Accordingly, when Mason played the "Triple Concerto" with Rubinstein
and Mills, he came to the rehearsal armed with a book by Friedrich
Wilhelm Marburg, published in Berlin in 1765, and giving written
examples of all the _agrements_. "I told Rubinstein about my ancient
authority," says Mr. Mason in his entertaining "Memories of a Musical
Life," "adding that we should be spared the tediousness of a
discussion as to the manner of playing.
"'Let me see the old book,' said Rubinstein. Running over the leaves
he came to the illustrations of the mordent. The moment his eyes fell
upon them he exclaimed: 'All wrong; here is the way I play it!'" And
that ended the usefulness of "the old book" for that particular
occasion, the other two pianists adopting, without comment,
Rubinstein's method, which Mr. Mason intimates was incorrect.
When, at the rehearsal with Essipoff, the mordent came up for
discussion she exclaimed: "'I cannot play these things; show me how
they are done.' After repeated trials, however," records Mr. Mason,
"she failed to get the knack of playing them, as indeed so many
pianists do; so at the rehearsal she omitted them and left their
performance to Boscovitz and me."
"The Well-Tempered Clavichord."
Bach's monumental work for pianoforte, however, is "The Well-Tempered
Clavichord," consisting of forty-eight preludes and fugues in all
keys. I find much prevalent ignorance among amateurs regarding the
meaning of "well-tempered" as used in this title. I have heard people
explain it by saying that when a pianist had mastered the book he was
"tempered" like steel and ready for any difficulties that other music
might present! I even have heard a rotund and affable person say that
"The Well-Tempered Clavichord" was so entitled because when you
listened to its preludes and fugues it smoothed out your temper and
made you feel good-natured! In point of fact, the word is difficult to
explain in untechnical language. It relates, however, to Bach's method
of tuning his clavichord--another boon which he conferred upon music.
In general, the system may be explained by the statement that certain
tone intervals, which theoretically are pure, practically result in
harmonic discrepancies, which Bach's "tempered" system corrected. In
other words, slight and practically imperceptible inaccuracies are
introduced in the tuning in order to counterbalance the greater faults
which result when tuning is absolutely correct from a theoretical
point of view; just as, in navigating the high northern waters, you
are obliged to make allowance for variations of the compass. The
system was not actually the invention of Bach, but he did so much to
promote its adoption that it is associated with his name. Before it
was adopted it was impossible to employ all the major and minor keys
on clavichords and harpsichords, and on the pianofortes, just
beginning to come into use. It became possible under the tempered
system of tuning, and was illustrated by Bach in "The Well-Tempered
Clavichord," each major and minor key being represented by a prelude
and fugue.
Besides the system of tuning in "equal temperament," Bach modernized
the technique of fingering by introducing the freer and more frequent
employment of the hitherto neglected thumb and little finger. The
services of this great man to music, therefore, were threefold. He
left us his teeming counterpoint, upon which modern music draws so
freely; he promoted the system of tuning in equal temperament; and he
laid the foundation of modern pianoforte technique, and so of modern
virtuosity.
A King's Tribute to Bach.
Besides being a great composer, Bach's traits as a man were most
admirable. He was uncompromising in his convictions, sturdy, honest
and upright. His fixedness of purpose is shown by an anecdote of his
boyhood. In his tenth year he lost his parents and went to live with
an elder brother, who was so jealous of his superior talents that he
refused him the loan of a manuscript volume of music by composers of
the day. Obtaining possession of it without his brother's knowledge,
Bach secretly copied it at night by moonlight, the task covering
something like six months. His reward was to have it taken away by his
brother, who accidentally discovered him playing from it. Fortunately,
this brother died soon afterward, and Bach recovered his treasure.
While it is true that Bach remained unappreciated by the great mass of
his contemporaries, there were exceptions, a notable one being the
music-loving king, Frederick the Great of Prussia, whose service the
composer's second son, Philipp Emanuel Bach, entered in 1746. At the
king's earnest urging, Philipp Emanuel induced his father to visit
Potsdam the following year. The king, who had arranged a concert at
the palace, was about to begin playing on the flute, when an officer
entered and handed him a list of the strangers who had arrived at
Potsdam. Glancing over it, Frederick discovered Bach's name.
"Gentlemen," he exclaimed, "old Bach is here!" And nothing would do
save that the master must be brought immediately into the royal
presence, before he even had time to doff his traveling clothes.
The king had purchased several of the pianofortes recently constructed
by Gottfried Silbermann and had them distributed throughout the
palace. Bach and the assemblage went from room to room, the composer
playing and improvising on the different instruments. Finally he asked
the king to set him a fugue theme, and on this he extemporized in such
masterly fashion that all who heard him, the king included, broke out
into rounds of applause. On his return to Leipsic, Bach dedicated to
Frederick the Great a work which he entitled "The Musical Sacrifice"
(or offering), which he based upon the fugue theme the king had given
him.
No other instance of musical heredity is comparable with that afforded
by the Bach family. Dr. Theodore Baker, in his "Biographical
Dictionary of Musicians," gives a list of no less than twenty Bachs,
all of the same line, whom he deems worthy of mention, and who covered
a period ranging from 1604 to 1845, when the great Bach's grandson
and last male descendant, Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach, died in
Berlin. Thus for two hundred and forty-one years the Bach family was
professionally active in music.