JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH, Das Musikalische Opfer, transcription pour orgue de Jean Guillou (1974). Schott 9804 (formerly Leduc). Bach's Musical Offering has had a reputation for inapproachability for over 250 years. It is at once both transparent and yet obscure––not only with respect to the music itself, but even in its historical context and association. The story of Bach's music-making at the palace of Frederick the Great in 1747 has often been told, yet how many of us realize that, when he publicly celebrated the occasion by publishing the Musical Offering, Bach might as well have dropped a bomb insofar as his municipal superiors were concerned, since Frederick's troops held the City of Leipzig under forced military rule from 1745 thru 1746. Jean Guillou is absolutely right in seeking to appropriate this work for the organ, though not necessarily for the reasons he cites. Beyond mere didactic and entrepreneurial concerns, Bach's chamber music is simply not well served by modern, technically efficient ensembles for whom classic and pre-classic music is often little more than an easy sight-read. In a virtuosic organ rendition, however, the required level of concentration and effort, in the same music, may rise to heroic proportions. Guillou's virtuosity, and the individuality of his interpretation, is sharply highlighted by the fact that he makes it a point of pride, in principle, not to have changed even a single note. But this makes for some rough going, especially in the Trio Sonata (and also the Canone perpetuo) for Flute, Violin, and Continuo, whose bass is in no way cut-out for the pedals. It must also be noted that, in these five movements, Bach's original and painstaking figured-bass notation has been left-out. The other Canones diversi are succinctly and elegantly presented in their original "enigmatic" notation, but their various realizations (whomever the editor) are invariably less so––for example, in the modulating canon, where the ascent through successive whole-tones gives rise to textures in F# minor, G# minor, and Bb minor that play-out more like Reger than Bach. In the most complex canon, labeled by Bach a 2. per Augmentationem, contrario Motu, Guillou realizes liberally the options for the sixth and seventh scale-degrees, but the end result is as harsh as always. In the canon originally labeled a 2 Violin: in Unisono, there are a number of articulatory slurs and dots which are effaced in Guillou's realization by continuous legato slurring. This canon (and also the Canone perpetuo mentioned above) suffers from the strict egalitarian nature of the upper voices, which, at the organ, translates into having the two hands playing literally on top of one another (which is awkward even on two manuals), and it would be more economical to take the left hand down an octave and to play on 4'. And in the Canon á 4, where much of the writing is realizable manually, it would be more economical to use intermittent pedal, rather than independent pedal, without significant loss of clarity. Here, again, the original edition includes several slurs that are effaced in Guillou's realization. As for the two works that concern keyboardists most directly, the Ricercar á 6 has long occupied a position in the organ repertory, even though it is completely realizable manually. Guillou's treatment is just a bit old-fashioned, with thematic soloing-out, and a grand fortissimo conclusion. His pedal does not merely take the bass, but inner voices as well, both in 4' capacity, and in pedale doppio. Bach's own published edition employed six-staff open score (using treble, soprano, alto, tenor, tenor, and bass clefs) for the Ricercar á 6, but he also prepared a manuscript on two staves only. These two sources present different versions, however, and Guillou's transcription follows the print version entirely, except for the omission of slurs. Interestingly, both versions employ a form of alla breve with full barlines notated every four half-notes, and strokes or half-barlines every two half-notes, but this feature is not retained in the transcription. The Ricercar á 3 is probably not Bach's only music for the pianoforte, but it is his only music that is documented as such. Guillou begins and ends on the subsidiary manuals, moving to the Great only at the "developmental" section (m. 109). But this section emerges in quite peculiar fashion, in which the continuity of one-and-the-same tone color is essential. Most organists today are rightly inclined to exploit to the fullest the various coloristic opportunities of which the instrument is capable, and throughout the Musical Offering, Guillou routinely prescribes such colors 8' 2' and 8' 1' (with and without mutations), and various solo stops. But this issue is inextricably bound-up with the desired expressive aim of the music itself. At the risk of positing a somewhat subjective view, it may be argued that the Musical Offering is largely a black-and-white affair; that Bach's relation to his dedicatee was fraught with contradiction, and that these compositions are meant to sound accordingly. Finally there is the question of an original, or inherent ordering. For more than a century this question has perplexed scholars and performers, but Guillou's ordering does not appear to draw upon any particular persuasion––he simply frames the work as a whole with the two Ricercari, and the Trio Sonata is preceded by all ten canons in no discernably special order. The C-clefs make regular appearances, mostly in accord with Bach's own intent.