''Ariadne musica'' is a collection of

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer (some authorities use the spelling Johann Kaspar Ferdinand Fischer) (1656 August 27, 1746) was a German Baroque composer. Johann Nikolaus Forkel ranked Fischer as one of the best composers for keyboard of his da ...

, first published in 1702. The main part of the collection is a cycle of 20 preludes and

fugue In classical music, a fugue (, from Latin ''fuga'', meaning "flight" or "escape""Fugue, ''n''." ''The Concise Oxford English Dictionary'', eleventh edition, revised, ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson (Oxford and New York: Oxford Universit ...

s in different

keys Key, Keys, The Key or The Keys may refer to: Common uses * Key (cryptography), a piece of information needed to encode or decode a message * Key (instrument), a component of a musical instrument * Key (lock), a device used to operate a lock * ...

, so ''Ariadne musica'' is considered an important precursor to

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Help:IPA/Standard German, �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety ...

's ''

The Well-Tempered Clavier ''The Well-Tempered Clavier'', BWV 846–893, consists of two sets of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach. In the composer's time ''clavier'' referred to a variety of keyboard instruments, ...

'', which has a similar structure. The title refers to the

Greek myth Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories concern the ancien ...

in which

Theseus Theseus (, ; ) was a divine hero in Greek mythology, famous for slaying the Minotaur. The myths surrounding Theseus, his journeys, exploits, and friends, have provided material for storytelling throughout the ages. Theseus is sometimes desc ...

finds his way out of

Minotaur In Greek mythology, the Minotaur (, ''Mīnṓtauros''), also known as Asterion, is a mythical creature portrayed during classical antiquity with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being "par ...

labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth () is an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the h ...

using a ball of thread that

Ariadne In Greek mythology, Ariadne (; ; ) was a Cretan princess, the daughter of King Minos of Crete. There are variations of Ariadne's myth, but she is known for helping Theseus escape from the Minotaur and being abandoned by him on the island of N ...

, daughter of King

Minos Main injector neutrino oscillation search (MINOS) was a particle physics experiment designed to study the phenomena of neutrino oscillations, first discovered by a Super-Kamiokande (Super-K) experiment in 1998. Neutrinos produced by the NuMI ...

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

, 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 Johann Gottfried Walther (18 September 1684 – 23 March 1748) was a German music theorist, organist, composer, and lexicographer of the Baroque era. Life and work Walther was born at Erfurt. Not only was his life almost exactly contempor ...

in ''Musicalisches Lexicon'' is now lost, but a

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

copy survives.

Pieces

20 preludes and fugues: * Prelude & Fugue No. 1 in C major * Prelude & Fugue No. 2 in C-sharp minor * Prelude & Fugue No. 3 in D minor * Prelude & Fugue No. 4 in D major * Prelude & Fugue No. 5 in E-flat major * Prelude & Fugue No. 6 in E Phrygian * Prelude & Fugue No. 7 in E Dorian * Prelude & Fugue No. 8 in E major * Prelude & Fugue No. 9 in F minor * Prelude & Fugue No. 10 in F major * Prelude & Fugue No. 11 in F-sharp minor * Prelude & Fugue No. 12 in G minor * Prelude & Fugue No. 13 in G major * Prelude & Fugue No. 14 in A-flat major * Prelude & Fugue No. 15 in A minor * Prelude & Fugue No. 16 in A major * Prelude & Fugue No. 17 in B-flat major * Prelude & Fugue No. 18 in B minor * Prelude & Fugue No. 19 in B major * Prelude & Fugue No. 20 in C minor 5

ricercar A ricercar ( , ) or ricercare ( , ) is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term ''ricercar'' derives from the Italian verb , which means "to search out; to seek"; many ricercars serve a preludial func ...

s on

chorale A chorale is the name of several related musical forms originating in the music genre of the Lutheran chorale: * Hymn tune of a Lutheran hymn (e.g. the melody of " Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme"), or a tune in a similar format (e.g. one o ...

melodies, each connected with a specific

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

event: * Ricercar pro Tempore Adventus, in C major (on ''Ave Maria klare'', for

Advent Advent is a season observed in most Christian denominations as a time of waiting and preparation for both the celebration of Jesus's birth at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Chri ...

) * Ricercar pro Festis Natalitys, in C major (on ''Der Tag der ist so freudenreich'', for

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

) * Ricercar pro Tempore Quadragesimae, in A minor (on ''Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund'', for

Lent Lent (, 'Fortieth') is the solemn Christianity, Christian religious moveable feast#Lent, observance in the liturgical year in preparation for Easter. It echoes the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring Temptation of Christ, t ...

) * Ricercar pro Festis Paschalibus, in D minor (on ''Christ ist erstanden'', for

Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...

) * Ricercar pro Festis Pentecostalibus, in F major (on ''Komm, heiliger Geist'', for

Pentecost Pentecost (also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun) is a Christianity, Christian holiday which takes place on the 49th day (50th day when inclusive counting is used) after Easter Day, Easter. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spiri ...

) All pieces are quite short, including a few really brief fugues (the seven bar A minor fugue being the shortest). Most are in

common time A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure ( bar). The time signature indicates the ...

, 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 Toccata (from Italian ''toccare'', literally, "to touch", with "toccata" being the action of touching) is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virt ...

-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: The fugues are all in four voices, the only exception being the A-flat major with a fifth part doubling the octave in the last chord. 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 ''Alla breve'' also known as cut time or cut common timeis a Meter (music), musical meter notated by the time signature symbol (a C) with a vertical line through it, which is the equivalent of . The term is Italian language, Italian for "on t ...

, ''Ricercar pro Festis Natalitys'' is in common time and the F major ricercar is in 3/2. ''Ricercar pro Festis Paschalibus'' was previously attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach and listed in the

BWV The (, ; BWV) is a Catalogues of classical compositions, catalogue of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first published in 1950, edited by Wolfgang Schmieder. The catalogue's second edition appeared in 1990 and the third edition in ...

catalogue as BWV 746,

chorale prelude In music, a chorale prelude or chorale setting is a short liturgical composition for pipe organ, organ using a chorale tune as its basis. It was a predominant style of the German Baroque music, Baroque era and reached its culmination in the works ...

''Christ ist erstanden''.

Connection with Johann Sebastian Bach

The most obvious connection of Bach's ''Well-Tempered Clavier'' with ''Ariadne Musica'' is Bach's use of Fischer's subject in one of the fugues: 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: 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 In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...

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 Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Mus ...

compositions by the famous

Johann Jakob Froberger Johann Jakob Froberger ( baptized 19 May 1616 – 7 May 1667) was a German Baroque composer, keyboard virtuoso, and organist. Among the most famous composers of the era, he was influential in developing the musical form of the suite of dance ...

: ''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): Fischer might have learned the theme from Froberger. Additionally, Fischer's E-flat major fugue and Bach's G minor fugue from Book 1 share a similar structure concerning the use of countersubjects; the subject of Bach's fugue is a slightly modified version of Fischer's. Both Bach's and Fischer's C major fugues are heavily based on stretto and their subjects are somewhat similar rhythmically.

Recordings

''Ariadne musica'' is rarely performed or recorded, although individual preludes and fugues frequently appear on miscellaneous compilations of

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

organ music. The following recordings feature at least one part of ''Ariadne musica'' (preludes and fugues or ricercars) in full: * ''Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer: Ariadne musica'', Wolfgang Baumgratz, Christophorus 1992 (complete recording) * ''German Organ Music vol. 1'', Joseph Payne, 1994. Naxos 550964. (on three different organs, ricercars not included) * ''Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer: Blumen-Strauss: Complete Organ Works'', Serge Schoonbroodt, 2002. AEOLUS AE-10321. (complete recording) * ''A Joy Forever: Opus 41 at Goshen College'', Bradley Lehman, 2006. LaripS 1002. (complete recording) * ''J.K.F. Fischer: Ariadne Musica (20 Preludes & Fugues); works of Caldara, Bach, Beethoven, & Sorge'', Franz Haselböck. Musical Heritage Society MHS 1634.

External links

* *Free PDF scores of the fugues from ''Ariadne musica'':
Bradley Lehman's recording
including free samples of all the pieces {{authoritycontrol 1702 non-fiction books 1702 compositions Compositions for organ Baroque compositions Preludes (music) Fugues Ariadne Music books

Pieces

Connection with Johann Sebastian Bach

Recordings

See also

External links