Canon perpetuus from Musikalisches Opfer BWV 1079, Netherlands Bach Society

The Musikalisches Opfer is a special collection of chamber music within the work of Johann Sebastian Bach, written for Frederick the Great of Prussia. Musikalisches Opfer means a musical offering, and that is precisely how the collection originated. In May 1747, Bach was introduced to Frederick, who had heard that Bach was a great improviser and asked him on the spot to improvise a fugue on a given theme. According to the sources, Bach made a brilliant job of it and showed such enthusiasm about the royal theme that he promised to have the fugue engraved on copper and printed. No sooner said than done. Two months later, Bach published a series of compositions: a trio sonata, a threepart and a sixpart ricercar and ten canons, all inspired by the kings theme. The canons in the Musikalisches Opfer are a sort of visual music. Bach wrote them like puzzles, which the player must first solve in order to play them correctly. In these recordings, we wanted to give a literal picture of this visual music