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Artist Series

The Musical Offering by

Sunday, April 24, 2016 at 3pm Lagerquist Concert Hall, Mary Baker Russell Music Center

Pacific Lutheran University School of Arts and Communication / Department of Music present

The Musical Offering by Johann Sebastian Bach

Mary Manning, Jennifer Rhyne, Nathan Whittaker, Jonathan Wohlers, organ Paul Tegels, & organ

Sunday, April 24, 2016 at 3pm Lagerquist Concert Hall, Mary Baker Russell Music Center

Welcome to Lagerquist Concert Hall. Please disable the audible signal on all watches, pagers and cellular phones for the duration of the concert. Use of cameras, recording equipment and all digital devices is not permitted in the concert hall.

PROGRAM

Ricercar a 3

Canons 1. Canon a 2 Canon Cancrizans 2. Canon a 2 Unisono 3. Canon a 2 per Motum contrarium 4. Canon a 2 per Augmentationem, contrario Motu 5. Canon a 2 per circularis per Tonos

Trio for flute, violin, and continuo Largo Allegro moderato Andante larghetto Allegro

Canons 6. Canon perpetuus 7. Canon a 2 Quaerendo invenietis 8. Canon a 4 9. Fuga canonica in Epidiapente 10. Canon perpetuus super Thema Regium

Ricercar a 6

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How the ‘Offering’ Came to Be

At the age of 62, in spite of failing eyesight and weakening health, Johann Sebastian Bach traveled with his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedmann, to the court of of Prussia at the palace of Sans Souci in Potsdam. This journey of 1747, which was to be his last, and, probably the most agreeably flattering of his life, inspired Das Musikalisches Opfer, one of his greatest works, yet one which today is sometimes underrated and misunderstood.

Bach’s invitation to the young King’s court came about through the fact that Frederick’s was C. P. E. Bach, his second son, and Frederick was insistent in his demands to see and hear his famous father. Bach duly arrived at Potsdam on May 7, and the news of his arrival reached Frederick as he was preparing for an evening concert at which he was to play the flute. He immediately turned to the and said excitedly, “Gentlemen, old Bach has arrived!” Without even giving Bach time to change from his traveling clothes, the king summoned Bach, who in his discomposure made effusive apologies for his dress and extended many compliments to his host. William Friedmann, who described the scene, reported that the king threw reproving glances at courtier who were amused at the old man’s discomfort.

The scheduled musicale was abandoned as the king led Bach through the palace, inviting him to improvise on his prized Silbermann pianofortes. Being asked for a theme, the king wrote out one and asked Bach to improvise on it a six-part ricercar. Bach found the theme unsuited for the difficult six-part ricercar, and instead improvised a six-part ricercar on another theme, as well as a three-part ricercar on the theme Frederick had just given him.

When Bach returned home, however, either ambition or more likely the unique quality of the theme did not let him rest. He actually made a thorough contrapuntal study of the theme. Undoubtedly, Bach also intended his “offering” as an erudite teaser for the learned king. Several of the canons are enigmas, or puzzles with several solutions, and literally translated, the word “ricercar” means “to search.”

By July 7 (only two months later) he was sending some of the finished pieces off to the king, and soon, thereafter, the rest would follow.

Most gracious King! In deepest humility I dedicate herewith to Your Majesty a musical offering, the noblest part of which derives from Your Majesty’s Own August Hand. With awesome pleasure I still remember your very special Royal Grace when, some time ago, during my visit to Potsdam, your Majesty’s Self deigned to play to me a theme for a upon the clavier, and at the same time charged me most graciously to carry it out in Your Majesty’s Most August Presence. To obey Your Majesty’s command was my most humble duty. I noticed very soon, however, that for lack of necessary preparation, the execution of the task did not fare as well as such an excellent theme demanded. I resolved therefore and promptly pledged myself to work out this right Royal theme more fully and then make it known to the world. This resolve has now been carried out as well as possible, and it has none other than this irreproachable intent, to glorify, if only in a small point, the fame of a Monarch whose greatness and power, as in all the sciences of war and peace, so especially in music, everyone must admire and revere. I make bold to add this most humble request: may Your Majesty deign to dignify the present modest labor with a gracious acceptance and continue to grant Your Majesty’s Most August Royal Grace to Your Majesty’s most humble and obedient servant, The Author, Leipzig, July 7, 1747 The Bach Reader. W.W. Norton

In closing, a final word about the work. The last unit, which is a ricercar in six parts, is the crowning achievement and the final answer to Frederick’s challenge. It is one of the most involved contrapuntal studies ever written and together with the rest of the work shows Bach’s tremendous knowledge and craft. For all its involved plan and execution The Musical Offering is one of the most moving and emotionally profound of all Bach’s compositions. It is an amazing demonstration of his ingenuity, daring harmonic depth, brilliant facility for the formal logic of , and exalted aesthetic vision. Notes compiled by Kathryn Habedank

About The Performers

Mary Manning, violin, is a Tacoma native and a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio where she studied both modern and baroque violin performance. She has worked as a baroque orchestral musician with the Seattle, Portland, and Pacific Baroque , the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, the Carmel Bach Festival and the Philharmonia . As a player, she has appeared on many series throughout the Northwest including Governor’s Mansion, Second City Chamber and Gallery Concerts. She is currently principal second violin with the Northwest Sinfonietta and a member of the Seattle Baroque Orchestra. She performs often with the Vashon and Tacoma Operas and freelances in the Puget Sound area. She is a lecturer in violin at Pacific Lutheran University where she is a member of the Regency String Quartet. She has a private teaching studio at her home in Gig Harbor.

Jennifer Rhyne, flute, has been newly appointed as Assistant Professor of Flute and at Pacific Lutheran University where she also directs the Sølvvinden Flute Ensemble and performs with the Camas Woodwind Quintet. She also serves as vice president of the Seattle Flute Society. Before joining the faculty of PLU, she taught for two years in the music department at Fort Hays State University in Kansas. The North Carolina native earned a DMA in flute performance at the State University of New York at Stony Brook as a student of Carol Wincenc. Her previous teachers include Kathleen Chastain and Michel Debost (Oberlin Conservatory of Music), Lorna McGhee (University of Michigan), and Pierre-Yves Artaud (École Normale de Musique- ). She has been a prize winner in competitions sponsored by the National Flute Association, the Texas Flute Society, the Albuquerque Flute Association, and the Washington, DC Flute Society. She has performed with the Atlantic Philharmonic Orchestra (NY), the New Haven Symphony (CT), the Federal Way Symphony, and the Tacoma Symphony. She enjoys performing a wide variety of music from all genres and eras, including historically-informed performances of early music on a one-keyed traverse flute as well as performances of avant-garde contemporary works.

Paul Tegels, organ and harpsichord, a native of the Netherlands, is Associate Professor of Music, and serves as University Organist at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Organ Performance and Pedagogy and his Master of Arts Degree in Choral from the University of Iowa, where he studied organ with Delores Bruch, and choral conducting with William Hatcher. Other degrees and awards include the Artist Diploma and the Master of Music Degree in organ performance from the New England Conservatory in Boston where he studied with Yuko Hayashi and William Porter. Dr. Tegels is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship from the Netherlands-America Commission for Educational Exchange. He holds teaching and performance degrees from the Stedelijk Conservatorium in Arnhem, The Netherlands, where he studied organ with Bert Matter and harpsichord with Cees Rosenhart. Dr. Tegels is past president of the Westfield Center for the Advancement of Early Keyboard Studies, active in the American Guild of Organists, and has performed at national conventions of the Organ Historical Society in addition to playing recitals in Europe, Japan, New Zealand, and the US.

Nathan Whittaker, cello, enjoys a unique and diverse career as a concert soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, teacher, and historical cello specialist. Currently, he is a member and featured soloist of the Seattle Baroque Orchestra and the Seattle Baroque Soloists and performs regularly with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra (Vancouver B.C.) and the Portland Baroque Orchestra. Additionally over the past year, Dr. Whittaker has made appearances at the Oregon Bach Festival, Indianapolis Early Music Festival, Vancouver Early Music Festival, and the American Handel Festival. He sits on the faculty at The Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle and the Academy of Music Northwest. Dr. Whittaker holds a Bachelor and a Masters degree in cello performance from Indiana University and in 2012 earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in cello performance from the University of Washington. He can be heard on CBC and NPR broadcasts including “Performance Today”, has recorded with the Harmonia and ATMA Classique labels, and is featured on the debut recording of the Seattle Baroque Soloists released in 2014.

Jonathan Wohlers, organ, has performed extensively in concerts in the United States, Mexico, Europe, South Korea, and Japan, most recently playing on the prestigious organ concert series at International Christian University, Tokyo and at St. Francis Xavier Memorial Church, Yamaguchi. He is a former Dean of the Tacoma Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, is the Director of Music at Trinity Lutheran Church, Tacoma, is a member of the contingent music faculty at Pacific Lutheran University, and is the newly appointed Artist-in-Residence on the Paul Fritts & Co. organ at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Tacoma. He holds degrees with honors from the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston, from the New England Conservatory of Music, and from Southern Adventist University. His teachers include Robert Bates, William Porter, Yuko Hayashi, Judy Glass, Matthew Dirst, and Christina Edelen. As a part of his doctoral work he engaged in research on Southern Netherlands organ music of the seventeenth century, including a study and transcription of a group of fifty two pieces found in a manuscript of anonymous liturgical keyboard music from ca. 1618 (British Library Add. MS 29486). Together the works represent one of the earliest known collections of compositions, arranged by mode, called fugue.