Kannst du nicht allen gefallen durch deine That und dein Kunstwerk,
Mach’ es wenigen recht; vielen gefallen ist schlimm.326
Like every true artist, Bach worked to please himself in his own way, obeying the summons of his own genius, choosing his own subjects, and finding satisfaction only in the approval of his own judgment. He could count on the applause of all who understood good music, and never failed to receive it. Under what other conditions can sound works of art emerge? The composer who debases his muse to the popular mood either lacks real genius or, having it, abuses it. For to catch the ear of the public is not a difficult task and merely connotes an agreeable facility. Composers of that class are like artisans who frankly fashion their goods to suit their market. But Bach never condescended to such artifices. The artist, in his judgment, is the dictator of public taste, not its slave. If, as often happened, he was asked to write something simple for the Clavier he would answer, “I will do what I can.” He would choose an easy theme. But when he began to develop it he always found so much to say that the piece soon became anything but simple. If his attention was drawn to the fact, he would answer smilingly, “Practise it well and you will find it quite easy. You have as many good fingers on each hand as I have.” Nor was he prompted in this by mere contradictoriness, but exhibited the true artist spirit.
It was, in fact, the artist temperament that led Bach to make the great and sublime his goal. For that reason his music is not merely agreeable, like other composers’, but transports us to the regions of the ideal. It does not arrest our attention momentarily but grips us the stronger the oftener we listen to it, so that after a thousand hearings its treasures are still unexhausted and yield fresh beauties to excite our wonder. Even the beginner who knows but the A B C of his art warms with pleasure when he hears Bach’s music and can open his ear and heart to it. It was the true artist spirit, too, that guided Bach to unite majesty and grandeur of design with meticulous care for detail and the most refined elegance, characteristics which we rather seek, perhaps, in works whose object is merely to give pleasure. Bach held strongly that if the strands are imperfect, the whole design is faulty. His genius is sublime and impressive, and he never condescends to be frivolous even when he touches the lighter forms of art.
To conclude: it was the union of astounding genius and indefatigable application that enabled Bach to widen at every point the domain of musical expression. His successors have failed to maintain the art at the level to which he raised it. If Bach was more successful, if he was able to produce great work of convincing beauty and imperishable as a model for those who came after him, we owe it as much to his application as to his genius.
This man, the greatest orator-poet that ever addressed the world in the language of music, was a German! Let Germany be proud of him! Yes, proud of him, but worthy of him too!
The Bach Statue at Leipzig
APPENDIX I. CHRONOLOGICAL CATALOGUE OF BACH’S COMPOSITIONS
I. CATALOGUE OF BACH’S COMPOSITIONS PRIOR TO HIS APPOINTMENT TO WEIMAR IN JUNE 1708, in his twenty-fourth year.327
VOCAL: —
Motet: Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden.
CLAVIER328: —
Capriccio sopra la lontananza del suo fratello dilettissimo (bk. 208 p. 62) (1704).
Capriccio in honorem Joh. Christoph Bachii, Ohrdruf (bk. 216 p. 34) (c. 1704).
Sonata in D major (bk. 215 p. 44) (c. 1704).329
B.G. XXXVI. prints a number of pieces which, in general, may be assigned to Bach’s immature years. They are reproduced in Peters’ edition:
Book 200:
Fughetta in C minor (p. 10).
Prelude and Fughetta in D minor (p. 40).
Prelude and Fughetta in E minor (p. 42).
Prelude and Fughetta in A minor (p. 47).
Fugue in C major (p. 54).
Fugue in C major (p. 56).
Book 207:
Fantasia in C minor (p. 50).
Book 212:
Fantasia in C minor (p. 58).
Fugue in D minor (p. 59).
Fugue in D minor (p. 61).
Fugue in E minor (p. 68).
Book 214:
Prelude and Fughetta in F major (p. 76).
Prelude and Fughetta in G major (p. 78).
Prelude in G major (p. 80).
Book 215: Three Minuets (p. 62).
To these may be added (? authentic) from B.G. XLII.:
Book 212:
Fantasia and Fughetta in B flat major (p 58).
Do. do. D major (p. 60).
Organ330: —
Prelude and Fugue in C minor (bk. 2 p. 48) (c. 1704).
Do. do. C major (bk. 8 p. 88) (? 1707).331
Do. do. the “Short,” A minor (bk. 10 p. 208).
Fugue in C minor (bk. 12 p. 95) (c. 1704).
Do. C minor, on a theme by Legrenzi (bk. 10 p. 230) (c. 1708).
Do. B minor, on a theme by Corelli (bk. 3 p. 60).
Do. D major (bk. 12 p. 83).
Do. G major (bk. 12 p. 55).
Do. G major (bk. 12 p. 86).
Do. G minor (bk. 2 p. 41).
Prelude in A minor (bk. 10 p. 238) (by 1706).
Do. C major (bk. 12 p. 94).
Fantasia and Fugue in A minor (bk. 12 p. 60).
Fantasias in 6 major (bk. 9 p. 168; bk. 12 p. 75).
Pastorale in F major (bk. 12 p. 102).
Choral Partita: Christ, der du bist der helle Tag (bk. 19 p. 36).
Do. O Gott, du frommer Gott (bk. 19 p. 44).
Do. Sei gegrüsset, Jesu gütig (bk. 19 p. 55).
Generally speaking, the Choral Preludes, other than those in the maturer collections made by Bach himself, may be regarded as youthful works (bks. 18, 19).
II. Catalogue of Bach’s Compositions at Weimar, 1708-17, from his twenty-fourth to his thirty-third year.
Vocal: —
Secular Cantata: Was mir behagt (1716), or, Verlockender Götterstreit.
Clavier: —
Sixteen Concertos after Vivaldi (bk. 217) (c. 1708-12).
Toccatas in D major (bk. 211 p. 28), G major (bk. 215 p. 19), D minor (bk. 210 p. 68), G minor (bk. 211 p. 4), E minor (bk. 210 p. 23) (c. 1708-12).
Aria variata alia maniera Italiana (bk. 215 p. 12) (c. 1708-12).
Prelude and Fugue in A minor (bk. 211 p. 14) (c. 1715).
Fugues in A major (bk. 215 pp. 52, 57).
Do. B minor (bk. 214 p. 48).
Do. A major (bk. 212 p. 66).
Do. A minor (bk. 212 p. 70).
Fantasia in G minor (bk. 215 p. 32).
Do. B minor (bk. 215 p. 41). (For Organ, N. bk. 12 p. 71.)
Do. D major (bk. 211 p. 28).
Do. A minor (bk. 215 p. 5) (c. 1710).
Organ: —
Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor (bk. 10 p. 214).
Four Concertos after Vivaldi (bk. 11).
Eight Short Preludes and Fugues (bk. 1).
Orgelbüchlein (bk. 15) (1717).
Aria in F major (bk. 12 p. 112).
Fantasia con Imitazione (bk. 12 p. 71).
Do. C major (bk. 12 p. 92).
Do. C minor (bk. 3 p. 57).
Trio in C minor (bk. 12 p. 108).
Do. D minor (bk. 2 p. 54).
Canzona in D minor (bk. 2 p. 34) (c. 1714).
Allabreve in D major (bk. 2 p. 26).
Prelude and Fugue in C major (bk. 7 p. 74).
Do. do. the “Short,” E minor (bk. 2 p. 44).
Do. do. D major (bk. 6 p. 10).
Do. do. the “Great,” A minor (bk. 7 p. 42).
Do. do. A major (bk. 3 p. 64).
Do. do. the “Great,” C minor (bk. 7 p. 64).
Do. do. F minor (bk. 6 p. 21).
Do. do. G major (bk. 7 p. 80).
Do. do. G minor (bk. 8 p. 120) (c. 1712).
Toccata and Fugue in D minor (bk. 6 p. 2).
Do. do. the “Great,” C major (bk. 9 p. 137).
Do. do. the “Great,” F major (bk. 9 p. 176).
&n
bsp; Do. do. the Dorian, D minor (bk. 10 p. 196).
Fantasia and Fugue in C minor (bk. 3 p. 76).
Prelude in G major (bk. 2 p. 30).
Do. C major (bk. 12 p. 91).
Fugue, the “Short,” in G minor (bk. 3 p. 84).
Do. C major (bk. 12 p. 100).
III. Catalogue Of Bach’s Compositions At Cöthen, 1717-23, from his thirty-third to his thirty-ninth year.
Vocal: —
Secular Cantata: Durchlaucht’ster Leopold (1717).
Do. Mit Gnaden bekröne der Himmel die Zeiten
(?1721). Do. Weichetnur, betrübte Schatten (?1717-23).332
Clavier: —
Clavier-Büchlein vor Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1720).
Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue (bk. 207 p. 4) (c. 1720-23).
Clavier-Büchlein vor A. M. Bachin (bk 1959) (1722).
The Well-tempered Clavier (Part i.) (bk. 2790a) (1722).
Six French Suites (bks. 202 and 2793) (c. 1722).
Six English Suites (bks. 203-4 and 2794-95) (before 1726).
Fantasia and Fugue in A minor (bk. 208 p. 50).
Fugue in A minor (bk. 207 p. 16) (B.G. III. p. 334).
Twelve Little Preludes and Six Preludes for Beginners (bks. 200 and 2791) (c. 1722).
Inventions and Symphonies (bks. 201 and 2792) (1723).
Toccatas in F sharp minor and C minor (bk. 210 pp. 30 and 40).
Suites in A minor, E flat major, E minor, F major, and F minor (fragment) (bk. 214 pp. 54,62, 68; bk. 215 p. 27; bk. 212 p. 84).
Prelude and Fugue in E flat major (bk. 214 p. 40).
Chamber333: —
Six Sonatas (Suites) for Violin Solo (bk. 228) (c. 1720).334
Six Sonatas (Suites) for Violoncello Solo (bk. 238a) (c. 1720).
Six Sonatas for Violin and Clavier (bks. 232-33-232a-33a).
Suite in A major for Violin and Clavier (bk. 236).
Four Inventions for Violin and Clavier (bk. 2957).
Sonata in E minor and Fugue in G minor for Violin and Clavier (bk. 236) (?early work).
Six Sonatas for Flute and Clavier (bks. 234-35).
Sonata in C major for two Violins and Clavier (bk. 237).
Three Sonatas for Viol da Gamba and Clavier (bk. 239).
Sonata in G major for two Flutes and Clavier (bk. 239 p. 2).
Sonata in G major for Violin, Flute, and Clavier (bk. 237).
Orchestral:335 —
Six Brandenburg Concertos (bks. 261-66) (1721).
Four Suites (Overtures) (bks. 267-69, 2068).336
Three Concertos for Violin and Orchestra (bks. 229, 230).337
Concerto in D minor for two Violins and Orchestra (bk. 231).338
Organ: —
Prelude (Fantasia) and Fugue, the “Great,” in G minor (bk. 8 p. 127) (?1720).
IV. Catalogue Of Bach’s Compositions At Leipzig, 1723-34, from his thirty-ninth to his fiftieth year.
Vocal: —
Magnificat in D (?1723).339
Sanctus in C major, D major (c. 1723), D minor, and G major (P. bk. 29b).340
St. John Passion (1723).
Trauer-Ode (1727).
St. Matthew Passion (1729).
Mass in B minor (1733-?1738).
Christmas Oratorio (1734).
Three Wedding Chorals (P. bk. 1654).
Motet: Jesu, meine Freude (1723).
Do. Der Geist hilft unsrer Schwachheit auf (1729).
Do. fürchte dich nicht.
Do. Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied.
Motet: Komm, Jesu, komm.
Secular Cantata: Der zufriedengestellte Aeolus (1725); also entitled Blast Larmen, ihr Feinden (1734).
Do. Vereinigte Zwietracht der wechselnden Saiten (1726), or, Auf schmetternde Töne der muntern Trompeten (after 1733).
Do. Schwingt freudig euch empor; also entitled Die Freude reget sich, or Steigt freudig in die Luft (1726).
Do Entfernet euch, ihr heitern Sterne (1727; music lost).
Do. Vergnügte Pleissenstadt (1728; music lost).
Do. Von der Vergnügsamkeit, or Ich bin in mir vergnügt (c. 1730).
Do. Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten (c. 1730).
Do. Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan 1731).
Do. Froher Tag, verlangte Stunden (1732; music lost).
Do. Schweigt stille (Coffee Cantata) (c. 1732).
Do. Herkules auf dem Scheidewege, or Die Wahl des Herkules (1733).
Do. Tönet, ihr Pauken! Erschallet, Trompeten (1733).
Do. Preise dein Glücke, gesegnetes Sachsen (1734).
Do. Schleicht, spielende Wellen (1734).
Do. Thomana sass annoch betrübt (1734; music lost).
Graduation Cantata: Siehe, der Hüter Israels (music lost).
Clavier: —
Notenbuch vor Anna Magdalena Bach (bk. 1959) (1725).
Clavierübung, Part I. containing the six Partitas, or German Suites (bks. 205-6 or 2796-97) (1731).
Orchestral: —
Concertos in C major, C minor, and C minor for two Claviers and Orchestra (bks. 256, 257, 257b) (1727-36).341
Seven Concertos for Clavier and Orchestra (bks. 248-54) (1729-36).
Concerto in A minor for Violin, Flute, Clavier, and Orchestra (bk. 255) (c. 1730).342
Concerto in A minor for four Claviers and Orchestra (bk. 260) (c. 1733).
Concertos in D minor and C major for three Claviers and Orchestra (bks. 258, 259) (c. 1733).
Delphi Masterworks of Johann Sebastian Bach Page 26