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Listening to the recording of Bach's Musical Offering by a wonderful group of musicians under the direction of Jordi Savall. This is a collection of fugues and canons on the "Royal Theme" given to Bach by Frederick the Great.

According to James Gaines in Evening in the Palace of Reason, Frederick had deliberately chosen this theme (perhaps written for this purpose by Bach's own son, Carl Philip Emmanuel), totally unsuited to counterpoint, to set Bach up for mockery, and Bach's sacrificial offering is a defence of his, by now old-fashioned, style of music: a passionate and sarcastic response that he knew would not interest Frederick.

If this is so then it is remarkable that such wonderful music should have come from such an unpropitious origin. What a genius Bach was!