Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany, on March 21, 1685, and died in Leipzig, Germany, on July 28, 1750. Approximate performance time is nine minutes.

In May of 1747, Johann Sebastian Bach accepted the invitation of the Prussian King Frederick the Great (1712-1768) to travel to the Potsdam Court. Upon Bach’s arrival, King Frederick II, himself an accomplished flutist and composer, presented his honored guest with a theme of the monarch’s own design. In response to the King’s request, Bach stunned the assembled by immediately playing a fugue in three parts based upon King Frederick’s theme. Bach also improvised a fugue in six parts, derived from a theme of his own composition.

Bach was so impressed with the beauty of King Frederick’s theme that when the composer returned to Leipzig, he fashioned a series of works based upon the melody (or “thema regium,” as Bach called it). On July 7, 1747, Bach presented his Musical Offering to King Frederick, accompanied by the following dedication:

"Most gracious King, I offer to your Majesty…a Musical Offering of which the noblest part is from your Majesty’s own hand…I still remember today, the very special grace which your Majesty deigned to grant me some time ago…by playing for me the theme of a fugue and graciously asking me to improvise upon it…I therefore decided to compose upon this truly royal theme in a more serious manner, and thereby make it known to the world."

Among the several compositions that form Bach’s Musical Offering, BWV 1079, is a magnificent six-voice fugue, or Ricercar. Bach originally composed this Ricercar for keyboard solo. This concert features Aram Demirjian’s arrangement for strings of the Ricecare.