That’s Maths: ‘I have learned much today, and I am grateful for the opportunity to exchange ideas with such a brilliant mind’
Antique engraved portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach, the grand master of structural innovation and invention in music.Frederick the Great of Prussia, a devoted patron of the arts, had a particular interest in music and admired the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1747, Bach visited Potsdam, where his son Carl Philipp Emanuel was the kapellmeister in Frederick’s court. When Frederick learned of this, he summoned “Old Bach” to the palace and invited him to try out his collection of pianofortes.
Bach asked the king to give him a musical theme and, on the spot, developed it into a three-part fugue. The next day he was taken on a tour of all the organs in Potsdam. Upon returning to Leipzig, Bach developed Frederick’s theme into a six-part fugue and sent it to the king with a flattering letter that opened: “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.
The brilliant Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler spent 20 years at the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Potsdam. Euler had earlier written a book on the mathematical theory of music. Bach too was fascinated by the relationship between mathematics and music; undoubtedly, the two savants would have had many common interests and much to discuss.
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