It must have been a special meeting in May 1747, one which has continued to capture people’s imagination right up to the present day. Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, received Johann Sebastian Bach, a grand master of Baroque music, in Potsdam. Bach accepted the King’s invitation; it gave him the opportunity to visit his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, who was then working as a harpsichordist at the court in Potsdam.
In hindsight, the king seems to have been planning Bach’s visit for a long time, as he himself was a great music lover and a gifted flautist. In front of the assembled court, Frederick challenged the composer. Referring to Bach’s abilities, he set him the task of improvising a three-part fugue based on a musical topic presented to him on the spot. This ‘thema regium’ was provided by Frederick; although it remains a matter of debate to this day whether it actually originated from him or whether someone else composed this highly complex sequence of notes.
Bach accepted the challenge, sat down at the ‘Hammerklavier’ (piano forte) provided for him and accomplished the task with flying colours. As applause erupted in the Potsdam City Palace, Frederick II went one step further: Bach was now to improvise a six-part fugue based on the royal topic. Bach replied that this was not possible on the spot, as he would need to make some preparations.
Back in Leipzig, the composer quickly set to work on the task assigned to him. He created a collection of highly complex compositions of mathematical perfection, which he dedicated to the King of Prussia as his ‘Musical Offering’. In the very same year, Bach published his work in several instalments.
The first edition soon found its way to the court in Fulda. This is quite remarkable, given that Bach was a devout Lutheran. Whilst, just a few years later, parts of the ‘Musical Offering’ left Fulda and were sent to Bologna by the court director of music at the time, Giovanni Battista Pauli, a portion of this first edition remained in Fulda. Today, the volume held at the HLSB Fulda is one of only 18 known copies of Bach’s first edition that exist globally.
In September, the HLSB Fulda is not only honouring Bach’s ‘Musical Offering’ as its ‘Find of the Month’, but is also contributing to the topic of ‘Bach in Fulda’ with the special exhibition ‘The Collection and Transfer of Musical Knowledge in Baroque Fulda’. The exhibition, which has been organised with cooperation from the Episcopal Institute of Church Music in Fulda, will be officially opened on 3 September with an evening lecture at the Heinrich-von-Bibra-Platz location. The digitised version of the first edition, held at the HLSB Fulda, is also available on our digitisation platform FulDig .
