It has been remarked more than once that Bach, throughout his life,
devoted much thought to the improvement of his compositions. I have had
frequent occasion to compare the original and subsequent texts of his
works, and confess to have experienced both surprise and pleasure in
observing his care to improve whatever he thought faulty, to make good
better, and better perfect. Nothing is more instructive than a collation
of this kind, whether to the experienced musician or the instructed
amateur. I should like to see a supplement to the complete edition of
Bach’s works showing these variant readings.(323) The collation would be
in the highest degree instructive, and to attempt it is as appropriate to
the works of the composer, a poet in sound, as to those of the poet in
words.
In Bach’s early texts he often repeats a phrase to other words with some
melodic variety, in a lower or even in the same octave. In his riper
experience he could not tolerate such poverty of workmanship, and cut out
these passages remorselessly, without regard for the number and quality of
the persons who had approved them in their original state. There occur to
me two good examples of this, the C major and C sharp minor Preludes in
the first part of the _Well-tempered Clavier._ Bach revised them so
drastically as to cut them down by one-half, sacrificing passages that he
thought redundant.(324)
In other places Bach tends to be over-concise; he expresses an idea, but
does not fully develop it. The best illustration that occurs to me is the
D minor Prelude in the second part of the _Well-tempered Clavier._ I
possess several texts of it. In the oldest the first transposition of the
theme in the Bass and several other details essential to a complete
development of the idea are wanting. A second MS. gives the theme to the
Bass wherever the latter is in a key nearly related to that of the tonic.
In a third MS. these addenda are developed more fully and are joined more
skilfully. But melodic details are present of doubtful relevance to the
rest of the composition. In a fourth MS. these disappear or are amended,
so that, as we have it, the Prelude stands as one of the most beautiful
and least faulty in the _Well-tempered Clavier._ Many people, no doubt,
preferred the movement in its original form. But Bach was not a man to be
influenced by approbation or criticism. He went on correcting until he
satisfied himself.
In the early part of the seventeenth century it was the fashion in
instrumental music to overload single notes with ornaments and add florid
runs. Lately it has become the fashion to do so in vocal music as well.
That Bach shared this disposition may be inferred from certain pieces that
he wrote in this style. An instance is the Prelude in E minor in the
first part of the _Well-tempered Clavier._ But he soon returned to his
natural better taste, and altered the movement to the form in which it is
engraved.(325)
Every decade has its own style of melody, distinctive of itself and
evanescent. A composer must carefully avoid it if he hopes to be listened
to by posterity. In his young days even Bach ran upon this rock. His
early compositions for the Organ, and the two-part _Inventions_ in their
original form, are full of fiorituri such as the taste of his period
approved. His Organ compositions remain comparatively untouched, but the
_Inventions_ he closely revised. The public will soon be able to compare
them in their first and later forms, as the publishers, with admirable
spirit, have resolved to discontinue the present edition and to send out
to subscribers a revised one based on Bach’s corrected text.
Bach’s processes of revision so far mentioned, however, merely correct
faults of form, that is, diffuseness or incomplete development of a
musical thought. But Bach employed other methods which are less easy to
describe because they are more subtle. He often rivets the style and
character of a piece by changing a single note, strictly correct
grammatically and yet disagreeable to an artist such as himself. Even
commonplace passages he could convert into phrases of beauty by the
addition or alteration of a single note. Only the most sensitive taste
and trained experience can decide in such cases, and Bach possessed both
in the highest perfection. He developed them to such a pitch, indeed,
that his brain eventually rejected any idea which, in all its properties
and relations, did not accord inevitably and naturally with the whole
composition. Consequently his later works display such consistency of
merit that all of them seem to have been cast complete in a mould, so
smooth, facile and abundant is the flow of his rich fancy. It is on the
highest summits of the art that harmony and melody find their ideal union,
and as yet Bach dwells there in majestic isolation.