JS Bach's six-voiced Ricercar from the Musical Offering

[geberotisabi]

wonderful organ, wonderful player.

[MistaMasta12]

Well done! Nice playing =)

[3677peter]

bach's music is not horizontal, it is vertical. ..the emotional/spiritual gesture is transmitted through the harmonic movement of vertical polyphonic harmonic progression

[3677peter]

bsch's music is not horizontal, it is vertical. ..the emotional/spiritual gesture is transmitted through the harmonic movement of vertical polyphonic harmonic progression

[7thYang]

bravo ♪♫

[zengi7]

well done, I like your recording with mistakes. Makes it more human.

[advisorC101]

You could have used some of the louder stops on this instrument but overall your playing is good.

[thebpl]

Thanks! I explored all the other stops in my 3-CD set recorded on this organ.

[Beergoven]

A Bach's work like that can never be be played too slowly and never too many times. You will find new details for every listening, until you are 100 years. Please, play it slowly. I think you playd beautiful, I really love it!

[Isosphere]

Perfect is the slow tempo.

Allows to follow the harmonies and voices.

Only after hearing it several times I would

like a faster version, once I know it well.

[wcbroccoli]

The term "ricercar" implies nothing about tempo.

[wcbroccoli]

"Ricercar" vs "fugue".

Bach inscribed his Musical Offering to the king with "Regis Iussu Cantio Et Reliqua Canonica Arte Resoluta" (by the king's command, the song and the remainder resolved in the canonic style).

The 1st letters of the inscription spell out RICERCAR, an older term for fugue, meaning to "seek again".

The 2 ricercars "seak again" the king's theme and are INDISTINGUISHABLE from fugues.

Compare with the fugues from Art of the Fugue, all "seeking again" Bach's theme.

[etiennefleck]

écoutez l'orchestration de Webern : splendide mise en valeur du contrepoint.

mais la chaleur de l'orgue est aussi appréciable

[impossimadnescyAJ]

What's the difference between a ricercar and a fugue?

[thebpl]

Ricercars are older, and (as here) tend to have more features resembling Renaissance vocal music: simple rhythms, dense texture, and some solemnity.

But, Bach's other Ricercar in the Musical Offering provides contrast as a remarkably free and modern fugue.

[chrish12345]

exactly, i would call the 3 part one a fugue rather than a ricercare - this one is definitely more old-fashioned in makeup

[wcbroccoli]

While YOU might call the 3-parter a "fugue", BACH still called it a RICERCAR! LOL

Below I explain why he used the term "ricercar".

The choice of term "ricercar" has absolutely nothing to do with the number of voices, density of sound, rhythms or mood.

[wcbroccoli]

Ricercar is simply an older term for fugue.

Below I explain why Bach chose the older term.

The choice had absolutely nothing to do with # of parts, vocal quality, simple rhythms, texture or solemnity.

BOTH of Bach's ricercars are "modern" fugues.

And BOTH are ricercars.

6 parts will tend to sound more dense than 3.

And the 3-part ricercar is no more vocal, no more rhythmically simple and no more solemn than the 3-part triple fugue #8 from Art of the Fugue.

[wcbroccoli]

While the ricercars of the Renaissance composer Arian Willaert and his comtemporaries might start out sounding slow and solemn, they get faster and rhythmically complex and dancelike.

[wcbroccoli]

Adrian Willaert

[wcbroccoli]

Nevertheless he applied the term "ricercar" to the 3-part fugue as well as the 6-part fugue.

There's nothing about the 3-part fugue, or it's subject, that even remotely suggests Renaissance vocal music. It is clearly a very instrumental piece in a keyboard, not a vocal, idiom.

He didn't use the term "ricercar" to suggest that he was writing Renaissance fugues.

These are Baroque fugues in every sense. Compare these ricercars to the fugues from Art of the Fugue.

[wcbroccoli]

If the 3-part "ricercar" sounds "remarkably free", i.e, IMPROVISED, this is probably because it is Bach's recollection and reworking of the 3-part fugue he IMPROVISED for the king. The freedom is the result of improvisation, not modernity.

This is in contrast to the 6-parter, which was worked out, not improvised.

Compare the opening of the unfinished 4-part fugue (#14) from Art of the Fugue with the opening of this 6-part ricercar. They are very similar in character.

[wcbroccoli]

Ricercar is simply an older term for fugue.

Bach's "Art of the Fugue" could just have well been "Art of the Ricercar". But in his clever Latin dedication to Musicalisches Opfer, Bach deliberately chose the older term, "RICERCAR", as an acrostic for "Regis Iussu Cantio Et Reliqua Canonica Arte Resoluta" (the theme given by the king, with additions, resolved in the canonic style).

[Jafuet]

...but the sound here on youtube is really awful...

[thebpl]

Yes, that's why the "more info" section above warns:

"Disclaimer: condenser microphone on a cheap video camera, not the greatest sound! We used real mikes on the CD recording of this instrument, earlier in 2005. See larips com for details."

[Jafuet]

ah...

[voldemar74]

Thank you! This is a GREAT music!

[jannokas85]

Nice big organ you've got there :D. Very good playing.

[handelfan610]

this is a gorgeous piece. and to think he wrote stuff like this fairly quickly.

[canman5060]

I like to hear this work perform on the organ.The six parts sound much clearer than it is played on the harpsichord.

[drlawitts]

i really like it, any chance of a view of the hands?

[SmurfBreath]

Best thing he ever wrote. I used to have a recording with only wind instruments... this captures that haunting quality - it's great. Don't beat yourself up over a couple of 'typos'.

[thebpl]

Thanks, Michael! In the info section I've added a link with a photo of this organ. The booklet of the CD set has full specs and more close-ups. Maybe sometime I should take along a cameraman so it's not just the videocam balanced on a chair. I set it up halfway back in the hall, going for hall bloom rather than picture.

[michaelsmusicservice]

Love it! Do another with tighter shots or tilt up to see the upper organ. Keep 'em coming! Cheers! Michael

[cembalist]

sinuous, mesmerizing, soulful, pure