Delphi Masterworks of Johann Sebastian Bach

by Peter Russell

  38 Ein Teuflisches Geplerr und Geleyer. The expression occurs in his treatise on Thorough Bass, printed by Spitta, ii. 913-950.

  39 Published by the Bach-Gesellschaft, xi. (2) p. 139. The music was used again for the Coronation Festival in 1734.

  40 B.-G. xx. (2) p. 73; used again for the King’s birthday.

  41 B.-G. xi. (2) p. 3.

  42 This and the two following exist in MS. at Berlin.

  43 B.-G. xx. (2) p. 3. It was revived for a royal anniversary in 1736 or 1737.

  44 Cp. below, p. 106.

  45 The Edifying Reflexions of a Tobacco-smoker are printed by C. H. Bitter in his Life of Bach, vol. i. pp. 124 f. (Berlin, 1865), and the music added in facsimile at the end. The words recall entirely the old English song, Tobacco’s but an Indian weed, of Tom d’Urfey’s Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1699, or Wither’s delicious verses, with the refrain Thus think and drink tobacco, of which d’Urfey’s are a réchauffé. But the English has not the analogy of the pipe and the human soul carried into such detail as Bach’s text; witness the lines: —

  Wie oft geschieht’s nicht bei dem Rauchen,

  Dass, wenn der Stopfer nicht zu Hand,

  Man pflegt den Finger zu gebrauchen?

  Dann denk’ ich, wenn ich mich verbrannt,

  O macht die Kohle solche Pein;

  Wie heiss mag erst die Hölle sein.

  46 The two comic cantatas have been published by S. W. Dehn in two editions; the second is issued by C. A. Klemm at Leipzig.

  47 Three are mentioned: one is lost; the second probably dates from Coethen, and is published by the Bach-Gesellschaft, xi. (2) p. 75; and the third had already been used for certainly three occasions before it was adapted to a marriage festival, it seems in 1749.

  48 Possibly we should add a cantata which seems to belong to some court festival, and exists in private hands at Dresden: Spitta, ii. 450 f.

  49 MS. at Berlin.

  50 Afterwards absorbed into the church cantata, Erhöhtes Fleisch und Blut.

  51 Afterwards re-written as church cantata No. 35.

  52 The Trauer-Ode is published in the Bach-Gesellschaft, xiii. p. 3.

  53 Of this sort Bach is only known to have written three cantatas, of which two remain. One, Non sà che sia dolore, lies in MS. at Berlin; the other, Amore traditore, is printed by the Bach-Gesellschaft, xi. (2) p. 93.

  54 All but No. 2 have been published at Leipzig by Breitkopf and Haertel: a few others are of doubtful genuineness.

  55 Preface to the twentieth volume, first division, of the Bach-Gesellschaft.

  56 Vol. ii. pp. 335 ff.

  57 Vol. ii. pp. 338-346.

  58 Sometimes in Italy the oratorio was actually presented with all the scenic accessories of the opera, just as Liszt’s Saint Elisabeth was performed at Weimar, in 1881.

  59 The only change is by way of addition, namely, of two place from S. Matthew xxvi. 75, xxvii. 51, 52, to the distinct invigoration of the somewhat colourless narrative of the fourth Gospel.

  60 G. A. Macfarren, preface to Novello’s edition of the Passion, p. ii.

  61 In the interval it had apparently formed part of the Passion music written for 1725, of which indeed it remains the solitary relic. See above, p. 89.

  62 This idea had already suggested itself to Telemann, in his S. Mark Passion; and before him it had been used by Heinrich Schuetz in his Seven Words. Another method had been to give Christ’s words to a chorus, as though too great for any single voice: Spitta, vol. ii. pp. 374 f.

  63 The smaller masses are in G major and minor, A, and F; the two former are simple adaptations of pieces from the church cantatas. All are of later composition than the S. Matthew Passion; those in G and A apparently dating from about 1737. The four Masses are printed in the eighth volume of the Bach-Gesellschaft. A Christe eleison in C minor and four Sanctuses (B.-G. xi. pt. 1) complete the list of Bach’s Latin works.

  64 As already mentioned, p. 65, the Kyrie and Gloria of the High Mass were written for Dresden and dedicated to the king on the 27th of July, 1733; the Credo may have been composed for use at Leipzig even a year or two earlier. The completion of the whole cannot be fixed later than 1738.

  65 Bach’s thankfulness has often this same emotional tenour. In the Mass it is made conspicuous by the identity of the music of the Dona nobis with that of the Gratias agimus. The subject is an old church one. Bach had used it before in the great chorus of his Rathswahl-Cantate of 1731, Wir danken dir, Gott (No. 29), where the similar, but different and less elaborate treatment of the same subject — the second subject also is all but identical — offers an instructive study.

  66 Forkel, p. 87.

  67 See above, p. 53.

  68 One good he got from it. The town having awoke to the advantage of hearing good music, it became more liberal in the arrangements, and especially the financial arrangements of the Thomaskirche. It had slept apparently through the S. Matthew Passion.

  69 The title is often given in French as the Clavecin bien tempéré; but this is confusing, for the works were never intended for the harpsichord (clavecin), but for the more expressive clavichord (clavier).

  70 “You will then,” he adds, “surely become an able musician.”

  71 An early form of the prelude and fugue in G (in the second part) will be found in No. 214, p. 42, and yet another prelude to the same fugue at p. 44. The relation of these essays to their inimitable successor is full of suggestion. Similarly the prelude and fugue in A flat (also in the second part) were at first written in F. See 214, p. 40.

  72 It is interesting to compare the great organ-fugues, as that in G which dates from 1724-5, or that in C from 1730.

  73 Pp. 57 f, cp. 68 f.

  74 The most scholarly edition of the Wohltemperirte Clavier was prepared by Franz Kroll for the Bach-Gesellschaft, and appears in the fourteenth volume. Kroll has also brought out a reprint of the text in Peters’ cheap series, by far the most convenient for students, since it is unencumbered by the additions of later pianoforte-music makers, marks of tempo, emphasis, &c.

  75 Not, however, by his sons’ hands, as is commonly stated. The Kunst der Fuge is edited by Dr. Rust in the twenty-fifth volume of the Bach-Gesellschaft (first division): its study should be accompanied by Moritz Hauptmann’s musician-like Erläuterungen, published by Peters.

  76 It was published in 1752. The only works that appeared in Bach’s lifetime were the five parts of the Clavier-Uebung containing clavichord and organ compositions, the Musikalische Opfer, and a Canon written for Mizler’s Musical Society.

  77 The chorale was added in the first edition of the Kunst der Fuge, and its place there, though musically irrelevant, is surely justified by a fine sentiment. Forkel touchingly says, “The expression of pious resignation, and devotion in it, have always affected me whenever I have played it; so that I can hardly say which I would rather miss — this chorale, or the end of the last fugue,” p. 91. The rigour of criticism has of course relegated the piece to the category of organ-works (vii. 58).

  78 Forkel, p. 78.

  79 Forkel, p. 28.

  80 See Spitta, vol. i. 713; ii. 124f.: and compare W. S. Rockstro’s article, Orchestration, in Mr. Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

  81 A second edition appeared in London in 1878. There are few more amusing examples of ardent hero-worship than this collection contains. Bach is first “our Demi-God,” “our grand Hero,” “our Sacred Musician,” “our Apollo,” “this marvellous Man.” At length Wesley’s rhetoric fails, and his idol becomes “The Man (which expression I prefer to any epithet of great, or wonderful, &c., which are not only common, but weak, as is every other epithet applied to one whom none can sufficiently praise),” p. 36.

  82 Curiously enough, Johann Adam Hiller, a respectable musician and a successor of Bach at the Thomasschule, admired Bach’s counterpoint and part-writing, but found his melodies “odd” (sonderbar).

  83 The detailed arguments in favour of this arrangement will be found in
Spitta, vol. i. pp. 225-230; 339-350; 369-372; 438-461; 480-507; 525-565; 790 f.; 797-801; 803-814; vol. ii. 181-306; 545-569; 774-790; 791-810; 830-838: with which compare the various prefaces in the edition of the Bach-Gesellschaft, vols. i.-xxviii.

  84 An incomplete work discovered by Dr. Spitta in the chantry at Langula near Muehlhausen: vol. i. pp. 339 f.

  85 Printed by the Bach-Gesellschaft, xiii. (1), p. 73.

  86 Printed in J. P. Schmidt’s Kirchengesänge.

  87 Printed in the same.

  88 Rewritten as No. 80 of the B.-G.

  89 Originally intended as the Probe-Stück for his post at Leipzig, but discarded in favour of the preceding number. Perhaps it was produced on the same Sunday in the following year.

  90 The dates of Nos. LVI.-LXXIII. do not admit of an exact determination.

  91 Fragment afterwards mainly absorbed into a marriage cantata (No. XCIII.) printed by the Bach-Gesellschaft, xiii. (1), p. 3.

  92 Rewritten from a Coethen serenade: see above, p. 79, n. 3.

  93 Rewritten from a secular cantata: see above, p. 79, n. 1.

  94 Printed by the Bach-Gesellschaft, xiii. (1), p. 97.

  95 This and the eight following numbers are of uncertain date.

  THE END

  Bach by C. F. Abdy Williams

  CONTENTS

  Preface

  Chapter I

  Chapter II

  Chapter III

  Chapter IV

  Chapter V

  Chapter VI

  Chapter VII

  Chapter VIII

  Chapter IX

  Chapter X

  Chapter XI

  Chapter XII

  Chapter XIII

  Chapter XIV

  Bibliography

  Glossary

  Endnotes.

  The original frontispiece

  Preface

  The position of Johann Sebastian Bach as one of a numerous family of musicians is unique. Of no other composer can it be said that his forefathers, contemporary relations, and descendants were all musicians, and not only musicians, but holders of very important offices as such. All his biographers have therefore given some account of his family antecedents before proceeding to the history of his life; and I have found myself obliged to follow the same course. In other respects I have adopted the plan made use of by the older biographers, of keeping the account of his life distinct from that of his compositions.

  Every biography is necessarily based on that written by his two sons, four years after his death, published by Mizler, and the one published in 1802 by Forkel, who was intimate with the sons. Hilgenfeldt’s account follows these, and in later years further information has been acquired from the searches into archives, and other ancient documents, by C. H. Bitter and Philipp Spitta. Any details concerning the life and works of this remarkable man are interesting; and it is probable that researches will be continued for some time to come. Thus, last year (1898) a “celebration” took place at Ohrdruf in memory of Bach’s school career there; and Dr Friedrich Thomas took the opportunity of publishing some details of the Bach family which had escaped Spitta.

  The name of Bach is reverenced by Thuringian organists, and I this year had interesting conversations with his successors at Arnstadt and Mühlhausen, Herr Kellermann and Herr Möller. But the chief music-seller at Arnstadt told me that “Bach’s music is out of date; no one has now any interest in such old-fashioned compositions.”

  The two recent important accounts of Bach’s life are those of C. H. Bitter, 1865, 2 vols.; second edition 1880, 4 vols.; and Philipp Spitta, 2 vols, a translation of which by Mrs Clara Bell and Mr Fuller-Maitland was published by Messrs Novello in 1884. With regard to the last, I have to thank Messrs Novello for kindly allowing me the use of the book at a time when it was out of print. I understand that a second edition has since been published.

  References to Spitta apply to the first edition of the translation; all others to the original German.

  C. F. ABDY WILLIAMS.

  Bradfield,

  December 1899.

  Chapter I

  The Bachs of Thuringia — Veit Bach, the ancestor of John Sebastian — His sons and descendants — A breach of promise of marriage — J. Christoph Bach of Arnstadt — His cantata “Es erhob sich ein Streit” — John Michael Bach of Gehren — His character — His compositions — Joh. Christoph Bach of Ohrdruf, and his descendants — The sons of Joh. Sebastian Bach — The clan feeling — A sixteenth century quodlibet.

  John Sebastian Bach came of a large family of Thuringian musicians, whose members have been traced back to the first decade of the sixteenth century. The name frequently occurs in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries among the inhabitants of Arnstadt, Erfurt, Gräfenrode, Molsdorf, Rockhausen and other villages; and that it has not yet disappeared is shown by the fact that the Erfurt Directory for 1899 contains the addresses of no less than thirteen Bachs.

  The Founder of the Family

  The subject of this biography considered that the founder of his family was Veit Bach, who had settled at Presburg in Hungary as a baker and miller. Owing to religious persecution, however, he sold what he could of his property, returned to Thuringia with the proceeds, and settled at the village of Wechmar near Gotha. Here he recommenced his trade, and occupied his leisure with the cithara, or cither, even taking it to the mill, where he played it to the rhythmical tapping of the wheels. “He must,” says John Sebastian, “at any rate have learned time in this way.” The date of his birth is unknown. He died 1619 and left two sons, Hans and Johannes. All his descendants, to the number of sixty, were, with only two or three exceptions, musicians. Hans Bach, the great-grandfather of John Sebastian, was a weaver by trade as well as a musician. His father, Veit, sent him to Gotha to study music under a relative, Caspar Bach, the “town piper.” In his capacity of “Spielmann” or “Player” Hans travelled about to different towns in Thuringia to take part in the “town music” with his violin, and as he was also very humorous he became popular, and twice had his portrait painted. He died of the plague in 1626. He seems to have left several children, of whom three were musicians —

  Johann, 1604-1673.

  Christoph, 1613-1661.

  Heinrich, 1615-1692.

  The following genealogy will enable the reader to distinguish the various members of this remarkable family. The names of sons only are given, as the daughters do not appear to have distinguished themselves. The list of nearly sixty names is not, however, by any means exhaustive. Spitta gives many more, and there were of course a great number whose names are entirely lost, for a peasant and artisan family is not usually careful to keep its genealogical tables in order.

  Genealogy

  THE BACH FAMILY.

  (From Hilgenfeldt.)

  1. Veit Bach, 155 — 161 — , the Founder.

  Sons of Veit.

  2. Hans d. 1626. 3. Johannes ...

  Sons of Hans.

  4. Johann, 1604-1673. 5. Christoph, 1613-1661. 6. Heinrich, 1615-1692.

  Sons of Johann (No. 4).

  7. Johann Christian, 1640-1682. 8. Johann Ægidius, 1645-1717. 9. Johann Nicolaus, 1653-1682.

  Sons of Christoph (No. 5).

  10. Georg Christoph, 1642-1697. 11. Joh. Ambrosius, 1645-1695. 12. Joh. Christoph, 1645-1694.

  Sons of Heinrich (No. 6).

  13. Joh. Christoph, 1643-1703. 14. Joh. Michael ... 15. Joh. Günther ...

  Sons of Joh. Christian (No. 7).

  16. Joh. Jacob, 1668-1692. 17. Joh. Christoph, 1673-1727.

  Sons of Joh. Ægidius (No. 8).

  18. Joh. Bernhard, 1676-1749. 19. Joh. Christoph, 1685-174 — .

  Son of Joh. Nicolaus (No. 9).

  20. Joh. Nicolaus, 1682-174 — .

  Sons of Georg Christoph (No. 10).

  21. Joh. Valentin, 1669-1720. 22. Joh. Christian, 1679-1707.

  23. Joh. Georg, 16 —— 17 —— .

  Sons of Joh. Ambrosius (No. 11).

  24. Joh. Christoph,
1671-1721. 25. Joh. Jacob, 1682-171 — . 26. JOHANN SEBASTIAN, 1685-1750.

  Sons of Joh. Christoph (No. 12).

  27. Joh. Ernst, 1683-173 — . 28. Joh. Christoph, 1689-1736.

  Sons of Joh. Christoph (No. 13).

  29. Joh. Nicolaus, 1669-1740. 30. Joh. Christoph ... 31. Joh. Friedrich ... 32. Joh. Michael ...

  Children of Joh. Michael (No. 14).

  33. Joh. Ludwig 1677-1730. Maria Barbara (first wife of Joh. Sebastian).

  Sons of Joh Christoph (No. 17).

  34. Joh. Samuel, 1694 ... 35. Joh. Christian, 1696 ...

  36. Joh. Günther ...

  Son of Joh. Bernhard (No. 18).

  37. Joh. Ernst, 1722-1781.

  Sons of Joh. Christoph (No. 19).

  38. Joh. Friedrich, 1703 ... 39. Joh. August, 17 ...

  40. Wilhelm Hieronymus, 17 ...

  Sons of Joh. Valentin (No. 21).

  41. Joh. Lorenz, 1695 ... 42. Joh. Elias, 1705-1755. 43. Joh. Heinrich ...

  Sons of Joh. Christoph (No. 24).

  44. Joh. Friedrich, 1695 ... 45. Joh. Bernhard, 1700-1742(?) 46. Joh. Christoph, 1702-1756. 47. Joh. Heinrich, 1707 ... 48. Joh. Andreas, 1713-175 — .

  Sons of Joh. Sebastian (No. 26).

  49. Wilhelm Friedemann, 1710-1784. 50. Joh. Christoph and a twin brother, 1713 + same year. 51. Carl Philipp Emanuel, 1714-1788. 52. Joh. Gottfried Bernhard, 1715-1739. 53. Leopold August, 1718-1719. 54. Gottfried Heinrich, 1724-1736(?). 55. Christian Gottlieb, 1725-1728. 56. Ernst Andreas, 1727 + same year. 57. Joh. Christoph Friedrich, 1732-1795. 58. Joh. Aug. Abraham, 1733-1734. 59. Joh. Christian, 1735-1782. 60. (8 daughters).

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