preludes, fugues and all works for the clavier written in fugal style.
It should here be observed that the modern clavier, or pianoforte, had
just been invented in Bach's time and was still in its crudest form.
Bach did not intend his clavier compositions for this instrument, but
for the clavichord and clavicembalo, which are of a different quality
of tone and much inferior in volume to the hammer clavier at present
in use. When this fact is taken into account, no false impressions need
prevail concerning the effect of those earlier clavier pieces, which
were so much in the style of organ music. We find among them many works
of marked originality and beauty, such as the three magnificent toccatas
in E minor, C minor and F major, written probably in the Weimar period
and offering, even in our own day, the most grateful task which can
be undertaken by an earnest and painstaking pianist. Bach's chamber
music compositions, however, reached their highest point of perfection
in Cöthen, as has been already stated. Here he created in 1723 that
collection of artistic and soulful melodies, in the form of two and
three-part clavier pieces, which received the name of "Inventionen
und Sinfonien "; here also in 1722 he finished the first part of the
"Wohltemperirte Clavier." This world-renowned work contains twenty-four
preludes and fugues in all the major and minor keys of the twelve
chromatic scales. Its title is due to the fact that the method of tuning
an instrument in such a way as to secure purity of tone in nearly every
key was first discovered in Bach's time. Until then, in the case of
the clavier, the clavichord, etc., such keys as had either very few
sharps or flats in the signature or none at all, had been tuned as
correctly as possible and the remainder with proportionate inexactness.
To distribute these unavoidable inaccuracies among the twelve keys of
the instrument in such a way that, while no one of them attained perfect
purity of interval, the deviations therefrom were too slight to offend
the ear, was the task of the so-called "equal temperament." Bach's fame
as an unsurpassed composer of fugues is founded especially upon the
"Wohltemperirte Clavier," the contents of which were not composed at one
time, but by degrees, many pieces dating from an early period of the
artist's activity. The second part of the "Wohltemperirte Clavier" was
completed in 1742. In this collection, the three-part fugue predominates
and throughout the whole work there breathes that freedom and repose
which are characteristic of the highest order of genius only. The first
part is still more artistic, and Bach's command over the technicalities
of the fugal style appears in it more plainly. Both parts have this
in common, that they contain nothing but musical character-pieces of
the first rank. The "Chromatische Fantasie und Fugue" may also have
been written in Cöthen; it was certainly completed before 1738. The
well-known C-minor fantasia was probably composed in 1738; of the fugue
which was to follow it, nothing but a fragment remains. In 1747 appeared
the "Musikalische Opfer" and in 1749 "Die Kunst der Fugue," these two
works forming the conclusion of the whole series of compositions. The
former is a collection of various fugues and canons, together with
a four-movement sonata for violin, flute and clavier. Ingenious and
important as the single pieces are, they cannot be said to form a
symmetrical whole, while with regard to "The Art of Fugue" the contrary
is true. In the original engraved edition of this work, which Bach was
able to revise only in part, much extraneous matter had crept in. After
this was excluded, there remained fifteen fugues and four canons, all
composed upon the same theme. The fugues belong together and seem to be
arranged in four groups in order to facilitate the hearer's comprehension
of them; strictly speaking, however, they form all together a single
gigantic fugue in fifteen divisions. Because Bach wished to show in this
work the utmost that could be accomplished with a single theme, it should
not be assumed that in writing it, his sole purpose was to instruct.
The same may also be said of the "Orgelbüchlein," the "Inventionen und
Sinfonien" and the "Wohltemperirte Clavier," which had also been composed
by him for the benefit of rising artists. Yet the practical purpose had
the effect of giving wings to his imagination; he strove to produce not
only the most artistic work of which he was capable, but also the most
beautiful, and in this he was successful. In fact the "Art of Fugue"
is one of the most sublime instrumental works of the composer. But its
deep and solemn earnestness, only rising to passionate emotion in the
central fugues, in order to sink back into itself again, as well as the
difficulty of understanding so great a number of complicated pieces, all
bearing a certain relation to each other, has thus far interfered with
the proper appreciation of this last great monument erected to himself by
the master. In a still later fugue, Bach wished to make use of his own
name, having perceived that its four letters, regarded as notes, formed
a characteristic melody. The intention was not carried out, but several
fugues upon the family name are still extant, one of which at least
is well known, has been frequently printed, and may very easily have
proceeded from the hand of Sebastian Bach.
The musician's numerous compositions for violin, gamba and flute, with
and without accompaniment, belong in the domain of Italian chamber
music, and take either the concerto or the sonata form, as established
by the Italians in 1700--forms everywhere available, although different
in many respects from those at present employed for the same class of
works. Bach's own violin playing must have been exceptionally artistic,
even though he may not have conquered the greatest difficulties of his
compositions as triumphantly as Joseph Joachim is able to do in our
day. The German violinists of the seventeenth century had a fondness
for double and more-stopping violin-playing, and surpassed the Italians
in this respect. Bach's three sonatas for violin without accompaniment
probably mark the utmost limit of development attainable by this kind
of technique. It cannot be proved with certainty that any one before
him ever attempted the composition of sonatas without accompaniment and
in these works a certain admixture of clavier music is perceptible,
especially in the fugue movements. The sonatas were arranged, either in
parts or as a whole, for the clavier or the organ, and appear to almost
better advantage in this way than in their original form. The preference
for clavier-music is a trait by which Bach, as a German, is distinguished
from the Italians. The latter contented themselves even in violin
sonatas with a simple form of thorough-bass, that is, in connection
with the violin part only one bass was written down for the clavier
player, who improvised with the right hand supplementary chords. Bach
composed very few works of this class and seldom left the accompaniment
to be extemporized, but preferred to write out in full an independent
part for the right hand. Of this description are the famous six sonatas
for violin and clavier, the three sonatas for gamba and for flute with
clavier. Among the latter the F-minor sonata takes rank as the most
beautiful piece of chamber music ever composed for the flute. Three of
Bach's violin concertos have been preserved, written in A minor, E major
and D minor respectively. In the latter, two violins are concerted with
the orchestra. It was not uncommon at that time to employ more than one
instrument in a concerto, and to such a composition the name _concerto
grosso_ was given. In 1721 Bach dedicated to the margrave Christian of
Brandenburg, six concertos for a full body of instruments; of these
numbers 2, 4 and 5 are concerti grossi. In the combining of solo
instruments Bach is much bolder than his contemporaries and sometimes
ventures upon the extraordinary. Thus in the second of this group of
concertos he opposes to the orchestra a trumpet, a flute, an oboe and a
violin, in the fifth a flute, a violin and a clavier. On the other hand,
there are concertos by him in which the external contrast between solo
and tutti has entirely vanished and nothing remains but the pure musical
form arising from this contrast. Of this nature is the Italian concerto
in F major, which Bach composed for the piano alone. Eight concertos for
clavier and orchestra (the latter consisting here, as was usual in that
day, of string instruments and cembalo) are still extant. The one in D
minor is considered the finest of all. Of still greater value are the
concertos for two and three pianos, in which the form of the _concerto
grosso_ is employed in a new manner. There even exists a concerto for
four claviers and orchestra; this, however, is only an elaboration of
a violin concerto by Vivaldi. It should be remarked in this connection
that Bach regarded the organ as an instrument for church use exclusively
and wrote no organ concertos, whereas Handel produced many works of that
class.
The clavier variations and suites composed by Bach are most
characteristic and individual in style. We possess, to be sure, only two
sets of variations by him, but the aria with thirty variations is a work
which has marked out new paths for the variation form and exerted an
influence extending through and beyond Beethoven to Schumann and Brahms.
In the suite consisting of dance-forms, or the partita, the French had
distinguished themselves as also the German clavier masters, Johann
Jacob Froberger, Johann Krieger and Johann Kuhnau, from all of whom
Bach made zealous attempts to learn. His three principal works of this
sort are the so-styled French Suites, English Suites and the Partitas.
Each collection contains six suites, but in Bach's lifetime only the
Partitas were published in the engraved form. These compositions are
pervaded by the wholesome freshness and cheerfulness characteristic of
the German people, while they exhibit at the same time unusual firmness
and delicacy of structure; Bach indeed imparted to the clavier suite
the highest conceivable degree of finish. In the six violoncello suites
without accompaniment, the form is presented to us in a different
tone-material. This style of music was abandoned after the master's death
and was succeeded by the clavier sonata, to which Bach had never paid
any considerable attention. Another form in existence at this time was
the orchestra suite, which differed from the clavier suite in respect to
the arrangement of the dances and showed much greater freedom as to the
choice and number of the same; it was often the case, moreover, that an
overture served as introduction to the work. Bach left behind four such
orchestral suites or partitas; he also employed the same form in three
suites for violin without accompaniment, which were published in one
volume, together with the three unaccompanied violin sonatas, in one of
which occurs the famous D-minor violin chaconne. And, finally, this form
was transferred by Bach to the clavier, as in the case of the B-minor
partita, which he published in 1735 in second part of his clavier-Uebung.
As a composer of church music, Bach occupies a position in the
evangelical ranks analogous to that of Palestrina among the Catholics.
The difference in time, nationality and artistic gifts naturally
presupposes an equal degree of difference in musical forms and resources,
but aside from this, emphasis must be placed upon the infinitely greater
versatility of Bach, who was at home in every domain of art, with the
exception of the opera and the oratorio, and in each one created works
that have never been surpassed, while Palestrina confined himself almost
wholly within fixed ecclesiastical limits. The different varieties of
evangelical church music possible to be considered by Bach were the hymn,
the motet, the church cantata, the evangelical histories, the mass and
the magnificat. The hymn, or Protestant choral, received no increment
from him; he composed very beautiful religious songs, but nothing in the
style of the Volkslied. As regards the motet, that old ecclesiastical
form of song without accompaniment and composed of many parts, Bach
certainly paid some attention to it in his capacity as director of the
vocal choir at St. Thomas's. Four works of this class with double chorus
and one in five parts (Jesu, meine Freude) are ripe fruits of his genius,
but however beautiful and powerful as compositions, they are not properly
continuations of the motet in the form given it in the seventeenth
century by Schütz, Johann Christoph Bach and others. These composers
adhered closely to the severe style of the church motet of the sixteenth
century, into which, however, a certain secular element had been
introduced, while Bach's motets are rather to be regarded as a subsidiary
form of his church cantatas. We find in them the same resemblance to
organ music which characterizes his vocal compositions with instrumental
accompaniment, and among the latter are many pieces precisely after the
manner of the motet. It is now a tolerably well established fact that
Bach's motets were never performed without the aid of the organ or other
instruments; in fact remarkably well trained choruses would have been
necessary in order to dispense with such support. That they must have
been intended to serve as an occasional substitute for a cantata, is
shown by their unusual length, which would prevent them from filling the
regularly appointed place in the church liturgy.
According to excellent authority, Bach wrote five complete "year books"
of church cantatas. Reckoned according to the requirements of the Leipsic
church year, they would therefore reach a total of about four hundred,
but not more than half that number have been preserved. The name here
employed was given to the works in the present century; Bach himself
called them concertos, and thereby indicates their historical origin.
The sacred concerto was first introduced into Germany by Schütz, who
imported it from Italy. Originally a piece of one or more solo parts with
an instrumental accompaniment pervaded by intense passionate feeling, it
soon adopted the chorus as a means of attaining completeness and variety.
The choral, elaborated in various ways was then added and afterwards
the aria in its different forms, the text of this new style of concerto
being expanded to correspond. While in the beginning this text consisted
only of biblical passages or prayers, all kinds of devotional poetry
were later employed, in connection with the choral stanzas. After the
year 1700 the so-called "madrigal" form of poetry found its way into
the concerto and was also very commonly made use of in operatic music.
In this way the recitative became a part of the concerto, which had
gradually been made to include all the vocal forms then in vogue. The
church cantata of Bach is the sacred concerto, in its most perfect form.
As a means of blending into a harmonious whole the manifold elements
which composed it, Bach had recourse to the style of his organ music, as
carefully wrought out by him in the bosom of the church. In this way,
while implanting upon the work all the forms which have been enumerated,
he imparted to it the truly ecclesiastical character which it had never
before possessed. The choral now became the principal musical feature
of the concerto (or cantata) and the closest connection was established
between the text of the work and the Bible selection which formed the
subject of the sermon on the particular Sunday or festival day for
which it was composed. The regularly appointed place for the cantata in
the church service was just before the sermon, but, on very important
occasions, it was sometimes divided into two parts, the second of which
came after the sermon. The wealth of creative power revealed by Bach
in this musical form, which now unhappily has become unfamiliar to us,
transports one with astonishment; above all, his treatment of the choral
is simply amazing. Appearing in solo and chorus songs, artistically
elaborated or in simple popular form, resounding in a single instrument
or in a group of instruments, while the singing voices are occupied
with another text, which seems to receive its highest consecration from
this interpenetrating melody, it imparts strength and animation to the
entire work, and in proportion as Bach advanced in years, he gave greater
definiteness to this central feature of the cantata. The texts for such
compositions were furnished by Erdmann Neumeister of Hamburg, and after
him by Salomo Franck in Weimar, Christian Friedrich Henrici and Mariane
von Ziegler in Leipsic. They consisted, in their normal form, of passages
from the Bible and stanzas of hymns, which were held together by a free
style of versification. But in order that the chorals might acquire
still greater influence than was possible under these conditions, Bach
sometimes made compositions for each stanza of the poetic text, with
an ever-varying employment of his melody, as in Luther's Easter hymn:
"Christ lag in Todes Banden" ("Christ lay in bonds of darkness"). Again,
since the stanza was not adapted to every kind of music, he occasionally
substituted for it the madrigal, but in such a way that the original
theme, now approaching nearer and now retreating into the distance, was
easily recognized by those among the listeners who were familiar with the
hymn. About forty cantatas of this description are still in existence.
Among the evangelical histories should be included, besides Bach's
Passion Music, his Christmas and Ascension oratorios. It is probable
that this name was given to the works merely for the sake of brevity;
the works are not oratorios such as Handel's, but church music,
which was performed during the service, the Passions on Good Friday
afternoon, before and after the sermon, the others on the respective
festal days, before the morning sermon. The term "histories," however,
seems appropriate, because in these works the narration of events in
the words of the Bible constitutes as it were the thread which joins
together the manifold parts. The old church custom of intoning passages
from the Bible is the foundation upon which these works have been built
up, during successive centuries of development. Since the intoning of
long selections, such as the accounts of Christ's sufferings and death,
was too fatiguing for a single clergyman, it was usual to distribute
them among a number, and in such a way that one delivered the narrative
portion, another the words of Christ, a third the utterances of all
the other speaking persons introduced. From this custom proceeds the
peculiar distribution of the text among the different singers, which
is found in the Passion music of Bach. For the rest, their style is
precisely the same as that of the church cantatas. Of the five Passions
of Bach, only three are preserved. The St. Luke Passion, which has often
been considered spurious, but upon insufficient grounds, belongs to his
earliest youthful period, and may have been written in Arnstadt, perhaps
even in Lüneburg. It can claim nothing more than a historical interest,
in comparison with the other two. The St. John Passion was probably
produced for the first time on the 17th of April, 1724--the Matthew
Passion certainly on the 15th of April, 1729, both performances taking
place in the St. Thomas's Church at Leipsic. They are undoubtedly the
most comprehensive of the existing works of Bach. Represented without
abridgment, the St. Matthew Passion alone occupies about two hours and a
half, so that with the sermon and the remaining portions of the liturgy,
the afternoon service must have covered a space of four hours. The dress
in which these two works are clothed corresponds to their intrinsic
value; both belong to the richest, most powerfully conceived and most
affecting compositions of all people and all ages. The St. Matthew
Passion is smoother in form, more varied, and appeals more directly to
the hearer. For want of the assistance of a competent poet, Bach was
compelled to make many still perceptible alterations in the earlier
work: it is moreover pervaded by a certain severity and gloom. For this
reason it is somewhat less dear to the hearts of the German people than
the St. Matthew Passion, which has become with the process of time one
of the most popular of vocal compositions. Very nearly the same may be
said of the Christmas "history," composed in 1734, a bright, joyous and
charming production, offering a complete contrast to the Passion Music.
It is divided into six sections, from the fact that the twelve days
between the 25th of December and the 6th of January form a continuous
festival period, in which six days are especially celebrated, namely:
the three days of Christmas, New Year's Day, New Year's Sunday and the
Epiphany. One part of the work is devoted to each of these days. The
shortest of the histories was composed for Ascension Day and has only the
length of the ordinary church cantata. Singularly enough, there is no
Easter history by Bach; his little Easter "oratorio," which in this case
has more right than usual to the name, since it approaches in style the
Italian works thus designated, though far from resembling those written
by Handel, is not to be reckoned among his important achievements.
In Bach's day, it was the custom in Leipsic to render in Latin the
magnificat performed at the afternoon service on the three great festal
days. It is owing to this circumstance that Bach composed his splendid
composition, which was probably performed for the first time on Christmas
day in the year 1723. Certain portions of the Latin mass were moreover
still in general use, especially the "Kyrie" and the "Sanctus," the
employment of the "Gloria" being confined to Christmas Day. Since
the "Kyrie" was a regular part of the service on the first Sunday in
Advent, a certain connection was thus established between it and the
"Gloria," and this may be one of the reasons why Bach composed a number
of so-called short masses, consisting only of those two parts.[2] And as
the practice of performing the whole of a Latin mass was not yet entirely
given up in the Protestant church, more particularly in Leipsic, it is
easily explained how Bach could conceive the project of writing a work
of the kind in Latin. In the beginning, he only contemplated writing
a "Kyrie" and a "Gloria," and these, being completed on the 27th of
July, 1733, were presented to the Elector of Saxony in Dresden. One
after another, however, the remaining parts were added and the entire
work was finished as early as 1738. To produce it as a whole, under the
conditions existing in Leipsic at that time, was utterly impossible, and
it is probable that Bach never heard a full public performance of his
grandest work. So much the more admirable was the courage displayed by
him in undertaking a composition, which frees itself from the limitations
of the actual and exists only in the realm of the ideal. In this mass all
distinction between Protestant and Catholic is done away with and nothing
remains but a universal Christian church, the image of which appears
in the gigantic work, for whose creation Bach summoned all his powers
and which has no equal in the world. Its only rival is the "Messiah" of
Handel, and the difference between the two compositions is a consequence
of the difference in the men who produced them. Handel, the oratorio
composer, treated his subject historically, while Bach remained in the
domain of the church, which, however, he extended far beyond the limits
of a narrow belief, a matter of no concern to him when his genius took
its loftiest flight.
Bach's vocal church compositions, which, on account of their novelty
and difficulty, had seldom been employed in his lifetime, were almost
entirely forgotten for a considerable period after his death. The first
revival of interest in them took place in North Germany, towards the end
of the last century, when Bach was beginning to find proper recognition
and was even acknowledged to be Handel's equal in greatness. In 1800,
several publishers began an edition of his works, so strongly was the
tide turning in his favor. During the time of the Napoleonic campaigns
and the German war of independence, Handel was in the ascendancy, but
when the long period of political inactivity supervened and the people
found leisure for reflection and introspection, Bach's time had come. A
decisive manifestation of the popular appreciation of his standing as
an artist was afforded by the performance of the St. Matthew Passion,
under the auspices of Mendelssohn on the 11th of March, 1829. In 1850 the
Bach Society was founded in Leipsic, in commemoration of the hundredth
anniversary of his death. The object of this society is to promote the
publication of carefully revised editions of the master's works. Thus
far, forty-eight folio volumes have been issued, and in a few years the
task will be completed. A detailed description of the personality and the
works of Bach, considered in their relation to his time and the age which
preceded him, has been given to the public by the author of this essay.
Meantime the most surprising progress has been made in the direction of a
proper understanding of Bach's music. From year to year it has steadily
grown more familiar in both hemispheres, and the art of the composer has
already become so closely identified with the culture, not only of the
German people, but of the entire world, that there is no danger of its
ever again being forgotten.
[Illustration: Philipp Spitta]
[Illustration: Fac-simile autograph manuscript of a humorous Wedding
Carmen written by Bach, the words of which were probably his own and
addressed to his wife Anna Magdalena. Date about 1725.]
[Illustration: GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL
_Reproduction of a steel engraving by Sichling, after an oil portrait by
V. Hudson. This is considered as Handel's most satisfactory portrait.
It was first engraved by Faber in 1749, ten years before the master's
death._]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: It was not until the last decade of his life that there was
formed in the circles of the well-to-do merchant class a musical union
which survives to-day as the "Institution of the Gewandhaus Concerts."
Bach was probably not a member of the society, at any rate, not an
influential one.]
[Footnote 2: Among these works the two in F major and A major are the
most beautiful.]
[Illustration: HANDEL]
[Illustration]
GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL
George Frederick Handel was born at Halle on the Saale, on the 23d
of February, 1685, the same year that gave to the world his famous
contemporary, Sebastian Bach. Halle, formerly a Saxon city, belonged
after 1680 to the electorate of Brandenburg. Handel's father was
surgeon-barber and officially attached in this capacity to the ducal
court of Saxony at Weissenfels. A vigorous and active man, he acquired
in time both property and influence, and at the age of sixty-two he took
to himself a second wife, the daughter of the pastor at Giebichenstein,
near Halle. The second son of this branch of the family was the composer,
George Frederick.