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Ariadne musica

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Ariadne musica is a collection of organ music by Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer, first published in 1702. The main part of the collection is a cycle of 20 preludes and fugues in different keys, so Ariadne musica is considered an important precursor to Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier which has a similar structure.

The title refers to the Greek myth in which Theseus is able to find his way out of Minotaur's labyrinth using a ball of thread Ariadne, daughter of King Minos of Crete, gave him. Similarly, the music in the collection can be said to guide the listener through a labyrinth of keys. Fischer also used Greek mythology to name the pieces in another large scale music collection of his, Musikalischer Parnassus. 

The first edition of Ariadne musica was made in 1702 in Schlackenwerth. The work was reprinted several times during Fischer's life. The original print mentioned by Johann Gottfried Walther in Musicalisches Lexicon is now lost, but a manuscript copy survives.





Contents





Contents

20 preludes and fugues: 

5 ricercars on chorale melodies, each connected with a specific catholic event:

All pieces are quite short, including a few really brief fugues (the 7 bar A minor fugue being the shortest). Most are in common time, with a few exceptions (most notably the E Dorian fugue which is in 12/8). The preludes vary from pieces based on short simplistic toccata-like passages over long sustained chords (as in, for example, the C major and G major ones) to slightly more complex works with brief imitative passages like this one, from the end of the E-flat major prelude:

Last 4 bars of the E-flat major prelude from Ariadne musica.

The fugues are all in four voices, except the A-flat major one which is a five voice fugue. Some are loosely connected thematically to the accompanying preludes.


The ricercars all feature themes written in whole and half notes, the C major Ricercar pro Festis Natalitys being one notable exception with the theme composed mostly of quarter and eighth notes. Three are marked alla breve, Ricercar pro Festis Natalitys is in common time and the F major ricercar is in 3/2.


Ricercar pro Festis Paschalibus was previously attirubted to Johann Sebastian Bach and listed in the BWV catalogue as BWV 746, chorale prelude Christ ist erstanden.



Connection with Johann Sebastian Bach


Opening bars of the E major fugue from Ariadne musica.

The six-note subject of the E major four-voice fugue by Fischer (opening bars pictured above, subject highlighted) is used by Bach as the subject of the E major fugue from the second volume of The Well-Tempered Clavier, BWV878/2, also in four voices: 

The beginning of Bach's E major fugue from the second volume of the Well-Tempered Clavier.

Fischer's piece is quite short (although not as short as, for instance, the 8 bar E Phrygian fugue from the same collection) and written predominantly using long note values; Bach's fugue is much more complex, with dense counterpoint and also much longer - although Fischer's subject makes it into one of the few pieces from the WTC that feature a significant amount of whole and half-notes in all voices.


The same six-note subject is found in two 17th century keyboard compositions by the famous Johann Jakob Froberger: Fantasia No. 2 and Ricercar No. 4. The latter's opening bars can be seen below (with the inverted version of the same theme shown in dark pink):

The opening bars of Froberger's Ricercar No. 4; the six-note theme is shown in blue, its inverted form is shown in dark pink.

Fischer might've learned the theme from Froberger.



Recordings

Ariadne musica is rarely performed or recorded, although individual preludes and fugues frequently appear on miscellaneous compilations of Baroque organ music. Here's a partial list of recordings that feature at least one part of Ariadne musica (preludes and fugues or ricercars) in full:


External links






 





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