statement. The youthful Bach, aged fifteen in 1700, no doubt seized
the earliest opportunity to relieve his brother of the charge of
him. Moreover, Johann Christoph’s family was increasing (see Table
V.). In spite of the story of Bach’s midnight copying, it cannot be
questioned that he owed a good deal to his brother, who not only
taught him but, presumably, maintained him at the Ohrdruf Lyceum,
where Bach acquired a sound education and a considerable knowledge
of Latin. See Pirro, pp. 14-16, on Bach’s education at Ohrdruf. He
left the Lyceum in March 1700.
59 Georg Erdmann, Bach’s fellow-pupil at the Lyceum.
60 Bach’s entry into the choir of St. Michael’s Convent, Lüneburg, took
place about Easter 1700. The step was taken upon the advice of
Elias Herda, Cantor at the Ohrdruf Lyceum, himself a former member
of St. Michael’s. Bach remained at St. Michael’s for three years,
till 1703. The choir library was particularly rich in the best
church music of the period, both German and Italian. Spitta is of
opinion that Bach’s talents as a violinist and Clavier player were
also laid under contribution. His voice, as Forkel states, soon
ceased to be serviceable. His maximum pay was one thaler (three
shillings) a month and free commons.
61 Probably Georg Böhm, who had relations with the Convent choir,
inspired Bach to make the pilgrimage. Böhm, then at St. John’s,
Lüneburg, was a pupil of Reinken of Hamburg. Spitta (i. 196)
suggests that Bach’s cousin, Johann Ernst (see Table IV.), was at
this time completing his musical education at Hamburg, a fact which
may have contributed to draw Bach thither. He made more than one
visit, on foot, to Hamburg. F. W. Marpurg published, in 1786, the
story, which he received from Bach himself, that on one of his
journeys from Hamburg, Bach sat down outside an inn and hungrily
sniffed the savours from its kitchen. His pockets were empty and
there seemed little prospect of a meal, when a window was opened and
two herring heads were thrown out. Bach picked them up eagerly, and
found in each of them a Danish ducat. Who was his benefactor he
never discovered; the gift enabled him to satisfy his hunger and pay
another visit to Hamburg.
62 Johann Adam Reinken, b. 1623, became Organist of St. Catherine’s
Church, Hamburg, in 1664, and held the post until his death in 1722.
63 His introduction to French music marked another step in Bach’s
progressive education. The reigning Duke of Celle (father-in-law of
George I. of Great Britain and Ireland) had married a Frenchwoman.
See Pirro, _J. S. Bach,_ pp. 24-27.
64 He entered the Weimar service on April 8, 1703 (Pirro, p. 29).
65 Bach’s engagement was in the private band of the younger brother of
the Duke. He remained in his new post only a few months. He was
engaged as a Violin player, and since his interests were towards the
Organ and Clavier, it is clear that he accepted the engagement as a
temporary means of livelihood.
66 He is, however, described in July 1703 as Court Organist (Pirro, p.
30). Bach was drawn to Arnstadt chiefly by the fact that the New
Church recently had been equipped with a particularly fine Organ
(specification in Spitta, i. 224), which existed until 1863. Bach
inaugurated it on July 13, 1703, and entered on his duties as
Organist of the church in the following month (Pirro, p. 30).
67 His earliest Church Cantata (No. 15) was composed here in 1704. To
the Arnstadt period (1703-7) also must be attributed the Capriccio
written on the departure of his brother, Johann Jakob (Peters bk.
208 p. 62), the Capriccio in honour of his Ohrdruf brother, Johann
Christoph (Peters bk. 215, p. 34), the Sonata in D major (Peters bk.
215, p. 44), the Organ Prelude and Fugue in C minor (Novello bk. 2
p. 48), and the Organ Fugue in C minor (Novello bk. 12 p. 95).
68 In the _Nekrolog_ C. P. E. Bach and Agricola remark of the Arnstadt
period, that Bach then “really showed the first-fruits of his
industry in the art of Organ-playing and composition, which he had
in great measure learnt only from the study of the works of the most
famous composers of the time, and from his own reflections on them”
(quoted in Spitta, i. 235).
69 Bach’s stipend at Arnstadt was not inconsiderable, and his duties
engaged him only at stated hours on Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays.
He, therefore, had leisure and the means to employ it. In October
1705 he obtained four weeks’ leave of absence and set off on foot to
Lübeck, after leaving an efficient deputy behind him. He stayed
away until February 1706. On his return the Consistory demanded an
explanation of his absence, and took the opportunity to remonstrate
with him on other matters. They charged him “with having been
hitherto in the habit of making surprising variationes in the
Chorals, and intermixing divers strange sounds, so that thereby the
congregation were confounded.” They charged him with playing too
long preludes, and after this was notified to him, of making them
too short. They reproached him “with having gone to a wineshop last
Sunday during sermon,” and cautioned him that, “for the future he
must behave quite differently and much better than he has done
hitherto” (see the whole charge in Spitta, i. 315 ff.). Bach also
was on bad terms with the choir, whose members had got out of hand
and discipline. Before his Lübeck visit he engaged in a street
brawl with one of the scholars. Then, as later, he was a choleric
gentleman. In November 1706 he got into further trouble for having
“made music” in the church with a “stranger maiden,” presumably his
cousin Maria Barbara Bach, then on a visit to Arnstadt; he married
her a year later. Clearly the relations between the Consistory and
the brilliant young Organist were becoming difficult, and Bach’s
migration to Mühlhausen no doubt was grateful to both. His
resignation was made formally on June 29, 1707.
70 Bach was appointed on June 15, 1707, to succeed Johann Georg Able.
Mühlhauson prided itself upon its musical traditions. Bach’s
Cantata, No. 71, written in February 1708 for the inauguration of
the Mühlhausen Town Council, was engraved (the parts only), the only
one of the 206 Cantatas which have come down to us which was printed
during Bach’s lifetime. He also composed Cantatas 131 and 196 at
Muhlhausen, and perhaps three others. See infra, p. 188.
71 Bach’s petition to the Mühlhausen Consistory for permission to
resign his post is dated June 25, 1708, and is printed in full by
Spitta, i. 373. Bach mentions the Weimar post as having been
offered to him, but bases his desire to resign the organ of St.
Blasius, partly on the ground that his income was inadequate, partly
because, though he had succeeded in improving the organ and the
conditions of music generally, he saw “not the slightest appearance
that things will be altered” for the better. Mühlhausen, in fact,
was a stronghold of Pietism and unsympathetic to Bach’s musical
ideals.
72 He was Court Organist and Kammermusikus. In the latter post Bach
was of use as a Violinist and Clavier player. The Court band, or
Kapelle, on special occasions appeared in Hungarian costume, which
Bach presumably donned. His income began at a sum nearly double
that he had received at Arnstadt and Mühlhausen.
73 The character of his employer, Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Saxe-Weimar,
must be reckoned a factor in the development of the youthful Bach.
The Duke was not only a cultured artist, but was also a man of
genuine piety.
74 Though Bach retouched them in later years and wrote others, it may
be stated in general terms that his Organ works were the fruit of
the Weimar period, which lasted from 1708 till 1717.
75 Bach’s promotion to the position of Concertmeister had taken place
certainly before March 19, 1714, on which date Spitta (i. 517)
prints a letter in which Bach gives himself the title. The increase
in his income early in 1714 also supports the conclusion, while a
letter of January 14, 1714, written by Bach, is not signed by him as
Concertmeister. It would seem that his promotion took place in the
interval between the two letters. As Concertmeister it was part of
his duty to provide Cantatas for the church services. Twenty-two
were written by him at Weimar. See infra, p. 188, for a list of
them.
76 Friedrich Wilhelm Zachau died on August 7 or 14, 1712.
77 Spitta (i. 513) infers that, in the later years of the Weimar
period, Bach spent part of the autumn of every year in visits to the
Courts and larger towns of Germany in order to give Organ recitals
and to conduct performances of his Cantatas. Besides the visit to
Halle, in 1713, to which Forkel alludes, Bach performed at Cassel in
1713 or 1714 before the future Frederick I. of Sweden, who presented
him with a ring which he drew from his finger. Bach’s feet, an
admirer recorded, “flew over the pedal-board as if they had wings.”
In December 1714 he visited Leipzig and performed Cantata No. 61,
_Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland._ In 1716 he was again invited to
Halle, and at about the same time performed at Meiningen. Forkel
records the famous contest with Marchand, the French Organist, at
Dresden in 1717.
78 Forkel’s brief account follows the _Nekrolog._ Bach was in Halle in
the autumn of 1713, a year after Zachau’s death. The latter’s post
was still vacant and a new and particularly large Organ (sixty-three
speaking stops) was being erected. The authorities pressed Bach to
submit himself to the prescribed tests, and he complied so far as to
compose a Cantata and to conduct a performance of it. On his return
to Weimar he received a formal invitation to accept the post. After
some correspondence Bach refused it, partly, perhaps chiefly, on the
ground that the income was inadequate. The refusal was answered by
the groundless accusation that he had merely entertained the Halle
proposal in order to bring pressure upon Weimar for a rise of
salary. The misunderstanding was cleared away by 1716, when Bach
visited Halle again. In the interval Zachau’s post had been given
to his pupil, Gottfried Kirchhoff. The whole matter is discussed at
length in Spitta, i. 515 ff.
79 Frederick Augustus I. of Saxony was elected, as Augustus II., to the
throne of Poland in 1697. He died In 1733.
80 Louis Marchand, b. 1669, d. 1732; Organist to the French Court and
later of the Church of St. Honoré, Paris. His arrival in Dresden
was due to his being in disgrace at Versailles. Whether or not he
was offered a permanent engagement at the Saxon Court, he was
regarded as the champion of the French style, and as such the
challenge was issued to him by Bach.
81 Francois Couperin, b. 1668, d. 1733; Organist of St. Gervais, Paris.
Forkel’s judgment upon his art is not supported by modern criticism.
82 Bach, however, admired Marchand’s compositions sufficiently to give
them to his pupils. See Pirro, p. 52.
83 Jean-Baptiste Volumier, an acquaintance of Bach, according to Spitta
(i. 583). Eitner, _Quellen Lexikon._ says that he was born in Spain
and educated in France. Grove’s _Dictionary_ declares him a
Belgian. In 1709 he was appointed Concertmeister to the Saxon
Court. He died at Dresden in 1728.
84 It is more probable that Bach was at Dresden either expressly to
hear Marchand or upon one of his autumn tours.
85 Some years earlier Flemming had witnessed Handel’s triumphant
descent on the Saxon Court, but had failed to establish friendly
relations with him. See Streatfield’s _Handel_, p. 87.
86 The article on Marchand in Grove gives a different version of the
affair, based upon Joseph Fétis (1784-1871). According to this
story of the event, Bach, summoned from Weimar, attended Marchand’s
concert incognito, and after hearing Marchand perform, was invited
by Volumier to take his seat at the Clavier. Bach thereupon
repeated from memory Marchand’s theme and variations, and added
others of his own. Having ended, he handed Marchand a theme for
treatment on the Organ and challenged him to a contest. Marchand
accepted it, but left Dresden before the appointed hour.
87 The Prince was brother-in-law of Duke Ernst August of Saxe-Weimar.
Bach was, therefore, already known to him and showed the greatest
regard for him both at Cöthen and after he had left his service.
88 The reason for Bach’s migration from Weimar to Cöthen was his
failure to obtain the post of Kapellmeister at the former Court upon
the death of Johann Samuel Drese in 1716. The post was given to
Drese’s son. On August 1, 1717, just before or after his Marchand
triumph, Bach was appointed Kapellmeister to the Court of Cöthen.
Duke Wilhelm Ernst refused to release him from his engagement, and
Bach endured imprisonment from November 6 to December 2, 1717, for
demanding instant permission to take up his new post. Probably his
last work at Weimar was to put the _Orgelbüchlein_ into the form in
which it has come down to us (see articles by the present writer in
_The Musical Times_ for January-March 1917).
With his departure from Weimar in 1718 Bach left behind him the
distinctively Organ period of his musical fertility. Though his
compositions were still by no means generally known, as a player he
held an unchallenged pre-eminence.
89 He was appointed to Cöthen on August 1, 1717, and was inducted at
Leipzig on May 31, 1723.
90 The date actually was November 1720. At Cöthen Bach had an inferior
Organ and little scope for his attainments; his chief duties were in
connection with the Prince’s band. The yearning to get back to the
Organ, which eventually took him to Leipzig in 1723, shows itself in
his readiness to entertain an invitation to Hamburg in 1720.
91 Three Organ movements by Bach upon Wolfgang Dachstein’s melody, _An
Wasserflüssen Babylon,_ are extant. See notes upon them and their
relation to the Hamburg extemporisation in Terry, _Bach’s Chorals,_
Part III.
92 As at Halle in 1713, Bach does not appear to have gone to Hamburg
specially to compete for the post of Organist to the Church of St.
James, vacant by the death of Heinrich Friese in September 1720. He
was not able to stay to take part in the final tests, nor was he
asked to submit to them, since his visit to Hamburg had given him an
opportunity to display his gifts. In the result the post was given
to Johann Joachim Heitmann, who acknowledged his appointment by
forthwith paying 4000 marks to the treasury of the Church. See
Spitta, ii. 17 ff.
93 Johann Kuhnau died on June 25, 1722.
94 On the title-pages of his published works Bach describes himself as
“Capellm. und Direct. Chor. Mus. Lips.”
95 Forkel has practically nothing to say regarding the Leipzig period
of Bach’s musical life. That a professed historian of music,
setting before the public for the first time the life of one whom he
so greatly extolled, and with every inducement to present as
complete a picture of him as was possible, should have taken no
trouble to carry his investigations beyond the point C. P. E. Bach
and Agricola had reached in the _Nekrolog_ of 1754 is almost
incredible. The only reason that can be adduced, apart from the
lack of a really scientific impulse, is that Forkel was almost
entirely ignorant of the flood of concerted church music which
poured from Leipzig from 1723 to 1744. His criticism of Bach as a
composer is restricted practically to Bach’s Organ and Clavier
works.
96 On November 19, 1728. Latterly his interest in music had waned.
The fact, along with Bach’s concern for the education of his sons
and his desire to return to the Organ, explains his abandonment of
the more dignified Cöthen appointment.
97 The score of this work was in Forkel’s possession, but was missing
from his library in 1818 and was assumed to be lost until, in 1873,
Rust was able to show that Bach used for the occasion certain
choruses and Arias from the _St. Matthew Passion,_ which he was then
writing, with the first chorus of the _Trauer-Ode_ as an opening of
the extemporised work. See Spitta, ii. 618; Schweitzer, ii. 208.
98 In 1723 he received the title Hochfürstlich Weissenfelsische
wirkliche Kapellmeister and retained it till his death. He retained
also his Cöthen appointment.
99 Augustus III. Bach had petitioned for the appointment in a letter
dated July 27, 1733 (Spitta, iii. 38), forwarding a copy of the
newly-written Kyrie and Gloria of the B minor Mass.
100 There does not appear to be any ground for the suggestion that the
post of Hofcomponist to the Dresden Court was attached ex officio to
the St. Thomas’ Cantorate. Bach applied for it in 1733, taking
advantage of the recent accession of the new sovereign, Augustus
III., in February 1733.
101 Friedemann was then at Halle.
102 May 7, 1747, according to Spitta, quoting Friedrich Wilhelm
Marpurg’s _Historisch-kritische Beyträge zur Aufnahme der Musik,_
which appeared in 5 vols. between 1754-1778. On the other hand,
Spener, who first records the event, states briefly: “May 11,1747.
His Majesty was informed that Kapellmeister Bach had arrived in
Potsdam, and that he was in the King’s ante-chamber, waiting His
Majesty’s gracious permission to enter, and hear the music. His
Majesty at once commanded that he should be admitted” (Spitta, iii.
231 n.). If the Marpurg and Spener dates are reliable, it looks as
though Friedemann’s story of his father, travel-stained and weary,
being hurried incontinent into the presence of the King is a piece
of picturesque embroidery.
103 Clearly this was a story that Wilhelm Friedemann prided himself on
the telling, and Forkel’s remark suggests the need for caution in
accepting all its details. Frederick’s courtesy to Bach, however,
tends to discredit the story that ten years earlier (1737) Handel
deliberately refused to meet the King at Aix-la-Chapelle owing to
the peremptoriness of his summons. Mr. Streatfleld (p. 145) also
shows that Frederick was not at Aix until 1741, when Handel was
writing the _Messiah_ in London.
104 Gottfried Silbermann, a pioneer of the modern pianoforte. Bach was
already familiar with his Claviers with hammer action, and indeed
had offered useful criticism of which Silbermann had taken
advantage. See Spitta, ii. 46.
105 * The pianofortes manufactured by Silbermann, of Freiberg, pleased
the King so much, that he resolved to buy them all. He collected
fifteen. I hear that they all now stand, unfit for use, in various
corners of the Royal Palace. [Robert Eitner, in 1873, found one of
the pianos in Frederick the Great’s room at Potsdam.]
106 According to another account, which Spitta (iii. 232) follows, Bach
played before a large congregation in the Church of the Holy Spirit,
Potsdam. The King does not appear to have been present. The
extemporisation of the six-part Fugue took place in Frederick’s
presence on the evening of that day.
107 Bach’s letter to Frederick accompanying the gift is dated 7th July
1747. He calls it “a musical offering, of which the noblest portion
is the work of Your Majesty’s illustrious hand.” In addition to
Forkel’s analysis it contains a Sonata for Flute, Violin, and
Clavier, and a canon perpetuus for the same three instruments.
108 John Taylor (1703-72), oculist to George II. The operation took
place in the winter of 1749-50. Taylor is said to have operated on
Handel in 1751 (see the article on him in the _Dict. Nat.
Biography._). Streatfield (_Handel,_ p. 212), however, does not
mention Taylor, and his account suggests that Samuel Sharp, of Guy’s
Hospital, was the operator in Handel’s case.
109 The actual date was July 28, at 8.45 P.M. Bach was working to the
very moment of his collapse on July 18. Probably his last work was
the Choral Prelude (Novello bk. xvii. 85) on the melody _Wenn wir in
höchsten Nöthen sein._ Facing eternity, he bade his son-in-law,
Altnikol, inscribe the movement with the title of the Hymn, _Vor
deinen Thron tret ich hiemit,_ whose first stanza filled his mind:
Before Thy throne, my God, I stand,
Myself, my all, are in Thy hand.
An addendum to the Genealogy, in C. P. E. Bach’s hand, gives July 30
as the date of his father’s death.
110 July 18.
111 See Genealogical Tables VII. and VIII.
112 The statement is misleading. Of the five sons of the first
marriage, two were famous, two died in infancy, and the fifth
abandoned a promising musical career for the law. Of the six sons of
the second marriage, one was imbecile, three died in infancy, two
were famous.
113 See Introduction, p. XXI, supra.
114 In view of Bach’s memorial of August 23, 1730 (infra), this seems to
be the meaning of the resolution.
_ 115 Steigt freudig in die Luft,_ first performed at Cöthen, set to a
new text, _Schwingt freudig euch empor._
116 The well-known portrait by C. F. Rr. Liszewski in the Joachimsthal
Gymnasium, Berlin, was painted in 1772, twenty-two years after
Bach’s death. It represents him at a table with music-paper before
him and an adjacent Clavier. Pirro uses for his frontispiece a
portrait by Geber, which bears no resemblance whatever to the
Haussmann or Volbach pictures. Mention must also be made of a
singularly engaging picture of Bach at the age of thirty-five. It
hangs in the Eisenach Bach Museum and is by Johann Jak. Ihle. It is
reproduced as the frontispiece of this volume.
117 His _Versuch über die wahre Art des Klavier zu spielen_ was
published (Part I.) in 1753.
118 Forkel’s meaning can be made clear in the following manner: place
the thumb and fingers of either hand upon the notes C D E F G of the
pianoforte so that the three middle fingers lie more or less flat
upon the keys; then draw back the three middle fingers until they
form an arch having their tips approximately in a straight line with
the tips of the thumb and little finger upon the keys.
119 It must be remembered that Forkel is speaking of the Clavier and not
of the Pianoforte.
120 The Harpsichord, as its name implies, was an instrument whose
strings were plucked by a plectrum. Bach preferred the older
Clavier, or Clavichord, which could be regulated, as the other could
not, by nicety of touch. See note, p. 68, infra.
121 Schweitzer (i. 208) points out that Bach’s touch was modern, in that
he realised that “singing tone” depends not only upon the manner in
which the keys are struck, but, to a great extent, on the regulation
of their ascent.
Of Handel’s touch, Burney writes (quoted by Rockstro, p. 349): “His
touch was so smooth, and the tone of the instrument so much
cherished, that his fingers seemed to grow to the keys. They were
so curved and compact when he played, that no motion, and scarcely
the fingers themselves, could be discovered.”
122 At the beginning of the seventeenth century, as Spitta points out
(ii. 34), the art of fingering had not developed. Speaking
generally, neither thumb nor little finger was employed. It was not
until the beginning of the eighteenth century that a scientific
method emerged, a development rendered necessary by the advance in
the modes of musical expression. C. P. E. Bach, quoted by
Schweitzer (i. 206), puts this concisely: “My late father told me
that in his youth he had heard great men who never used the thumb
except when it was necessary to make big stretches. But he lived in
an epoch when there came about gradually a most remarkable change in
musical taste, and therefore found it necessary to work out for
himself a much more thorough use of the fingers, and especially of
the thumb, which, besides performing other good services, is quite
indispensable in the difficult keys, where it must be used as nature
intends.”
123 According to Mr. Arnold Dolmetsch, Clavichords with special strings
for each note (bundfrei) were known in Bach’s time.
124 In the _Essay_ already referred to. For a discussion of Couperin’s
method see Spitta, ii. 37 ff.
125 For instance, the Rondeau in B flat in Anna Magdalena’s _Noten-
buch_ (No. 6) (1725) is by Couperin.
126 No doubt the friend who prepared this trap for Bach was Johann
Gottfried Walther. His compositions frequently were characterised
by intricacy.
127 Mozart had the same gift. When visiting St. Thomas’ School in 1789,
he heard with astonishment a performance of Bach’s Motet, _ Singet
dem Herrn ein neues Lied._ “At the conclusion he expressed his
delight, and said, ‘Now that is something from which a man may
learn.’ On being informed that Bach was Cantor to this school, and
that his Motets were venerated there as reliques, he was eager to
see them. No score being to be obtained, they handed him the
separate parts, and it was interesting to observe his manner of
reading them, holding some in his hands, some on his knees, placing
some on chairs around him; seeming thoroughly lost to everything,
and not rising till he had thoroughly satisfied his curiosity”
(Holmes, _Life of Mozart,_ ed. Dent, p. 251).
128 There were in Bach’s time three “Clavier” instruments in use. The
oldest, the Clavichord, as a rule, had two strings to every note,
set in motion by a “tangent” striking them from below. Its
advantage was that it permitted the tone to be regulated by the
touch. For that reason, though its tone was weak, Bach preferred
it. The Clavicembalo, or Harpsichord, as it is called in the text,
was in general known as the “Flügel,” the strings being plucked, or
flipped by a quill or metal pin, after the manner of the modern
mandoline. The third instrument was the “piano e forte,” or
Hammerclavier. The Clavicembalo was also built with two keyboards,
like an Organ, and a pedal-board provided with strings. It was for
this instrument that the so-called Organ Sonatas of Bach were
written. He possessed five Clavicembali, but not a single
Clavichord at the time of his death. For that reason it has been
questioned whether Forkel is accurate in stating that Bach preferred
the latter instrument. See Schweitzer, i. 200 ff.
129 Peters bk. 207 p. 4.
130 The truth of this remark is very evident in the _Orgelbüchlein._
131 Forkel writes as though he were in a position by personal knowledge
to compare the gifts of Bach and his son. In fact he was born in
1749 and was less than two years old when Bach died.
132 On Bach’s use of the stops see Spitta, i. 394 ff., and Pirro’s
_L’Orgue de J.-S. Bach._
133 Johann Joachim Quantz, b. 1697; flute player and composer; taught
Frederick the Great the flute; settled at Berlin as Kammer-musikus
and Court Composer; d. 1773.
134 The _Nekrolog_ sums up more briefly than Forkel, in a judgment
which, without doubt, is the very truth: “Bach was the greatest
Organ player that had yet been known.”
135 Johann Adolph Scheibe, a native of Leipzig, was an unsuccessful
candidate for the Organistship of St. Thomas’ Church in 1729. Bach
was one of the judges. In 1737 Scheibe published in the “Kritische
Musikus” a criticism of Bach which, while doing justice to his
powers as an organist, characterised his compositions as “turgid and
confused in character.” Bach was incensed by the criticism and
asked his friend, Professor Birnbaum of Leipzig, to answer it.
Scheibe replied in 1739, with a wholly unjustified challenge of
Bach’s general education and culture. In his “Phoebus and Pan,”
performed in 1731, Bach had already had the satisfaction of
representing Scheibe as “Midas” and calling him an ass. On the
whole matter see Schweitzer, i. 178 ff. and Spitta, iii. 252.
Scheibe conducted the Court orchestra at Copenhagen from 1742-49 and
died there in 1776.
136 Georg Andreas Sorge, “Court and Town Organist to the Count of Reuss
and Plau at Lobenstein,” in his dedication thus commended Bach: “The
great musical virtue that Your Excellency possesses is embellished
with the excellent virtue of affability and unfeigned love of your
neighbour.” See Schweitzer, i. 155.
137 The following passage from the Autobiography of Hector Berlioz (ed.
Dent, p. 11) is relevant: “My father would never let me learn the
piano; if he had, no doubt I should have joined the noble army of
piano thumpers…Sometimes I regret my ignorance, yet, when I think of
the ghastly heap of platitudes for which that unfortunate piano is
made the daily excuse—insipid, shameless productions, that would be
impossible if their perpetrators had to rely, as they ought, on
pencil and paper alone—then I thank the fates for having forced me
to compose silently and freely by saving me from the tyranny of
finger-work, that grave of original thought.”
138 Antonio Vivaldi, A. 1743; a master of form. That fact turned the
attention of German composers to him; while the popularity of his
Violin Concertos also attracted musicians, like Bach, whose work at
Cöthen was in close association with the Court Kapelle or band.
139 Bach re-wrote sixteen Vivaldi Violin Concertos for the Clavier, four
of them for the Organ, and developed one into a Concerto for four
Claviers and a quartet of strings which Forkel enumerates ( infra,
p. 132) as a composition of Bach’s (Peters bk. 260). Bach learnt
from Vivaldi “clearness and plasticity of musical structure.” See
article _Vivaldi_ in Grove; Spitta, i. 411 ff; Schweitzer, i. 192
ff. The Vivaldi Clavier Concertos are in Peters bk. 217; the Organ
Concertos in Novello bk. 11. Not all these transcriptions are based
on Vivaldi. See Schweitzer, i. 193.
140 Girolamo Frescobaldi, b. 1583, d. 1644; Organist of St. Peter’s,
Rome.
141 Delphin Strungk, b. 1601, d. 1694; Organist of St. Martin’s,
Brunswick; composed for the Organ.
142 Purcell should be added to those whom Forkel mentions as Bach’s
models. See infra, p. 261.
143 * See Kirnberger’s “Kunst des reinen Satzes,” p. 157. [The work was
published in two volumes at Berlin in 1771, 1776.]
144 Transitus regularis= a passing note on the unaccented portions of
the bar; transitut irregularis=a passing note on the accented part
of the bar.
145 Spitta (iii. 315 ff. ) prints a treatise by Bach, _Rules and
Instructions for playing Thorough-bass or Accompaniment in Four
Parts,_ dated 1738. Rule 3 of chap. vi. states: “Two fifths or two
octaves must not occur next one another, for this is not only a
fault, but it sounds wrong. To avoid this there is an old rule,
that the hands must always go against one another, so that when the
left goes up the right must go down, and when the right goes up the
left must go down.”
146 Actually the third beat of the fourth bar from the end. P. bk. 1 p.
37 Fugue no. 9.
147 Forkel edited the _Wohltemperirte Clavier_ for Hoffmeister in 1801.
148 The rule is not in the _Rules and Instructions_ already referred to.
149 Suite No. 6, in D minor (P. bk. 204 p. 84).
150 * Many people hold the opinion that the best melody is one which the
largest number of persons can understand and sing. But this cannot
be admitted, for if it were true, popular airs which are sung up and
down the country by all classes, even the lowest, must be accounted
the finest and best. I should be inclined to state the proposition
conversely: a melody which attracts everybody is invariably of the
most ordinary kind. In that form the statement might, perhaps, pass
as a principle.
151 Forkel alludes to the _Goldberg Variations_ (P. bk. 209).
152 P. bks. 205, 206.
153 P. bks. 203, 204.
154 P. bk. 207.
155 Bach wrote three Suites (Partita) and three Sonatas for Solo Violin.
They date from about 1720 and are in the keys of G minor, B minor, A
minor, D minor, C major, and E major (P. bk. 228). The six
Violoncello Suites date from the same period and are in G major, D
minor, C major, E flat major, C minor, and D major (P. bks. 238a,
238b).
156 Reinhard Keiser, b. 1673, d. 1739; scholar of the Leipzig
Thomas-schule; settled at Hamburg, 1694; composed a number of
Operas, and for a time had a great vogue.
157 It was precisely his agreeable operatic Arias that expressed
Handel’s genius in the eyes of his generation. With rare exceptions
that branch of his work is obsolete and his cult survives mainly in
the _Messiah,_ which supports his quite posthumous reputation as
“musician in ordinary to the Protestant religion.” See Mr. R. A.
Streatfield’s _Handel,_ Introduction.
158 Schweitzer advances the opinion, which may perhaps be challenged,
that inevitable and natural as Bach’s melodies are, they do not give
the impression of “effortless invention.” Bach, he holds, worked
like a mathematician, who sees the whole of a problem at once, and
has only to realise it in definite values. Hence, he agrees with
Spitta, Bach’s way of working was quite different from Beethoven’s.
With Beethoven the work developed by means of episodes that are
independent of the theme. With Bach everything springs with
mathematical certainty from the theme itself. See Schweitzer (i.
211) on Bach’s methods of working.
159 Johann Sebastian Bach’s _Vierstimmige Choralgesänge_ were published
in 1765 and 1769. C. P. E. Bach was concerned only with the first
volume. Forkel perhaps refers to an edition of the _Choralgesänge _
issued by Breitkopf in four parts at Leipzig in 1784, 1785, 1786,
and 1787, and edited by C. P. E. Bach.
160 Forkel indicates the period 1720-1750. But in 1720 Bach had already
completed the _Orgelbüchlein_ and the greater part of his Organ
works.
161 * There are people who conclude that Bach merely perfected harmony.
But if we realise what harmony is, a means to extend and emphasise
musical expression, we cannot imagine it apart from melody. And
when, as in Bach’s case, harmony is actually an association of
melodies, such a view becomes the more ridiculous. It might perhaps
be reasonable to say of a composer that his influence was restricted
to the sphere of melody, because we may get melody without harmony.
But there cannot be real harmony without melody. Hence the composer
who has perfected harmony has influenced the whole, whereas the
melodist has left his mark only on a fraction of his art.
162 As has been pointed out already (supra, p. 14) Bach’s earliest
church Cantatas date from the Arnstadt period.
163 The statement certainly needs a caveat. No composer of his period
studied his text more closely or reverently than Bach. No one, on
the other hand, was more readily fired by a particular word or image
in his text to give it sometimes irrelevant expression.
164 Of Bach’s church Cantatas 206 have survived. In only 22 of them
does Bach fail to introduce movements based upon the Lutheran
Chorals.
165 We must attribute to Forkel’s general ignorance of Bach’s concerted
church music his failure to comment upon a much more remarkable
feature of the recitatives, namely, their unique treatment of the
human voice as a declamatory medium, a development as remarkable as
Wagner’s innovations in operatic form a century later.
166 It was not the imperfections of the choir but the indifference of
Bach’s successors at St. Thomas’, Leipzig, that was chiefly
responsible for the neglect of his Cantatas in the latter half of
the eighteenth century. Johann Friedrich Doles (1716-89) was the
only Cantor who realised the greatness of his predecessor’s
concerted church music.
167 The _Trauer-Ode_ was performed on October 17, 1727. Bach finished
the score two days before the performance! A parallel case is that
of Mozart, who finished the overture of _Don Giovanni_ on the
morning of the first performance of the Opera, and actually played
it unrehearsed that evening.
168 It has been pointed out already that Bach used the _St. Matthew
Passion_ music, set to other words, for the occasion. No. 26 (“I
would beside my Lord be watching”) was sung to the words “Go,
Leopold, to thy rest”!
169 Of the 206 surviving Cantatas, 172 were written for the Leipzig
choir.
170 Forkel’s knowledge is very incomplete.
171 Elsewhere Forkel mentions only one of the secular Cantatas.
172 There is a tradition that Bach wrote a comic song, _Ihr Schönen,
höret an,_ which was widely current about the time of his death
(Spitta, iii. 181 n.). The Aria, _So oft ich meine Tabakspfeife,_ in
A. M. Bach’s _Notenbuch_ of 1725, should be mentioned. See B. G.
xxxix. sec. 4.
173 Bach’s method has come down to us in treatises by two of his pupils,
C. P. E. Bach’s _Essay_ and Kirnberger’s _Die Kunst des reinen
Satzes in der Musik,_ to which reference has been made already.
174 Supra, p. 60.
175 Bach wrote eighteen Preludes for Beginners. They are all in P. bk.
200.
176 Most of these movements, which Bach called indifferently
“Inventions” (ideas) and “Praeambula” (Preludes), were written in
1723. They are in P. bk. 201.
177 Heinrich Nikolaus Gerber, who was Bach’s pupil from 1724 to 1727,
particularly emphasises this feature of Bach’s teaching.
178 See on the whole matter Spitta, iii. 117 ff. Bach’s method is
illustrated by his _Rules and Instructions_ (1738) printed by
Spitta, iii. 315 ff., and also by the _Einige höchst nöthinge
Regeln_ at the end of A. M. Bach’s _Notenbuch_ (1725).
179 Mozart wrote as follows to a correspondent who asked him what his
method of composition was: “I can really say no more on this subject
than the following; for I myself know no more about it, and cannot
account for it. When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely
alone, and of good cheer—say, travelling in a carriage, or walking
after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep; it is on
such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. _Whence_
and _how_ they come, I know not; nor can I force them. Those ideas
that please me I retain in memory, and am accustomed, as I have been
told, to hum them to myself. If I continue in this way, it soon
occurs to me how I may turn this or that morsel to account, so as to
make a good dish of it, that is to say, agreeably to the rules of
counterpoint, to the peculiarities of the various instruments, etc.
All this fires my soul, and, provided I am not disturbed, my subject
enlarges itself, becomes methodised and defined, and the whole,
though it be long, stands almost complete and finished in my mind,
so that I can survey it, like a fine picture or a beautiful statue,
at a glance. Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts
successively, but I hear them, as it were, all together. What a
delight this is I cannot tell!…When I proceed to write down my
ideas, I take out of the bag of my memory, if I may use that phrase,
what has previously been collected into it in the way I have
mentioned. For this reason the committing to paper is done quickly
enough, for everything is, as I said before, already finished; and
it rarely differs on paper from what it was in my imagination”
(Life, ed. Dent, p. 255).
Wagner, writing in 1851 to Uhlig, who could not understand how the
libretto of _Young Siegfried_ could be set to music, expresses the
same idea as Mozart: “What you cannot possibly imagine is a-making
of itself! I tell you, the musical phrases build themselves on
these verses and periods without my having to trouble at all;
everything springs as if wild from the ground” (Life, trans. Ellis,
iii. p. 243).
Schumann writes in 1839: “I used to rack my brains for a long time,
but now I scarcely ever scratch out a note. It all comes from
within, and I often feel as if I could go on playing without ever
coming to an end” (Grove, vol. iv. p. 353).
180 Angela Berardi’s _Documenti armonici. Nelli quali con varii
discorsi, regole, ed essempii si dimonstrano gli studii arteficiosi
della musica_ was published at Bologna in 1687.
181 Giovanni Maria Buononcini, b. c. 1640, d. 1678; Maestro di Capella
at Modena; published his _Musico prattico_ at Bologna in 1673, 1688.
182 Johann Joseph Fux, b. 1660, d. 1741; Kapellmeister at Vienna;
published his _Gradus ad Parnassum_ at Vienna in 1725.
183 See supra, p. 74.
184 * I speak here only of those pupils who made music their profession.
But, besides these, Bach had a great many other pupils. Every
dilettante in the neighbourhood desired to boast of the instruction
of so great and celebrated a man. Many gave themselves out to have
been his pupils who had never been taught by him.
185 See Spitta, i. 522; Schweitzer, i. 214 for farther details regarding
Vogler, who died circ. 1765.
186 Gottfried August Homilius, b. 1714, d. 1785; pupil of Bach, circ.
1735. Cantor of the Kreuzschule, Dresden.
187 Christoph Transchel (1721-1800) taught music at Leipzig and Dresden;
Bach’s pupil and friend, circ. 1742. See Spitta, iii. 245.
188 Johann Gottlieb (or Theophilus) Goldberg, clavicenist to Count
Kaiserling (infra, p. 119) for whom Bach wrote the so-called
_Goldberg Variations._ He was born circ. 1720 and was a pupil of
Bach from 1733-46.
189 Johann Ludwig Krebs, b. 1713, d. 1780; Bach’s pupil, 1726-35. Bach
said of him that he was “the best crab (Krebs) in the brook (Bach).”
190 Johann Christoph Altnikol, d. 1759.
191 Johann Friedrich Agricola, b. 1720, d. 1774; pupil of Bach circ.
1738-41; Director of the Royal Chapel, Berlin.
192 Pier Francesco Tosi, b. circ. 1650; singing master in London. His
_Opinioni de’ canton antichi e moderni, o sieno osservazioni sopra
il canto figurato_ was published at Bologna in 1723.
193 Johann Gottfried Müthel, b. circ. 1720, d. circ. 1790; pupil of Bach
in 1750 and resident in his house at the time of his death; organist
of the Lutheran Church, Riga.
194 Johann Philipp Kirnberger, b. 1721, d. 1783; Bach’s pupil, 1739-41.
195 Louisa Amalia, of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, wife of Frederick the
Great’s brother, and mother of his successor, Frederick William II.
(1786-97).
196 The second work was published in 1773 at Berlin. For the first, see
supra, p. 74.
197 Johann Christian Kittel, b. 1732, d. 1809; one of Bach’s latest
pupils; Organist of the Predigerkirche, Erfurt. He is said to have
possessed a portrait of his master and to have rewarded his pupils
for good playing by drawing the curtain which usually covered the
picture and permitting them to look upon it. It is, perhaps, the
portrait, recently discovered by Dr. Fritz Volbach, which is
reproduced at p. 92 of this volume.
198 Nothing seems to be known of him.
199 Johann Martin Schubart succeeded Bach at Weimar in 1717. He was
born in 1690 and died in 1721. See Spitta, i. 343.
200 In addition to those mentioned by Forkel, the following pupils of
Bach are known: Johann Gotthilf Ziegler, of St. Ulrich’s Church,
Halle; J. Bernhard Bach, of Ohrdruf; Heinrich Nikolaus Gerber,
Organist at Sondershausen; Samuel Anton Bach, of Meiningen; Johann
Ernst Bach, of Saxe-Weimar; Johann Elias Bach, Cantor at
Schweinfurt; Johann Tobias Krebs, organist at Buttelstädt, and his
sons, Johann Ludwig, Johann Tobias, and Johann Carl; Johann
Schneider, organist of St. Nicolas’, Leipzig; Georg Friedrich
Einicke, Cantor at Frankenhausen; Johann Friedrich Doles, Bach’s
second successor in the Cantorate of St. Thomas’; Rudolph Straube,
who afterwards settled in England; Christoph Nichelmann, cembalist
to Frederick the Great; Christian Gräbner, and Carl Hartwig.
For full information upon Bach’s pupils see Spitta, i. 522 ff., ii.
47 ff., iii. 116 ff., 239 ff., and the relative articles in Grove’s
_Dictionary._
201 Forkel does not do justice to his friend. C. P. E. Bach is
recognised as the immediate precursor of Haydn and as the link
between the latter and J. S. Bach.
202 Mozart had a very particular regard for him. See Schweitzer i. 220
on his brothers’ abilities as composers.
203 Spitta (iii. 262) quotes a characteristic anecdote. To some one who
praised his skill on the Organ Bach replied: “There is nothing
wonderful about it. You merely strike the right note at the right
moment and the Organ does the rest.”
204 See supra, p. 19. Bach himself certainly was the challenger.
205 When Handel was at Venice in 1708, Domenico Scarlatti, hearing a
stranger touching the Harpsichord at a masquerade, exclaimed, “That
must either be the famous Saxon or the Devil” (Rockstro’s _George
Frederick Handel,_ p. 48). Streatfield (p. 145) mentions a similar
event which took place in 1737. Hearing a stranger playing a Fugue
in one of the Flemish churches, the organist embraced him, saying,
“You can be no other but the great Handel.”
206 Heinrich Lorenz Hurlebusch was organist of three churches in
Brunswick. His visit to Bach took place in 1730, seemingly. See
Schweitzer, i. 154.
207 Schweitzer prints an appreciation of Hurlebusch which suggests that
he was a man of distinct ability and “a paragon of politeness.”
208 Antonio Caldara, b. circ. 1670; vice-Kapellmeister at Vienna,
1716-36; d. 1736.
209 Johann Adolph Hasse, b. 1699, d. 1783; Kapellmeister and Director of
the Opera, Dresden.
210 Johann Gottlieb Graun, b. circ. 1698, d. 1771; conductor of the
royal Kapelle, Berlin.
Carl Heinrich Graun, b. 1701, d. 1759; like his brother, in
Frederick the Great’s service.
211 Georg Philipp Telemann, b. 1681, d. 1767; Cantor and Musik-direktor
in Hamburg.
212 Johann Dismas Zelenka, b. 1679 or 1681, d. 1745; Court Composer at
Dresden.
213 Franz Benda, b. 1709, d. 1786; Concertmeister to Frederick the Great
upon the death of J. G. Graun.
214 On Telemann’s influence on Bach see Spitta, ii. 437.
215 Handel’s second visit to Halle took place in June 1729. His
mother’s illness detained him. See Streatfield, p. 110.
216 Handel’s third visit took place in July-August 1760. He was laid up
by a severe accident in the course of it, and appears to have not
recovered from it at the time of Bach’s death.
217 Faustina Bordoni, b. 1693, d. 1783; m. Hasse in 1730. She was one
of the most famous singers of the day.
218 The original has “Liederchen.”
219 See supra, p. 37. Compare Handel’s case. He received a royal
pension of £600 per annum, and though he was twice a bankrupt, left
£20,000.
220 The Duke was the nephew of, and succeeded, Duke Wilhelm Ernst in
1728.
221 The Canonic Variations on the melody are published by Novello bk.
19, p. 73. For the Mizler Society, see supra, p. xxiv.
222 Spitta (iii. 294) regards the statement as incorrect and holds that
the work was engraved before Bach joined Mizler’s Society in June
1747. Pirro (p. 215) supports Spitta and regards the Variations as
having been engraved at Nürnberg “vers 1746.”
223 The first of Bach’s works to be engraved was the Mühlhausen Cantata,
_Gott ist mein König,_ (parts only). It was published in 1708, when
Bach was twenty-three years old. Forkel refers to Partita I. in the
first Part of the _Clavierübung_ (P. bk. 205 p. 4). It was engraved
in 1726, when Bach was forty-one years old. In 1731 he republished
it, with five others that had appeared in the interval, in the first
Part of the _Clavierübung_ (P. bks. 205, 206).
224 Forkel’s rather casual critical axioms seem to be as follows:
“Publication postulates excellence”; “An amended MS. implies that
the original text was not a finished work of art.”
225 It was the first work engraved by Bach himself, though the parts of
the Cantata _Gott ist mein König_ had been published by the Town
Council at Mühlhausen in 1708.
226 The work was published at Leipzig “in Commission bey Boetii Seel,
hinderlassenen Tochter, unter den Rath-hause.” The Suites, or
Partitas (P. bks. 205, 206), are in B flat major, C minor, A minor,
D major, G major, E minor.
227 In 1801 Hoffmeister and Kühnel unsuccessfully attempted to publish
Bach’s works by subscription.
228 The Partita in B minor (P. bk. 208 p. 20).
229 The work was published in 1735. The Italian Concerto in F major is
published by Novello and P. bk. 207.
230 The work appeared in 1739. It was intended to contain works for the
Organ only; the four Duetti are incongruous and seem to have crept
in by mistake. See the scheme of the work discussed in Terry,
_Bach’s Chorals,_ Part III. The Choral Preludes are in Novello’s
ed., bk. xvi.
231 The work was published circ. 1747-50. Five of the six movements
certainly, and the sixth with practical certainty, are adaptations
to the Organ of movements out of Bach’s Church Cantatas. See Parry,
_Bach,_ p. 535. The Chorals are in Novello’s ed., bk. xvi.
232 See supra, p. 65.
233 Thus the pedal sounds above the part given to the second manual and
is often the topmost part. See Novello’s ed., bk. xvi. 4.
234 Published circ. 1742; the so-called “Goldberg Variations.” They are
in P. bk. 209.
235 Variation No. 10 is a Fughetta in four parts.
236 Ten of the Variations are marked “a 2 Clav.,” that is, for two
keyboards or manuals: Nos. 8, 11, 13, 14, 17, 20, 23, 25, 26, 28.
Nos. 5, 7, 29 are marked “a 1 ovvero 2 Clav.”
237 The movement is constructed upon two merry folk-songs, _Kraut and
Rüben haben mich vertrieben,_ and _Ich bin so lang nicht bei dir
gewirt_.
238 See supra, p. 101.
239 In fact Bach wrote the early _Aria variata alla maniera Italiana_
(Peters bk. 215, p. 12) for the Clavier. For the Organ he wrote
four sets of Variations upon as many Choral melodies (Novello bk.
xix.). But all except the Goldberg Variations are youthful works,
and in his maturity Bach clearly had no liking for the form. The
theme of the Goldberg Variations, moreover, is itself a youthful
idea; at least it dates back to as early as 1725, and is found in A.
M. Bach’s _Notenbuch_ (No. 26, Aria in G major).
240 There is no reference to these corrigenda in the B. G. edition.
241 The work has been referred to already in connection with Bach’s
membership of Mizler’s Society (supra, p. 112). It was composed
presumably circ. 1746 and in point of technical skill is the most
brilliant of Bach’s instrumental works. Forkel states that it was
engraved after June 1747, when Bach joined Mizler’s Society. Spitta
(iii. 295) is of opinion that it was already engraved by then. It
is in bk. xix. of Novello’s edition.
242 Supra, p. 25.
243 The presentation copy of the work, which Bach sent to Frederick
along with a dedicatory letter (July 7, 1747), is in the Berlin
Amalienbibliothek and proves that only the first third of the work,
as far as the “Ricercare a sei voci” (see B.G. XXXI. (2)) was sent
then. The latter and the remaining canons were dispatched
subsequently probably by the hand of C. P. E. Bach. The six-part
Ricercare was a particular compliment to the King. Frederick had
desired Bach on his visit to play a Fugue in six parts but left it
to the player to select his theme. Bach now employed the thema
regium for the purpose. The first reissue of the work was by
Breitkopf and Haertel in 1832. Peters (bk. 219) brought it out in
1866. See Schweitzer, i. 417 IV. and Spitta, iii. 191 ff. and 292.
244 In C minor (P. bk. 237 p. 3).
245 The statement is inaccurate. The work was written for the most part
in 1749 and the greater part of it was prepared for engraving by
Bach himself during his last illness. None of his elder sons was
with him at his death, and the blunders that disfigure the engraved
copy show that they clumsily finished their father’s work. It is in
P. bk. 218.
246 Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg, b. 1718, d. 1795.
247 The work was published shortly after Bach’s death, but had no sale.
C. P. E. Bach then commissioned Marpurg to write a preface, and the
new edition was published at the Leipzig Fair, Easter, 1762. In
four years only about thirty copies were sold. See Spitta, iii. 197
ff. and Schweitzer, i. 423 ff.
248 In 1756. See C. P. E. Bach’s advertisement in Felix Grenier, p.
232.
249 The work contains six Fugues and four canons upon the same theme; an
unfinished Fugue “a tre soggetti,” the first four notes of the third
of which spell B A C H; and the Choral Prelude “Wenn wir in höchsten
Nöthen sein.”
250 Schweitzer explains: “His purpose in this work being a purely
theoretical one, Bach writes the Fugues out in score, and calls them
‘counterpoints’ ”
[ 251 B A C H in German musical notation]
252 Supra, p. 27. The movement is in N. bk. 17 p. 85. It is not
certain that Bach intended the Prelude or the unfinished Fugue to be
included.
253 C. P. E. Bach was only concerned with the first volume. Erk, in his
edition of the _Choralgesänge,_ conjectures that Kirnberger was
responsible for the second.
254 The four volumes were published at Leipzig between 1784-87. Spitta
states that C. P. E. Bach was the editor. Erk joins Kirnberger with
him in that position. As C. P. E. Bach died in 1788 Kirnberger’s
association with the work is probable, especially if he had already
been responsible for the 1769 volume.
255 Bach’s Clavier school consisted of eighteen Preludes for beginners
(all in B.G. XXXVI.); the two-part and three-part Inventions; and
the _Well-tempered Clavier._ The six Preludes mentioned by Forkel,
and which alone he knew, were published by him for the first time.
Seven more are found in Wilhelm Friedemann’s _Clavierbüchlein_ (B.G.
XLV. (1)), and the remaining five have survived in texts handed down
by others of Bach’s pupils. The eighteen are in P. bk. 200.
256 The Autograph was written at Cöthen and is dated 1723. It also
contains the fifteen Symphonies, or three-part Inventions mentioned
in paragraph 3. Both Inventions and Symphonies are in F. bk. 201.
According to Spitta (ii. 57 n.) the Inventions were published at
Leipzig in 1763. See also Schweitzer, i. 328 ff.
257 See the previous note.
258 The second Part was compiled in 1744 and Bach’s Autograph of it,
though not the earliest Autograph, is in the British Museum. See
Schweitzer, i. 331 ff. and Spitta, ii. 161 ff. The whole work is in
P. bks. 1, 2; or 1a, 1b; or 2790a, 2790b.
259 No. 20. Spitta (ii. 164) attributes it to the years 1707 or 1708.
Schweitzer (i. 332) also regards it as a youthful piece written,
moreover, for the pedal Clavicembalo.
260 Nos. 15 and 16. Spitta, admitting that the two do not rank with the
most interesting in the collection, finds no indication of their
being of different date from the best movements.
261 No. 1. Here Spitta (ii. 165 n.) challenges Forkel.
262 Nos. 11 and 12. In regard to No. 12 (F minor) Spitta holds Forkel
to be in error. As to No. 11, he expresses the same opinion as in
note 3, supra.
263 The date 1744 places the second Part among Bach’s latest
compositions. On the other hand, like the first Part, it contained
work of earlier date.
264 Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor (P. bk. 207 p. 4). It
probably dates from circ. 1720-23.
265 The MS. was discovered in 1876 and is now at Dresden. It was written
circ. 1738 and disproves Forkel’s conjecture that the fugue did not
belong to the Fantasia and is only partially by Bach. The Fugue
contains forty-seven bars. As the Autograph is a fair copy the
Fugue cannot be called unfinished. See Spitta, iii. 182. The
Fantasia is in P. bk. 207 p. 50; the Fugue in P. bk. 212 p. 88. See
B.C. xxxvi., xxxviii., and xlii. for other Clavier Fantasias.
266 The true explanation seems to be that the Prelude of the first Suite
(A major) is based upon a Gigue by Charles Dieupart (d. circ. 1740),
a popular teacher and composer in England. The words fait pour les
Anglois, which head the A major Suite in an early MS., have been
wrongly interpreted as applying to the whole set of six. They
merely indicate Dieupart’s borrowed Gigue. See Grove, vol. i. 701,
and Parry, _J. S. Bach,_ p. 463. A copy of the work exists, of date
1724-27, made by one of Bach’s pupils. But the composition of the
Suites may certainly be assigned to the Cöthen period. They are
published in P. bks. 203, 204.
267 The French Suites undoubtedly date back to the Cöthen period, since
they figure, though incomplete, in the _Notenbuch_ of A. M. Bach
(1722). They are published in P. bk. 202.
268 Forkel’s incomplete catalogue may be compared with the
Bachgesellschaft volumes III., XIV., XXV. (1), XXXI. (2), XXXVI.,
XLIL, XLIII. (1 and 2), XLV. (1). See generally Schweitzer, ch. 15,
and Pirro, pp. 218 ff.
269 P. bks. 205, 206, 208, 212 (fragment in F minor), 214, 215, 1959.
270 P. bks. 200, 210, 211, 212, 214, 215, 1959.
271 For the most part these youthful works will be found in B.G. XXXVI.
272 P. bk. 207 p. 16.
273 In C minor (P. bk. 200 p. 10).
274 In P. bks. 232, 233.
275 Suite in A major (P. bk. 236), Sonata in E minor (P. bk. 236), Fugue
in G minor (P. bk. 236), four Inventions (P. bk. 2957), Sonata in G
minor (BG. ix. 274; not in P.), Sonata in C major for 2 Violins and
Clavier (P. bk. 237).
276 There are six Sonatas for Flute and Clavier, in B minor, E flat
major, A minor, C major, E minor, E major (P. bks. 234, 235).
277 There are three Sonatas for Clavier and Gamba, in G major, D major,
G minor (P. bk. 239).
278 Forkel omits two Sonatas for Violin, Flute, and Clavier, in G major
and C minor (both in P. bk. 237).
279 As Forkol mentions in secs. 4, 5, 6 the Concertos for two, three,
and four Claviers, perhaps he had in mind here seven Concertos for
Clavier and Orchestra (P. bks. 248-254). A Concerto for Clavier,
Violin, Flute, and Orchestra (P. bk. 255 p. 4) in A minor also
should be mentioned. Also an Overture, in G minor, for Clavier and
Strings (B.G. XLV. (1) p. 190; not in P.)
280 P. bk. 257 p. 4.
281 P. bk. 256 p. 4.
282 There are, in fact, three Concertos for two Claviers and Orchestra:
two in C minor and one in C major. Forkel refers to only one of the
former and regards it as antiquated by comparison with the one in C
major. Spitta (iii. 144) attributes the C major to 1730. Forkel’s
C minor in its original form was a Concerto for two Violins, now
lost. The other C minor Concerto is identical with the Concerto in
D minor for two Violins and is in P. 257b. Spitta (iii. 138) dates
it 1736. See Schweitzer, i. 413.
283 In D minor and C major (P. bks. 258, 259). The tradition is that
Bach wrote these two Concertos in order to play them with his elder
sons. Spitta (iii. 144) finds the tradition trustworthy. Hence the
two works must have been written by c. 1733 at latest, before the
sons left home. See also Schweitzer, i. 414.
284 In A minor (P. bk. 260). This is not an original composition, but
is an arrangement by Bach of a Vivaldi Concerto for four Violins.
Spitta (iii. 149) assigns it to the same period as the Concertos for
three Claviers, c. 1733. See B.G. XLIII. (1) infra.
285 The pedal on the small German Organ had only the compass of an
octave.
286 The Great Preludes and Fugues are, with one exception, in B.G. XV.
The Prelude and Fugue in E flat was published by Bach in the third
Part of the _Clavierübung._ Its Fugue is known as the “St. Anne’s.”
287 From the figures printed by Forkel the twelve can be identified as
follows (the references in parentheses are to the Novello edition of
Bach’s Organ works):
Prelude and Fugue in C minor, the “Great” (bk. vii. 64).
Prelude and Fugue in A minor, (bk. vii. 42).
Prelude and Fugue in G major, (bk. viii. 112).
Prelude and Fugue in E minor, (bk. viii. 98).
Prelude and Fugue in B minor, (vii. 52).
Prelude and Fugue in C major, (bk. ix. 156).
Prelude and Fugue in D minor, (bk. ix. 150).
Prelude and Fugue in C major (bk iii. 70).
Tocatta and Fugue in D minor (bk. x. 196).
Tocatta and Fugue in F major (bk. ix. 176).
Prelude and Fugue in G minor (bk. viii. 120).
Prelude and Fugue in E minor (bk. ii. 44).
288 The Passacaglia in C minor (Novello bk. 10 p. 214) was written
originally for the Clavicembalo and pedal. It belongs to the later
Weimar period, i.e. circ. 1715. See Spitta, i. 588 and Schweitzer,
i. 280.
289 They are all printed in Novello bk. 19, and are three in number, on
the melodies “Christ, der du bist der helle Tag”, “O Gott, du
frommer Gott,” and “Sei gegrüsset, Jesu gütig.” The pedal is only
required in one movement of the first, in none of the second, and
considerably in the third. Without question all three date from
Bach’s earliest period, but whether they were written at Arnstadt or
Lüneburg cannot be stated.
290 The fullest collection of these miscellaneous Organ Choral Preludes
is in B.G. XL. Not counting variant readings they number fifty-two,
besides two fragments and thirteen of doubtful authenticity, of
which two are sets of Variations. The Novello edition contains
fifty-two in bks. 18 and 19. To these must be added the “Eighteen”
Preludes on Choral Melodies, which Forkel nowhere mentions, as well
as the third Part of the _Clavierübung,_ the _Schübler Chorals,_ and
the Variations on _Vom Himmel hoch,_ to which he has already made
reference in the first section of this chapter. As he does not
mention it specifically, it is to be inferred that Forkel was
ignorant of the existence of the _Orgelbüchlein_; otherwise he could
hardly have failed to introduce it in this section. All Bach’s
Choral Preludes, miscellaneous and in collections made by himself,
are in Novello’s edition, bks. 15-19. A useful key to their
melodies is provided by bk. 20. For more detailed information see
Terry, _Bach’s Chorals,_ Part III.
291 The large number of MSS. of many of the miscellaneous Preludes is
made evident in the introduction to B.G. XL.
292 The Sonatas in E flat major, C minor, and D minor are in N. bk. 4; E
minor, C major, G major in N. bk. 5.
293 The so-called “Sonatas” were actually written for a Clavicembalo
with two manuals and a pedal. Bach’s Autograph of them belonged to
his second son and an earlier copy of them to Wilhelm Friedemann.
Both are now in the Berlin Royal Library. Friedemann went to
Dresden as Organist in 1733 and Spitta is of opinion that the whole
of the six Sonatas were in existence by or soon after 1727. If so,
they must be regarded as the outcome of Bach’s early years at
Leipzig. See Spitta, iii. 212 ff. and Schweitzer, i. 278.
294 None are extant. Spitta, iii. 213 n., conjectures that Forkel
refers to the Trios in D minor and C minor (N. bks. 2 p. 54, 12 p.
108) and the Pastorale in F major (N. bk. 12 p. 102.) His incomplete
knowledge of the Organ works is revealed by Appendix V. infra.
295 This is a pure conjecture and Schweitzer scouts it (i. 416 n.).
296 The oldest copy of them dates from circ. 1720; they belong therefore
to the late Cöthen period. The 1720 MS. is in A. M. Bach’s
handwriting and was discovered in 1814 at Petrograd among old papers
about to be sent away to a butter dealer. The Sonatas are in P. bk.
228.
297 They also date from the Cöthen period and are in P. bk. 238a, 238b.
298 Forkel omits to mention the Brandenburg Concertos (P. bks. 261-266);
the Overtures in C major (P. bk. 267), B minor (P. bk. 268), D major
(P. bk. 269), D major (P. bk. 2068); and the Violin Concertos in A
minor (P. bk. 229), E major (P. bk. 230), and (for two Violins) in D
minor (P. bk. 231). In B.G. XXI. (1) is a Symphonic movement, in D
major, for Violin and orchestra. A Sinfonia in F major (B.G. XXXI.
96) is another version of the first Brandenburg Concerto. The
Clavier Concertos have been mentioned supra.
299 The set of five is complete only for Christmas Day, Feast of the
Circumcision, Whitsunday (one of the five is of doubtful
authenticity), Purification of the B.V.M., and Feast of St. Michael
the Archangel. See Terry, _Bach’s Chorals,_ Part II. 2 ff.
300 In giving the number of _Passions_ as five, Forkel repeats the
statement of the _Nekrolog._ The number corresponds with the five
sets of Church Cantatas which Bach is known to have written. It is,
however, exceedingly doubtful whether Bach wrote more than four
_Passions._ Only those according to St. Matthew and St. John have
come down to us from C. P. E. Bach, who was left the Autographs of
both by his father. The _St. John Passion_ was first performed in
1724 and the _St. Matthew Passion_ in 1729. Picander, Bach’s
librettist, certainly wrote two other Passion texts, one of which
was written for Good Friday 1725, and the second, based on St.
Mark’s Gospel, was actually performed at St. Thomas’, Leipzig, on
Good Friday 1731. Spitta (ii. 505) gives good reason to hold that
Bach’s music for this Passion was adapted from the _Trauer-Ode,_
which he had written in 1727 in memory of Queen Christiane
Eberhardine. But of the 1725 _Passion_ there is no trace. If it
ever existed, its loss probably may be assigned to Wilhelm
Friedemann’s carelessness, to whom presumably it was assigned in the
division of Bach’s property after his death. But even so, we have
no more than four _Passions._ There exists, however, a fifth
_Passion according to St. Luke,_ which is undoubtedly in Bach’s
Autograph, and which Spitta is inclined to attribute to Bach
himself. It is published by Breitkopf and Haertel, but is generally
regarded as being by another composer than Bach, who probably copied
it for use at Leipzig. On the whole matter see Spitta, ii. 504 ff.,
Schweitzer, chap. xxvi., and the Bach-Jahrbuch for 1911
(Publications of the New Bachgesellschaft XII. (2)).
301 Other than the _Passions,_ the only Oratorios are the _Christmas
Oratorio_, (1734), the _Easter Oratorio_ (c. 1736), and _Ascension
Oratorio_ (c. 1735).
302 Besides the B minor Mass (1733-? 38) Bach wrote four miscalled
“short” Masses, in F major, A major, G minor, and G major. They all
belong to the Leipzig period (c. 1739).
303 Besides the setting of the Sanctus in the B minor Mass there are
four detached settings, in C major, D major, D minor, and G major.
Of these only that in D major is probably by Bach (c. 1723).
304 The music for Saints’ Days is included in the church Cantatas. For
the Birthday Odes see supra, Chap. IIA.
305 Besides the _Trauer-Ode,_ three or four of the church Cantatas and
certainly three of the Motets were written for funerals. See Terry,
op. cit., pp. 24, 44.
306 Among the church Cantatas there are at least five for use at
weddings. Bach wrote also three secular wedding Cantatas: _Weichet
nur, betrübte Schatten_ (c. 1730); _O holder Tag_ (11749); the third
(1728) has disappeared.
307 Two Italian Cantatas—_Amore traditore_ and _Non sa che sia
dolore_—have come down to us. A third, _Andro dall colle al prato,_
is lost. See B.G. XI. (ii.), XXIX.
308 Only six are genuine. See infra, p. 141.
309 Of the Motets that have come down to us as his, only six are Bach’s.
Forkel mentions five of them in secs. 7 and 3 of the next paragraph;
he omits _Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden._ In 1802-3 Breitkopf and
Haertel published six Motets—the five mentioned by Forkel and
another, _Ich lasse dich nicht,_ of which Bach made a copy, but
whose composer actually was Johann Christoph Bach. We know that
Bach composed at least one Latin Motet for double chorus, and
Friedemann’s share of his father’s autographs may have contained it
and others known to Forkel but no longer extant.
310 The Amalienbibliothek of the Joachimsthal Gymnasium, Berlin,
contains one of the most important Bach collections, but it has long
been superseded by the Royal Library there as the chief repository
of Bach’s Autographs.
311 The Amalienbibliothek has only one Autograph, namely, Cantata 34, _O
ewiges Feuer._ The rest are early copies.
312 Cantata 53. No Autograph of this Cantata exists, and the copies
from which the B.G. edition was printed are in the
Amalienbibliothek.
313 On the contrary, the Cantata belongs to the Leipzig period, 1723-34.
314 None of the four “short” Masses is in five parts. All have
instrumental accompaniments. The autograph scores of the Masses in
A major and G major are in Messrs. Breitkopf and Haertel’s
possession. Copies of the other two scores, in Altnikol’s
handwriting, are in the Berlin Royal Library. See Introduction to
B.G. VIII.
315 An eight-part Mass in G was performed at a Leipzig Gewandhaus
Concert on March 7, 1805, and was published later in the year by
Breitkopf and Haertel. The score is admittedly, for the greater
part of the work, in Bach’s hand and is in the Berlin Royal Library.
The publication of the work was under consideration by the
Bachgesellschaft in 1858. That it is not by Bach is generally held.
It has been attributed to Johann Ludwig Bach (d. 1741). See
Genealogical Table II.
316 The _St. Matthew Passion._
317 A nom de plume for Christian Friedrich Henrici (1700-64), who wrote
a large number of Bach’s Leipzig texts.
318 Perhaps Forkel indicates the short _Sanctus_ in Richter’s edition of
the _Choralgesänge_, No. 123, or that in B.G. XLI. p. 177.
319 This is the first Chorus of Cantata No. 38. It is printed as a
separate Motet in Erk, No. 150.
320 Forkel’s list is complete except for _Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden._
321 The opening Chorus of Cantata 144.
322 Forkel refers to the _Peasant Cantata,_ or _Mer hahn en neue
Oberkeet,_ performed on August 30, 1742. Forkel clearly was not
familiar with Bach’s other secular Cantatas. See B.G. XI. (ii.),
XX. (ii.), XXIX. The Autograph score of the Peasant Cantata is in
the Berlin Royal Library.
323 Forkel’s suggestion was carried out, with varying thoroughness, in
the Bachgesellschaft edition.
324 Forkel’s judgment is at fault. See Schweitzer, i. 336.
325 Also in Wilhelm Friedemann’s _Clavierbüchlein._ See Schweitzer, i.
279; Spitta, ii. 166.
326 “Since you cannot please everybody by your actions and work, strive
at least to satisfy a few; popular appreciation encourages bad
art.”—Schiller’s _ Votiftafeln_
327 The Cantatas are classified under Appendix II.
328 The references are to Peters’ edition. Excepting bk. 1959, which
contains pieces of doubtful authenticity, every number printed by
Peters is entered in the Chronological Catalogue.
329 There are three other Sonatas, in A minor, C major, D minor, none of
which is an original composition. They are printed in P. bk. 213.
The first and second are adaptations of material in Reinken’s
_Hortus Musicus._ The third is a transcription of the second Solo
Sonata for Violin.
330 The references are to Novello’s twelve Books of Bach’s Organ Works,
edited by J. F. Bridge and J. Higgs. The edition is complete, and
contains every movement included in Alfred Dorffel’s “Thematisohos
Verzeichniss” (second edition, 1882) except his No. 24 on p. 72;
Nos. 6 and 8 on page 85; the “Kleines harmonisches Labyrinth”
(Dörffel, p. 88, tigs. 131-33), the genuineness of which is
questioned by Spitta (ii. 43); and figs. 136-37 on p. 88. The
Novello edition also follows Rust, against Spitta’s judgment, in
printing the “Fantasia con Imitazione” (bk. 12 p. 71) as an Organ
instead of as a Clavier piece. Books 15-19 print the Choral
Preludes. See the Peters and Novello editions collated in Appendix
V.
331 Printed as a “Toccata” in E major in B.G. XV. p. 276.
332 Spitta (ii. 620, 718) mentions a Birthday Cantata written in
1717-1721(?), the title of which is lost.
333 The references are to Peters’ edition.
334 The D minor contains the famous Chaconne.
335 The references are to Peters’ edition. In the B.G. edition the
Orchestral music is included in the Chamber Music volumes.
336 Pirro, p. 228, holds that the first two (C major and B minor) were
written at Cöthen and the last two (D major and D major) at Leipzig.
Schweitzer (i. 402) regards it as not clear in which period the
Overtures were written.
337 In A minor, E major, G major. The G major figures as the fourth
Brandenburg (bk. 264) and as the Clavier Concerto in F major (bk.
248). The A minor and E major were also converted into Clavier
Concerti (G minor and D major) (bks. 249, 251). The D minor Clavier
Concerto (bk. 264) preserves a lost Violin Concerto in the same key,
and the one in F minor (bk. 250) corresponds with a lost Violin
Concerto in G minor (bks. 3068, 3069).
338 Also arranged as a Concerto for two Claviers (C minor) in P. bk.
257b.
339 Bach wrote another Magnificat, the music of which is lost. See
Spitta, ii. 374.
340 All except the Sanctus in D major are of doubtful authenticity. See
Schweitzer, ii. 328 and Spitta, iii. 41 n.
341 The Concerto in C minor (P. bk. 257) is an arrangement of one for
two Violins now lost. The third, also in C minor, is identical with
the D minor Concerto for two Violins and is published in that key in
the Peters edition. The remaining Concerto, in C major, is the only
one originally written for the Clavier. See Schweitzer, i. 413.
342 The work is an amplification of the Prelude and Fugue in A minor,
already catalogued among the Clavier works of the Cöthen period.
Schweitzer (i. 340) concludes that it was rearranged as an
orchestral Concerto early in the thirties, when Bach needed
Concertos for the Telemann Society’s Concerts.
343 The scheme of the G major and C major Preludes and Fugues dates back
to the Weimar period. See Spitta, iii. 208; Parry, p. 67.
344 These so-called “Organ” Sonatas were written for the Pedal
Clavicembalo.
345 The Clavier Suites in E minor, E major, and C minor are arrangements
of these, otherwise lost, Lute Partitas. See Schweitzer, i. 344.
346 In Mizler’s _Nekrolog._
347 Supra, p. 138.
348 See the present writer’s _Bach’s Chorals,_ Part II. p. 1.
349 Ibid., p. 4. Four more Cantatas, of doubtful authenticity, are
published by the Bachgesellschaft, Jahrgang XLI.
350 See the Table of Cantatas set out in chronological order.
351 Nos. 18, 24, 28, 59, 61, 142, 160.
352 Nos. 31, 70, 72, 80, 132, 147, 152, 155, 161, 162, 163, 164, 166,
168, 185, 186 (part).
353 Nos. 145, 148 (part), 156, 157, 159, 171, 174, 188, 190 (one
version), _Ehre sei Gott_ (incomplete).
354 Nos. 68, 74, 87, 103, 108, 128, 175, 176, 183.
355 Nos. 47, 141.
356 Nos. 50, 191, 196.
357 Nos. 4, 97, 100, 107, 112, 117, 118, 129, 137, 177, 192.
358 No. 15: _Denn du wirst meine Seele nichfc in der Hölle lassen._
359 The intimate personal note of the opening words of the
Recitative—“Mein Jesus ware tot”—reveals him.
360 Spitta, i. 231.
361 Schweitzer, i. 103.
362 No. 131: _Aus der Tiefe rufe ich, Herr, zu dir._
363 No. 71: _Gott ist mein Küonig._
364 No. 196: _Dorr Herr denket an uns._
365 See Spitta, i. 359 ff.
366 Ibid., i. 374. On the other hand, Baoh’s art was visibly affected
by Pietistic influences, as Schweitzer, i. 169, shows.
367 Eilmar died in 1715 (Spitta, i. 361).
368 No. 189: _Meine Seele rühmt und preist._
369 No. 150: _Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich._
370 Vol. i. 456.
_ 371 J.S. Bach,_ p. 87.
372 The conclusion is based on letters printed by Spitta, i. 517.
373 Nos. 18, 61, 142, 160, and 69. See Table.
374 He was born May 12, 1671 (Spitta, i. 470).
375 The volume is entitled _Erdmann Neumeisters Geistliche Cantaten
statt einer Kirchen-Musik. Die zweyte Auflage._
376 Entitled _Herrn Erdmann Neumeisters Fünffache Kirchen-Andachten,_
Leipzig, 1716.
377 Spitta, i. 474.
378 Vol. i. 466 ff.
379 See the Aria (Duetto) of Cantata No. 28.
380 See particularly the Litanei in Cantata No. 18.
381 Telemann was Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach’s godfather (Spitta, i.
486).
382 Nos. 24, 28, 69, 61.
383 No. 18.
384 Nos. 142, 160.
385 See Spitta, i. 630.
386 His influence is also detected in Nos. 27, 56, 199.
387 Telemann also set the libretti of Bach’s Nos. 18 and 142. See
Spitta, i. 487.
388 Vol. i. 530.
389 Wustmann, _Joh. Seb. Bach’s Kantaten-Texte_ (1913), p. xxii n. The
cycle is entitled _Evangelisches Andachts-Opffer._
390 Only Nos. 70, 147, and 186 are taken from it.
391 Entitled _Evangelische Sonn- und Fest-Tages Andachten._
392 Vol. ii. 131.
393 For instance, the Aria in Cantata No. 168, beginning:
Kapital und Interessen Meiner Schulden gross und klein,
Mussen einst verrechnet sein.
394 Spitta, ii. 5; Schweitzer, i. 106.
395 Spitta, ii. 3.
396 The two Cantatas are Nos. 47 and 141.
397 Wustmann, p. xxiii.
398 Spitta, ii. 12 n.
399 The Choral is absent from No. 141. It should be “Christe, du Lamm
Gotten.”
400 Schweitzer, ii. 147. The Cantata is No. 47, _Wer sich selbst
erhöhet._
401 Vol. ii. 13.
402 Vol. ii. 147.
403 No. 141: _Das ist je gewisslich wahr._
404 Vol. ii. 15.
405 Vol. ii. 148.
_ 406 Johann Sebastian Bach,_ p. 108.
407 Op. cit., Note 195.
408 Spitta, ii. 147.
409 Nos. 134 and 173.
410 No. 134: _Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum lebend weiss._
411 No. 173: _Erhötes Fleisch und Blut._
412 No. 75: _Die Elenden sollen essen,_ sung on May 30, the day
preceding Bach’s formal induction.
413 For instance, Nos. 67 and 102.
414 Wustmann, by implication, only associates eight libretti (Cantatas
Nos. 37, 44, 75, 76, 86, 104, 166, 179) with Weiss. All of them
belong to the early years, 1723-27.
415 See Nos. 75 and 105.
416 See Nos. 25, 42, 77. As an extreme illustration, the first
Recitative of No. 25 begins with the words, _Die ganze Welt ist nur
ein Hospital._
417 Vol. ii. 388.
418 Cantata No. 65: _Sie werden aus Saba Alle kommen._
419 Vol. i. 361.
420 Wustmann, p. xxiv.
421 Ibid.
422 See the Table.
423 They ore Nos. 6, 17, 22, 43, 48, 57, 144, 148, 157, 159,171,
190,195, and the incomplete Cantata, _Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe._
424 Nos. 16, 23, 63, 81, 83, 153, 154, 184, 194. See the Table.
425 No. 4: _Christ lag in Todesbanden._
426 Vol. ii. 393.
427 See the Table: No. 112, _Derr herr ist mein getreuer Hirt._
428 Nos. 8, 20, 93.
429 No. 148: _Bringet dem Herrn Ehre seines Namens._
430 No. 8: _Liebster Gott, wann werd’ ich sterben._
431 No. 181: _Leichtgesinnte Flattergeister._
432 Vol. ii. 340 ff.
433 The volume is entitled _Sammlung Erbaulicher Gedancken, Bey und über
gewohnlichen Sonn- und Festtags-Evangelien,_ Leipzig.
_ 434 Cantaten auf die Sonn- und Fest-Tage durch das gantze Jahr,_
Leipzig, 1728. He reprinted them in 1732 in his _Satyrische
Gedichte._
435 But see Cantata No. 148 and Spitta, ii. 693. Also No. 19.
436 Cantatas Nos. 145, 156, 159, 171, 174, 188, 190 (one version), and
the Cantata _Ehre sei Gott._
437 No. 157.
438 Nos. 19, 30, 36, 84, 148, 197.
439 Vol. ii. 346.
440 Nos. 32, 48, 67, 90, 144, 181.
441 Nos. 16, 22, 23, 27, 35, 51, 56, 58, 63, 66, 81, 82, 83, 153, 154,
194, 195. No. 184 is an adaptation. See also Nos. 19, 36, 84, 144,
145, 148, for Bach’s collaboration with Picander.
442 Besides No. 80, a Choral Cantata.
443 Schweitzer, ii. 332 ff.
444 Entitled _Versuch in gebundener Schreibart._
445 Vol. iii. 71.
446 Vol. ii. 331 n.
447 No. 85: _Ich bin ein guter Hirt._
448 Note 60.
449 Vol. ii. 331 n.
450 No. 33: _Gott färet auf mit Jauchzen._
451 See Table.
452 No. 74.
453 Op. cit., p. 377.
454 See Table.
455 Nos. 100 and 107, both of them c. 1735.
456 No. 8, for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity.
457 No. 93, for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity (1728).
458 Nos. 9 (? 1731), 99 (c. 1733).
459 No. 122.
460 No. 80.
461 Nos. 1, 2, 5, 8, 20, 26, 62, 78, 91, 92, 93, 96, 115, 121, 124, 127,
138, 140.
462 Nos. 7, 9, 10, 14, 33, 41, 94, 99, 101, 111, 113, 114, 116, 125,
126, 130, 139, 178, 180.
463 Nos. 4, 97, 100, 107, 112, 117, 129, 137, 177, 192.
464 Nos. 3, 38, 123, 133, 135.
465 P. xxiv.
466 Nos. 3, 123, 133, 135.
467 See supra, p. 180.
468 Nos. 17, 34, 43, 151, 197, and _Herr Gott, Beherrsoher aller Dinge._
469 Nos. 30, 32, 48, 57, 90.
470 Nos. 45, 79, 110, 143.
471 No. 28.
472 No. 50.
473 No. 118.
474 Nos. 6, 11, 13, 146, 193.
475 See _Bach’s Chorals,_ Part II., Introduction.
476 The above article and the Table that follows were communicated
originally to the Musical Association on March 28, 1918.
477 General mourning for the Queen lasted from Sept. 7, 1727, to Jan. 6,
1728. No Cantatas were sung in the period.
478 The Church Cantatas are published by Peters and also by Breitkopf
and Haertel. A prefixed asterisk indicates that an English edition
of the Cantata or Oratorio is published by Novello or Breitkopf and
Haertel.
The Organ music is published by Novello, to whose edition references
are given (N.), Peters, and Breitkopf and Haertel. collation of
the Peters and Novello editions is given in Appendix V.
The Clavier and Instrumental music is published by Peters, to whose
edition references are given (P.).
479 A Variant of the first Invention is on p. 342 of the volume. A
Variant of Sinfonia ix. is on p. vi. of the Nachtrag.
480 A Variant is in B.G. XI.
481 A Variant is in P. bk. 244 p. 109.
482 “If genuine, the Sonata is a youthful work,” remarks Schweitzer, i.
401 n.
483 Additional movements of the second, third, and fourth Suites are in
Appendix II. of B.G. XXXVI.
484 The volume contains an Appendix of Variants, etc. See also B.G. XLV.
(1) Appendix. Variants of Nos. 1, 3, 6 of Part II. are in Appendix
I. of B.G. XXXVI.
485 See publications of the N.B.G. xiv. (2) no. 5.
486 See publications of the N.B.G. vii. (3) no. 3.
487 For this work, in its original form as a Violin Concerto, see N.B.G.
XVIII. (1 and 2).
488 The D major (No. 3) and G minor (No. 7) Concertos are identical with
the Violin Concertos in E major and A minor. See B.G. XXI. (1). No.
6 (F. major) is the fourth Brandenburg Concerto (in G.). See B.G.
XIX. no. 4.
489 In a shortened form this work appears also as a Sinfonia in F major.
See B.G. XXXI. (1) no. 5, and N.B.G. X. (2).
490 Identical with the G minor Clavier Concerto. See B.G. XVII. no. 7,
and also B.G. XLV. (1), Appendix, p. 233.
491 Identical with the D major Clavier Concerto. See B.G. XVII. no. 3,
and N.B.G. VIII. (1)
492 Identical with the Concerto for two Claviers in C minor. See B.G.
XXI. (2) no. 3.
493 The movement is described as being from “einer unbekannten
Kirchencantate” for four voices and Orchestra. The Autograph is
incomplete. The movement is not published elsewhere than in the B.G.
edition.
494 Identical with the Concerto for 2 Violins, in D minor. See B.G. XXI.
(1) no. 3. Also pp. 131, 158, 160, supra.
495 Also in N.B.G. XVII. (1 and 2).
496 For an exposition of Bach’s design in the “Orgelbüchlein,” see the
present writer’s articles in “The Musical Times” for January_March
1917, and “Bach’s Chorals,” Part III. See N.B.G. II. (1) for an
arrangement of the Preludes for two pianofortes.
497 See B.G. XLII. for a Clavier version.
498 See B.G. XLII. for a Clavier version.
499 Boosey and Co. also publish an English edition.
500 This is a shortened form of the first Brandenberg Concerto (see B.G.
XIX. no. 1). It consists of the Allegro, Adagio, Minuet, Trio I.
and Trio II. of the latter, and omits its second Allegro and
Polacca.
501 The Appendix contains Joh. Philipp Kernberger’s solutions of the
Canons and his expansion of the figured bass of the Clavier part of
the Sonata.
502 See publications of the N.B.G. XIV. (2) no. 2.
503 See publications of the N.B.G. XIV. (2) no. 2.
504 Text and music are identical with the version in B.G. XX. (2).
505 Another Allemande to the Suite is in B.G. XXXVI. 217 (also in P.).
506 The subject of the Fughetta is the same as that of Fugue No. 17 in
the second part of the “Well-tempered Clavier.”
507 The Prelude is No. 11 in Peters (B.G. xxxvi. 220). The Fughetta is
his No. 10. It is the same subject an that of Fugue 16 in the second
part of the “Well-tempered Clavier.” An alternative Prelude (P. 214
p. 78) is in the Appendix (p. 220).
508 They are described as “zur vierten französischen Suite.” The Prelude
is in P. bk. 1959 p. 67.
509 Written respectively for the second and third French Suites (not in
P.).
510 A fingered exercise.
511 The Appendices of the volume contain variant readings of movements
elsewhere contained in it, and of the first, third, and sixth
Preludes and Fugues in the second part of the “Well-tempered
Clavier.”
512 See B.G. XLV. (1) Appendix.
513 Only nos. 2 and 3 are derived from Vivaldi.
514 A variant text is in B.G. XLII. 282.
515 Vivaldi’s text of the first movement is in the Appendix (p. 229).
516 See B.G. XLIII. (2) sec. 1 no. 2.
517 The fugal subject is taken from the Allabreve.
518 Bach’s instrumental accompaniments are in the Appendix (p. 143).
519 C. P. E. Bach’s collection of his father’s Choral settings was
published by Immanuel Breitkopf in four volumes between the years
1784-87. They are all inoluded in Breitkopf and Haertel’s edition
(1898) of Bach s “Choralgesänge”; the numerals in brackets in the
above list indicate the position of each Choral in that collection.
The latter includes also the simple four-part Chorals from the
Oratorios and Cantatas; hence the numeration of that volume and B.G.
XXXIX. is not uniform.
520 The bracket states the title by which the tune is better known.
521 The Chorals are taken from two sources, Anna Magdalena Bach’s
“Notenbuch” (1726; see B.G. XLIII. (2)), and Schemelli’s
“Musicalisches Gesang-Buch” (1736), of which Bach was the musical
editor. The latter contains sixty-nine melodies (with figured
bass), the former seven: one melody (No. 14) is in both collections.
The Schemelli tunes are indicated by an S within a bracket after the
numeral. One melody (No. 71) is indubitably by Bach himself. It,
and others, which may be attributed to him on good evidence, are
marked by an asterisk. The seventy-five settings are published in
practicable form by the N.B.G. I. (1) and I. (2).
522 Nos. 22 and 23 are the same tune.
523 For a discussion of Bach’s original hymn-tunes see the present
writer’s “Bach’s Chorals,” Part II. Introduction, pp. 67 ff. Six
more of Bach’s original hymn-tunes are printed there.
524 The first three Arias are published by Novello, and also by the
N.B.G. I. (1).
525 In the Royal Library, Berlin. Kirnberger was a pupil of Bach. See
section on Variants infra.
526 Novello omits the concluding four-part Choral.
527 The Prelude is also attributed to J. L. Krebs, a pupil of Bach.
528 See section on Variants infra.:
529 Variant, P. bk. 245 p. 106.
530 Ernst Naumann remarks, “Das Stück kann recht gut von Seb. Baoh
herrühren.” The text is complete, and the omission of the Prelude
from the Novello edition is to be regretted.
531 A transcription of the second Sonata for Solo Violin, in A minor,
See B.G. XXVII. (1).
532 A transcription of the third Partita, in E major, for Solo Violin.
See ibid.
533 From the third Sonata for Solo Violin, in C major. See ibid.
534 Both Sonatas are arrangements of instrumental Sonatas in J. A.
Reinken’s “Hortus Musicus.” See Spitta, i. 430.
535 Both Sonatas are arrangements of instrumental Sonatas in J. A.
Reinken’s “Hortus Musicus.” See Spitta, i. 430.
536 After a Sonata movement by J. A. Reinken.
537 After a Fugue by J. C. Erselius. The original is given in Anhang II.
of the volume.
538 Only Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 14 are derived from Vivaldi. The others
are founded on Benedetto Marcello (No. 3), Duke Johann Ernst of
Weimar (Nos. 11, 16, and perhaps 13).
539 The Toccata is by Henry Purcell. See Grove, vol. iii. p. 857.
540 The volume also contains a Variant of the first Organ Concerto (B.G.
XXXVIII.).
541 The Concerto is an arrangement of one by Antonio Vivaldi for four
Violins, the original of which (in B minor) is given in the Appendix
to the volume.
542 Omitting the vocal numbers, movements printed elsewhere, and the
“Menuet fait par Mons. Böhm,” Peters’ Bk. 1959 contains the
remaining twenty numbers of the Notebook. They are indicated in the
above index by a P in a bracket.
543 A separate Preface to the reprinted Suites is by Ernst Naumann. It
is dated 1895.
544 Perhaps an arrangement of an orchestral piece. See Schweitzer, i.
342 n.
545 The Appendix to the volume contains addenda to the Violin Concerto
in A minor (see B.G. XXL. (1)) and Cantata 188 (see B.G. XXXVII.).
Also the Zurich and London texts of the “Welltempered Clavier” (B.G.
XIV.), with critical notes.
546 The Preface is dated 1899. The volume was issued in 1900.
547 The original words are “Die Schätzbarkeit der weiten Erden.”
548 The title-page is dated 1913 and the Preface “Im Advent auf 1914.”
549 The Aria is no. 20 of A. M. Bach’s “Notenbuch” for 1725. See E.G.
XLII. (2) no. 20.
550 This publication, announced for 1916, appears under a different
title as the third issue for 1917. See infra, XVII. (3).