fugue, at which point Frederick asked for a six-part fugue – a close to impossible request, given the awkward nature of Frederick’s theme. Bach demurred, returned home to Leipzig, and set to work. Two months later Frederick received a package containing the Musical Offering, an epic work dedicated to the king that included not just a brilliant six-part fugue on the royal theme, but the original three-part fugue, 10 canons on the theme, and a sublimely beautiful, four-movement Trio Sonata.

James R. Gaines speculates that Bach surely knew Frederick disliked canons, disliked the four-movement, slow-fast church sonata format, and in general disliked the complexities of Bach’s contrapuntal style. So Bach wrote fugues and canons that are monuments to contrapuntal complexity and arcana, then added a Trio Sonata featuring the newer, melodious gallant style that Frederick favored. It’s as if Bach is saying that not only could he write in the modern style, but he could do it better than anyone else. In what was perhaps more sly mischief- making, Bach featured Frederick’s instrument, the flute, but wrote an exceptionally challenging flute part.

Whatever Bach’s motives, the Trio Sonata is filled with melodic and polyphonic riches as Bach agilely melds new style with old. In the melodious, pathos-tinged opening Largo, the flute and violin begin an elegant musical dialogue that continues throughout the Sonata. Bach follows an energetic second-movement Allegro with an Andante that, while structurally simple, is wonderfully atmospheric thanks to its arresting rhythms and striking harmonies. The Sonata ends with a delightful gigue- like Allegro, full of graceful phrases. In each of the movements, an occasional downward scale in half-steps hints at the royal theme; you can hear it, for example, at the start of the last movement. If the canons are music for the intellect, the Trio Sonata has an almost sensual appeal – another indication that, as Christoph Wolff said, Bach “did not just dreamily follow esoteric arts, but was still the brilliant virtuoso musician and the master of all compositional methods.”