# What was it written for?



## atsizat (Sep 14, 2015)

I don't suppose it was written for piano as Bach did not play Piano. So what was it written for?

And how can I find the original version of it, by which I mean the version of which it was written for?


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

It was written for the keyboard instruments Bach would've known: clavichord, harpsichord or organ. 

I prefer hearing it on piano or clavichord myself.

As for "original version", you could look at a manuscript facsimile or use an "urtext" like Bärenreiter. If by "original version" you mean how it might've sounded in Bach's time, listen to a performance on harpsichord or clavichord.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

As an aside, towards the end of his life Bach did play early pianos and was sufficiently impressed to demonstrate them occasionally for a leading maker of the time. Those pianos would of course have been vastly different from today's models though.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

atsizat said:


> I don't suppose it was written for piano as Bach did not play Piano. So what was it written for?
> 
> And how can I find the original version of it, by which I mean the version of which it was written for?


With so much repetition it's good to have some dynamic variation as a way of stopping the piece sounding monotonous, so I plump for clavichord. Here






Chorzempa is a revelation in this, you'll find lots of other clavichord performances on youtube and elsewhere but none I've heard use the instrument so sensitively as Chorzempa here.

And what a glorious way to begin this cycle of music -- so quietly, so subtly!


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

I've read that Bach's Musical Offering was written for the piano(forte), which makes sense, given that Frederick was so proud of them and insisted that Bach try them all out —and yet original instrument performers insist on playing them on the harpsichord.


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