Bach, Musical Offering, Ricercar a 6
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- Six-voice ricercar from J. S. Bach's Musical Offering (BWV 1079), performed by Stephen Malinowski, with an animated graphical score. Index: www.musanim.com...
FAQ
Q: What do the shapes signify?
A: The ovals (eggs, ellipses) are the theme; the rhombi (diamonds) are everything else.
Q: What is a ricercar?
A: See:
en.wikipedia.or...
Q: Is this the most significant piano work of the last millennium?
A: At least one person thinks so:
tinyurl.com/Ros...
Q: What instrument is that?
A: It's two instruments, actually: a harpsichord and an organ. The harpsichord is Atema's "Pristine Harpsichord" (with all stops on); the organ is two Ahlborn-Galanti Archiv modules, using the following stops (in order from the top voice):
Prinzipal 8'
Cor Anglais 8'
Quintade 8'
Flauto Mirabilis 8'
Prinzipal 8' + Gedackt 8'
Ophicleide 16' (up an octave so that it's at pitch)
Q: Where can I get the sheet music for this?
A: Here is Bach's autograph ...
www.musanim.com...
... and here is a modern version ...
www.musanim.com...
"But what have you done lately?" www.musanim.com/TH-camHighlights/
- ”It’s easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself.” (Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685-1750)
Maria Casemyr Vocal & Piano Yes, a guy asked how he could play so well then Bach answered
"Let the knife do the work." - Gordon Ramsay
I'm looking at my knife, it's not moving.
Well its easy for you to say that, Bach
It is easy to write computer programs, all you have to do is pressing the right key in proper sequence.
It's true
The most mathematically complex but at the same time most emotinal piece of music I have ever seen.
What I find so amazing about this piece isn't just that each voice is a functional melody, but that if you listen to any two voices together, they sound like they were made for each other, which, of course they were. It's just mind boggling how Bach manages to do this with so many combinations of music for 7 minutes straight.
It's even more dazzling when, like in this case, the melodies consist of the same one theme, played in every possible variation (straight, upside down, backwards, slower, faster, fragmented, ...) over and over again.
Bach started to learn the organ when he moved with Christoph at the age of 10 and by the time he was 15 he was playing "the most ambitious and complex pieces of the entire organ repertoire" This shows a rare gift in my opinion
That is not an opinion, that is a fact!
There are very few humans in existence that can truly understand this piece, and I am not one of them, but I can still listen to it over and over and discover more and more.
Great comment.
I guess I disagree
@@bargledargle7941¿No te pasa que escuchas una obra y cada vez que la escuchas encuentras algo más y algo más? a éso se refiere el chico, que habrá pocas personas en el mundo que escuchen ésto una vez y encuentren todo a la misma vez, yo tampoco soy uno de ellos.
Això és degut a la complexitat de la textura contrapuntistica, que fa que una música així sigui més difícil d'entendre a la primera audició, per tant demana molt més esforç i escolta atenta però quan ets capaç de seguir totes les línies melòdiques l'audició d'aquesta obra esdevé sublim.
4:49 might be one of my favorite moments in all of music.
JS Bach was a superb mathematician. Whether he did it in a calculated way, or intuitively, it matters not. The piece illustrates exactly what I mean. From arithmatic to calculus, in one easy song. Beautiful!
Can you describe to me the mathematical processes in this piece, I'm generally curious to know.
@@liviu445
Some ratios between notes sound good on top of each other. Some sound good in succession. A fugue needs the overlap of both. Now, add another voice and do the same. And another, and another, and another, 6 in total. You get this behemoth.
Easy?
This Bach composition was the result of a challenge to Bach from the King. Bach had him play 5 random notes that thematically and harmonically seemed unrelated, then Bach kicked ass with this piece. BTW, this composition is generously addressed in Douglas Hofstadter's seminal 1979 book Godel, Escher, Bach: The Eternal Golden Braid.
just reading the book, such a masterpiece
These days, this. I used to work as a software engineer. Before that, I worked at a variety of music-related jobs: pianist, music teacher, music manuscript copyist, composer, conductor, etc.
Alter Mann
What I find so interesting about the Ra6 is that if one is not familiar with counterpoint, and tries to listen to the music "vertically", that is to say as melody with linked harmony, it sounds like a wall of random musical noise. But if one can listen to it "horizontally", it's one of the greatest pieces of instrumental music ever written. I don't think there is any other example of counterpoint where this amazing effect is so profound.
PointyTailofSatan This is true, of all Bach counterpoint. I used to skip many years ago the fugues of the WTC and listen to the preludia only that I loved, precisely because I obstinately listened "vertically"... when the fun is to navigate and get lost in that horizontal venue of infinite melodies. One day you concentrate on a particular line, another day you wait that other to happen, then another day you discover something new... it requires a little bit of intellect and concentration even as a listener.
Yes, we have become so used to the more recent concept of "chords" backing a "melody" that counterpoint is foreign to us. Nice Picardy third at the end, though... ;-)
That's exactly how I feel. I've listened to the Art of Fugue and most of the time it felt random, but I knew that something deeper was going on. Do you guys have any tips on how to listen to improve the experience?
You don't even have to be aunfamiliar with counterpoint. I'm a professional classical musician and the first time I ever heard this piece, on organ, I found it a crashing bore. But a great show like this (thank you, smalin) could spark anybody's interest!
It truly is the pinnacle of polyphony
Another masterpiece by Stephen Malinowski. It shows a deep understanding of Bach's music: his harmonies, his structures, his instrumentation. Malinowski's "animated graphical scores" are not just entertaining or beautiful, they open a new way of hearing the music.
Rick Doble they are also particularly lovely to watch on my phone in low light, by the way, if you have your own synesthetic color associations (with distinct major/minor shifts) for every chromatic note except F-sharp, which is black-and-white for me God only knows why.... I get such a lovely Van Gogh freshly-painted hilltop lotus flowershow racecar buzz off this ricercar you can’t even know....
I like how each note visually moves into the next. It makes it much easier to keep track of the movement of each of the individual 6 voices, and prevents the complexity from being completely overwhelming.
Bach: You wouldn’t get it
There's something else...when I think about the fact that this is not the product of some kind of magic or cheap deus ex machina, but hard work and practice by the composer, the performer, and the visualizer, it's even more impressive.
Bach: The greatest genius of all time in the whole universe!
For the non-iniciated, the outsdanding marvellousness of this piece is that the same melody (which was not original from Bach, but given as a task to create something out of it, full of semi-tones) is played fordward, backwards, mirror-image and backwards of mirror-image all the time, over and over, in different tonalities.
If this was those baby games where you have a cube, a rod, a triangle and a circle and their respective holes, Bach managed to put each piece on each of the holes and make them fit perfectly
Wow, can you give some examples of where the theme occurs "mirror-imaged" or backwars? can't seem to find it.
The cannons that he composed, this ricecar isnt played backwards but as part of his musical offering he composed some that are played both directions.
i can see how this could be made today much more easily with things like sequencers and more visual representations like this video, but with only the instruments, a pen, and paper, it required extreme mental dexterity that no other person matched
@@h0verman it's less hard than you'd might expect, still requires effort though
@@winstonmisha Search on TH-cam: "Gerubach - BWV 1079 Musical Offering (Scrolling)".
This is my favorite version for the simple reason it *nails* the moment sixth voice kicks in. If there's a greater moment in the history of music, it would've also been written by Bach.
I had this theme stuck in my head all day! Couldn’t quite place it, until I started searching through this fugue playlist. Thanks!
This is my new fav bach piece! Ty
Now I have understand the piece. It's genial, really genial. Bach was the most fantastic composer in the whole world for everytime. Nobody can beat him. He used the themes like a song, wonderful
Researchers recently found the earliest Bach manuscript, circa 1700 when Bach was 15. It contain two pieces, one by Buxtehude and the other by Reinken. It says in the article: "The significance of this discovery can hardly be overestimated. Technically highly demanding, these organ works document the extraordinary virtuosic skills of the young Bach as well as his efforts to master the most ambitious and complex pieces of the entire organ repertoire". He was clearly a child prodigy as an organist
No shit. Bach is the greatest musical mind of all time
Your videos make me very happy, and give me access to a dimension of the music that I would have never known. Thank you.
The best way to enjoy any music -- seeing AND hearing it. Thank you!
I've been listening to bach for a long time but still can't understand this piece, formidable
Me too! Although I can sense the greatness hiding behind this piece, I cannot exactly hear it. I think you have to have music education in order to fully understand this piece. I hope some day I’ll be able to appreciate it properly.
this is one of my favorite pieces of all time. thank you smalin
Hello. Your music videos make me really happy
Thank you for uploading music like this. I really enjoy classical music now because of your videos. Have a nice day
To me the most emotional part is at 2:00 - a wonderful highlight
No matter what instrument(s) are used, it's great to see as well as hear all those convergences and divergences....thank you!
I like how the anticipation of the next note is actually visualised. The harpsichord-organ combination is very good, too.
Always incredible to see this way of "hearing" the pieces visually.....especially ones with the complexity and polyphony of Bach....
I sometimes wonder what beautiful(in my eyes) complex mathematical expressions, in Differential Equations and such, would sound like...Probably much like this, I would imagine..
By some happy turn of fate, there is a movie built around the Musical Offering: Meine Name ist Bach (dir. de Rivaz, 2003). Likely not a subject Hollywood wants, but it is very well made, and Bach fans will be gratified to see it.
My videos are being used in schools all over the world.
That's wonderful
epic flex
They were used in my high school orchestra. Thank you for giving me a visual to go with such incredible pieces such as this.
Not a school, but my clarinet choir here in the Netherlands uses your video!
I'm a user!! I've always enjoyed them myself, but the pandemic caused me to use them in my teaching a lot more. Now I have first-graders who can recognize entrances of the fugue subject and who know the chorale tune from the obbligato!
Again, absolutely beautiful. As a fellow data visualiser I really appreciate what you are doing. Personally, I find your earlier experiments ( in the sort of 8-bit vein and the lovely Debussy visualizations) much more transparent and effective. But please keep exploring and thank you for sharing!
1:43 he did it the madman
4:46
I love the bass voices... towards the end of the exposition it feels like an ending at first but then the 6th voice comes is and it's so great.
I was so entranced that it took me a good 4 minutes to realize there were multiple instruments at play.
So intense. Really compact, but fascinating, humbling, wonderful!
Fabulous!
To me it's perfect. And the playing, too. They go very well together, showing how the playing makes the rigid structure of the notes come alive.
What's fascinating for me as a pianist is despite the fact that a six voice fugue would seem to be a formidable challenge for ten fingers, it actually sits very well under my hands. The four voice fugues in the Art of Fugue are generally more awkward to play, even though they have fewer voices. So Bach clearly took pains to make sure this fugue fit the hands, whereas I feel like he composed AoF to be technically playable, but not naturally so.
Nice to see you here! I’m surprised by your comment, though. For me, the AoF fugues seem less awkward than this. Maybe because I played them for many years before I ever saw the Ricercar?
I need another couple of brains to listen to each voice in this! Amazing!!
Mozart (to wig salesman): They're all so beautiful. Why don't I have 3 heads? (Laughter) ("Amadeus")
@@lindacowles756 Nice catch! :-)
I've been waiting and hoping you'd do the Ricercar a 6. I boggles my mind that a person could have this come out of their brain, or that people can play it with ten fingers. I'm listening to Nikolayeva playing it and looking and the sheet music you posted. It's very humbling.
What an ingenious way to share this unusual piece. I never imagined I could actually see music! Thanks.
I hope this is not the last video of mine you watch.
The unusual feature is that it has probably the worst tune in structured music. Nobody would ever use this tune in popular music. Contrast at the other end the opposite end of attractiveness the main theme of the second movement of the second symphony by Rachmaninov.
The mastery of counterpoint is all that makes Musical Offering even tolerable -- let alone brilliant.
Singingness may be an important quality of music for some people,.. but counterpoint, is clearly difficult to sing, unless you have at least two sets of vocal chords,.... For me, I can hear all the parts in my minds ear, perhaps VIRTUAL SINGING if You will? however consider, ... Bach's music, has been performed and recorded , more than any other musician, including jazz versions, top forty hits, electronic versions even hip hop, and techno disco, his music is beloved by millions, including top artists of every genre, even though many have never performed it in public... so 'worst tune', live on ! I'll take this over Barry Manilow singing Rachmaninoff any day .... "those days are gone". er...
@@pbrower2a1 CRAAAAAAWWLLLINNNGGG INNNNNN MY SKIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
A mixture. He started young and lived in an environment where a passionate, intense devotion to the study of music was possible and emotionally satisfying (he suffered as a child; I'm sure music was a refuge for him); the external factors were in his favor. But he was damn good by the time he was into his twenties; I think he had an innate advantage over the average person (not as much as Mozart or Mendelssohn, perhaps, but some).
(But I don't think about this while listening to his music.)
And on top of whatever was innate, he worked hard.
Hey me too! I'm actually about to read the very last part, his literary version of this piece. The book has been an amazing voyage, something I feel has changed me forever.
Bach Counterpoint at it's epitome!
There is Beethoven;s Grosse Fuge, and there is Mahler. Arguably the finale of Mahler's Fifth, even if not strictly a fugue (it ends 'wrong' to be a fugue) is the most impressive piece of counterpoint since Bach.
You are invited to listen to Max Reger's fugues like op. 46, 52/2!!, 73 ,81, 86, 100, 132, 127 and 135b.
Bravo ... this visualization of music should be introduced to students in high school music classes.
6:53 that maj 7 unintended harmonic
absolutely sublime
Bach, gifted Master of bass lines...
Travail magnifique. Du bel ouvrage!
Beutyfull presentation.superb graphics.Thank you very much .i hope that you will give us more..
Have you subscribed to my channel (and clicked the bell to be informed of new videos)?
See the FAQ.
This is very beautiful.
MY GOD THIS IS AMAZING
Great video. At last I can see and hear all voices! Thank you very much. I'd really like to see a video like this of the first ricercare a 3.
By "static" they mean "not moving" (the bar-graph scores in which the only thing that happens when a note plays is that it lights up --- unlike this one, "dynamic," in which there is a moving form when a note plays).
"Master! We have found the evil supercomputer!"
"Well done, my student. What is it?"
"It... It is Bach!"
Listening to one of the greatest compositions by the greatest composer, and certainly the greatest challenge ever givin a composer and yet the comments below it are a complete surprise,how very sad and telling.
If you look at my other recent videos, you'll see many that use live recordings. Check out the one with the Takacs String Quartet.
I like how it gives you a tutorial :3
I have some transcriptions of Oscar Peterson's playing, but that doesn't mean I have permission to publish a video based on it (or on the recordings they were based on).
I think this new animation really suits the harpsichord - especially the new note transitions!
I've tried adding background footage; it was distracting; I didn't like it.
Brilliant.
Yeah ... I thought about adjusting the dimensions so that the note was visible, but I thought it was funnier for it to go "off the page."
Let me preface this by saying I am very grateful for all your videos, Mr. Malinowksi -- I'm a huge fan. But I definitely prefer the videos in which the shapes don't move towards their neighbours when the corresponding note plays. I find the static videos much easier to follow. Also, I find it very hard to not think of a moving shape as representing a glissando.
Absolutely amazing!
Hypnotic and beautiful.
I couldn't follow that without a score!
Thank you for this nice video! I like colorful crystal's so much...to me they fit the atmosphere of this piece. Very very nice.
so divine...
Are you considering, for example, the Art of Fugue, the Well-Tempered Clavier, the Mass in B Minor, the Saint Matthew Passion, etc.? To me, this piece is no more significant than many of his fugues for organ.
THANK YOU, once again, what a HOORAY this is!
I wasn't sure if the instrumentation was organ+harpsichord until I saw the FAQ...thank you!
wow. this is just wow.
Piano, harpsichord, clavichord and organ are all different. Piano and clavichord have note-by-note dynamic control. Organ and harpsichord have variety by stops (the organ more so). The organ sustains notes indefinitely. The piano has a damper pedal. The differences in technique mostly come from the differences in making effective use of the capabilities an instrument offers (e.g. a pianist can use a dynamic accent, but a harpsichordist must rely on an agogic accent).
Each is hard in its own way ... hard to say that one is harder than the other in an absolute sense. In the 5-voice WTC fugue, there are "virtuosic" moments that are tricky; in this one, there a "negotiation" moments that are tricky. For me, this was harder because it struck me as kind of dull, so it was harder to get myself to practice it. But that's just me; I know there are people who go into raptures over this piece (and I'm not saying they're wrong to).
The names (fugue, ricercare, fantasia, canzona, etc.) were not applied consistently and meant different things at different times. As a result, any simple statement (like "the ricercare was the father of the fugue") is going to be a simplification. Both use imitation, but the use of imitation predates both of the terms. With living organisms, heredity is traceable (e.g. dogs descended from wolves), but with ideas, it's not so definite.
I know very well that some viewers feel the way you do.
Thanks for that, O.M. Yes, that's pretty close. And not a "show-off" piece, either (like the canons, just to show he could do it), but quite a beautiful setting. Does require that you play one voice with each foot --- no mean feat (pun intended).
Another quote said by Johann Valentin Eckelt who was one of the studing partners of Christoph: "El amor de nuestro pequeño Johann Sebastian por la música era exageradamente grande incluso desde su más tierna edad. En poco tiempo aprendió perfectamente todas las piezas que su hermano le había dado voluntariamente para que las ejercitara."
smalin gave us a link above for a fair copy of the manuscript in J.S. Bach's own hand. We should note that the title at the top of page one was written by C.P.E. Bach, "6stimmige Fuge, von J.S. Bach u. origineller Handschrift." Thanks, son!
When people listened to this, it's no wonder they thought they were hearing God.
What people thought that? 😐
I've written a few things about it on my web site; if you go to the index page, you will find them.
I agree. The static videos are more similar to scores, which I find easier to follow... nonetheless, I love all these videos!
Can you provide more information about this? Which pieces are they?
awesome! wonderfully explained!
It's amusing to think that Fred the Great was both a good musician, and a so so composer, but in terms of music, he will only really be forever known as the creator of the Musical Offering theme. A strange case of a titan standing on the shoulders of a musical dwarf.
Huh? I think it's a case of a musical dwarf standing on the shoulders of a titan. If there were no Bach, Frederick would be unknown as a musician.
@@smalin Ya, but Frederick is the source for the simple theme, and Bach builds on top of it. Admittedly, it's a somewhat vague reference.
@@PointyTailofSatan Oh, I see what you're saying: Bach standing on Fred's theme. I didn't think of that, since Bach used lots of themes that weren't his own (and that were by composers much inferior to him).
Well, it looks like I was mistaken --- at least, sort of. BWV 1078 is a 7-part canon, and BWV 1087 has a "canon triplex" in 6 voices. Not fugues, but 6+ voice polyphonic pieces that I wasn't aware of (show-off pieces).
And, of course, there are lots of fugal passages for 6+ voices in his larger-scale works (instrumental concerti and vocal). Just not free-standing fugues.
Hm ... and there may be some for organ that I'm not remembering ...
It is impossible to say Bach is the greatest composer. For you the best composer is XX, and for me is YY. Bach is great because he is the father of all composers and musicians.
I like your video very much. It's really great. I'll keep an eye on your channel. I am your fan and I will support you.
i love what you do. many thanks
I don't have a strong preference; each instrument has its strengths and weaknesses. I'm a better pianist than I am an organist or harpsichordist, so things tend to turn out better when I do them on the piano, but I enjoy playing any or all of them.
As a composer, we have evidence that the BWV 766,767 and 770 were composed in Luneburg probably in 1700. Wolff in the book also says that the BWV 570 circa probably in the end of 1690´s
I'd heard somewhere that one of Bach's relatives, PDQ Bach, invented a way of playing an arpeggio on the foot pedals of the pipe organ. It later became known as the Tootsie Roll. 😀
Lol
how the fuck did Bach do that?
Burntshmallow He stood on a chair.
+smalin LOL
With a harpsichord and music paper.
The greatest mastery of counterpoint that anyone has ever done.
Time.
He had all the time in the world to create masterpieces. Time is the real magic formula behind many geniuses because it means they're focused 24/7 on the things they love. Bach was a genius, sure, but being 100% dedicated to music was an even better bonus to that mastery
The instrument that is in this recording is actually a "Claviorgan", Part Harpsichord, and Part Organ combined together.
"This.. is a... WONDERFUL... theme, your majesty" JB Bach
*Starts improvising the complete fugue in-front of King Frederick
Also Wolff says in his book that 1) the Neumeister Chorales dated from the time of Ohrdruf, pre 1700, 2) That Mozart.s father corrected some of Wolfgang´s earliest compositions (5-8 years old), so they were not composed 100% by Amadeus and 3) That Handel was a child prodigy producing very impressive works by the age of ten.