THE GREAT MUSICIANS imninp JOHN SEBSSTISN BSCH / /.. u, -r^utr fifa Bach. Edited hy Francis Hueffer SEBASTIAN BACH By KEGINALD LANE POOLE, M.A. BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXPOBD EOCIOS OP PHILOSOPHY OP THE UN1VKBSITX OJ LEIPZIG LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MAKSTON & COMPANY Limited §t. ghinstan's 3S) 8 The two comic cantatas have been published by S. W. Dehn in two editions ; the second is issued by C. A. Klemm at Leipzig. SEBASTIAN BACH. 79 older years. The libretto is made up of badinage, more or less clumsy, between the countrymen, who like their own old fashion of doing honour to their lord, and the upstarts who try to introduce a new- fangled courtly style. The genuine swains get the better of it, and have a great deal to say for them- selves in a rough way, starting in the true Saxon brogue, and breaking out into popular songs which were in every one's mouth at the time. The music, which is never vulgar, is certainly the lightest that Bach wrote ; but the volkslieder do not stand alone in his works. Two such songs he has wrought with inimitable art and charm into the Quodlibet which closes his thirty variations in G. The list of Bach's secular cantatas is completed by some wedding-music, 9 and by the pieces he wrote for state occasions. Three of the latter, all birthday can- tatas, remain. 1 One was composed in 1716 for the Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, when the event was cele- brated by a great hunt; 2 the second is a serenade for the Prince of Coethen, perhaps in 1717; 3 and the 9 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. 1 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 . 2 MS. at Berlin. 3 Afterwards absorbed iuto the church cantata, Erlwlitea Flvisch und JJlut. 80 SEBASTIAN BACH. third, for his second consort, in 1726. 4 Of far greater importance must have been the Dirges which Bach composed for mourning solemnities, and which are in- deed only distinguished from the rest of his church music by the personal reference. The music he wrote in 1729 on the death of his patron is lost; but it is supposed to have been to a great extent built upon the 8. Matthexo Passion. That which he composed, however, two years earlier, for the Queen of Poland remains to us, and apparently was subsequently re- erected into the (now lost) Passion according to 8. Mark. 5 On these occasions the appointed mourning did not begin for some months, and Bach had there- fore time to devote thought to them such as he was not able to give in the hurried seasons of rejoicing. In itself, the more weighty occasion stirred him to deeper reflexion, and the Dirge for Queen Christine Eberliardine is of more value than all his secular cantatas put to- gether. It shows Bach to us in his native sphere, that of a church composer, and leads naturally to the consideration of his work as such in its wider mani- festations. His church cantatas are among the earliest and the most mature of Bach's productions ; but the bulk of them were written while he was cantor at Leipzig. Barely thirty can be assigned to an earlier period, while from 1723 onwards he set himself to compose a complete cycle for five church years — near 300 4 Afterwards re-written as church cantata No. 35. 5 The Trauer-Ode is published in the Bach-Gesellschaft, xiii. p. 3. SEBASTIAN BACH. 81 cantatas — in which of course he inserted his younger works, though never without a scrupulous revision. Of this marvellous series about two hundred remain. Musicians owe an incalculable debt to Dr. Spitta for the exhaustive scrutiny to which he has subjected every individual number; and although his results, which will be found tabulated at the end of this volume, are in a certain degree tentative, yet their general accuracy can hardly fail to be accepted, in comparatively few cases does the doubt as the chrono- logical place of a cantata extend over more than four years; and the student is therefore for the first time enabled to place each one with security in its proper setting in the total list of Bach's works. But it is not the number, but the wonderful variety, individual character, and consummate workmanship of the church cantatas, that make them an absolutely unique phenomenon in music. It is hardly necessary to say that they have- nothing in common with the Italian cantata, which was a mere operatic scena for solo voices. 6 The church cantata may be roughly called a short oratorio. Its component parts are one or more choruses and chorales with recitatives and solo airs; but the form is as elastic as that of the modern sonata, and one at least of the elements may often be absent. In Bach's hands the type was en- larged in more than one direction, especially under Of this sort Bach is only known to have written three cantatas, of which two remain. One, Non sa che sia dolore, lies in MS. at Berlin; the other, Amove traditore. is printed by the Bach-Gesellschaft, xi. (2) p. 93. a 82 SEBASTIAN BACH. the influence of the instrumental music of Italy. His first preserved cantata, dating perhaps from 1704, shows how he was abandoning the purely polyphonic treatment, which the Germans had adopted but never been at ease with, and creating for himself his own manipulation of voices in an instrumental manner. When at Weimar he pursued his studies through the entire range of Italian chamber-music accessible to him, the effect was not to make him in any sense imitate them. His chamber-music is almost wholly of later date. What he did was to apply the forms of the sonata and concerto to the clavichord, the organ, and above all to the church cantata. In this way he brought to perfection his art of writing solo-arias, of which the earlier examples are so complete and mature as to leave no room for future improvement. Here accordingly he made little change in the course of hia later composing; and the same holds good for his treatment of the recitative, arioso, and simple chorale. The variety he threw into the structure of the cantata is infinite. Sometimes a whole cantata takes the shape of a concerto, or of an orchestral partie; sometimes its second division is opened by a regular chamber-sonata. An overture in French style is combined with a freely-imagined chorus, even with a chorale. Dance- measures, the passacaglia, even the jig, are not ex- cluded; and a chorale has its counterpoint in a siciliano. Everywhere instrumental forms are applied, in a way hitherto unsuspected, to the development of church-music. Now a chorale is played by the orchestra in the midst of a recitative, as though to SEBASTIAN BACH. 83 set a bound to its unmeasured phrases: now the re- citative appears as a personal application of the thought between the lines of a chorale. But the influences of the master's boyhood are not forgotten : except in the arias, the organ is the main basis of his cantata-style; and Pachelbel, Boehm, Buxtehude, ■ have still their reminiscence, in a more glorious apparel. The old forms are broadened, and combined, with inconceivable fancy, with one another and with the new forms which Bach devised for himself. It is in the choruses, however, that the Leipzig cantatas rise above the works of Bach's earlier time. The great choruses which he wrote at Weimai", for instance, the splendid one that opens Ich hatte viel Beh'immemiss, are indeed models of his instrumental treatment. The difference between his early and later writing is rather the uniform massiveness and magni- ficence of the latter — the more complete absorption in them of the organ-style. Though generally formed on a figured subject, they are wrought with far greater freedom and force. The choruses, based upon the melody of a chorale, are unmatched in depth and grandeur, and it was to these, the rich embodiment of his strenuous religious sense, that Bach turned with peculiar affection in his later years ; a long series of cantatas in which they take the chief place were written by him from 1735 onwards. Yet, it must be confessed that the church cantatas suffer exceedingly from the poverty of the texts to which they are written. Unless Bach draws directly from the Bible or from the old chorale-hymns — for the G 2 84 SEBASTIAN BACH. chorales have a mine of poetry within their rough mass — there are few places in which one is not re- pelled by the tastelessness of the rhymes he had to use. Bach himself seems at one time to have been conscious of their inadequacy and to have returned to the nervous religious poetry of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. One cannot but suspect that the finer judgment of Gesner — they all bear traces of having been composed during his stay at Leipzig — had some- thing to do with the improved choice of subject. But commonly the texts are derived from three contem- porary poetasters, Franck and Neumeister of Weimar and Picander of Leipzig. The last was a neighbour of Bach's and a docile follower. In fact we cannot, where he was concerned, exculpate Bach from a certain responsibility for the texts. Certainly Picander wrote as he was bid, and would alter as Bach told him. But probably the musician felt that he could do no better than employ so convenient a hack, and it would be going beyond all we know of his life to assume that the artistic sensibility which swayed him in matters musical extended also into the domain of letters. He was content if the meaning of the words agreed with the music. It remains to add that all the church cantatas are written for orchestra, but for an orchestra of very varying compass, ranging from the simple bass, which accompanies the recitative, to dimensions scarcely inferior to those of modern times ; only Bach seldom employed the whole available body at once. He liked to have a reserve, to prevent the music of one Sunday SEBASTIAN BACH 85 being exactly like its neighbour ; and he was specially fond of keeping an instrument to come out prominently as the obbligato accompaniment of an aria. Among the cantatas there stands a composition of a partly different character. This is the Ascension Ora- torio, which connects itself by its title with the two more important works of the same sort which Bach has left, namely, the Easter and Christmas Oratorios, written respectively in 1734 and 1736. The second has the nearest resemblance of the three to what we know as oratorios elsewhere : the last, by far the greatest, is divided into six parts, for performance on Christmas and the two days following, New Year's Day, the first Sunday in the year, and the Epiphany. It has, however, a unity of feeling running through it, which stamps it as a single work. We have already noticed and explained the presence here of much that had pi'eviously formed part of secular cantatas ; but it may be added that there is the less incongruity in the case when we consider how largely the rejoicing of Christmastide was mixed up with social festivities. That Bach, however, was careful lest the deeper meaning of the incarnation should be forgotten, is shown by the employment of the melody of a well-known Passion chorale — his favourite Haupt voll Blut und Wunden — which occurs twice, the second time with an exuberance of instrumental accompaniment to close the woi'k. The Oratorio has by this time become so familiar in England that it is perhaps unnecessary to describe its structure. Nothing of Bach surpasses it in the warm life of its choruses or the delicate charm of its airs — the purity SG SEBASTIAN BACH. of one alto song, Bereite dick, Zion, or the idyllic beauty of another, Schlafe, mein Liebster, than which no lovelier lullaby has ever been written. Before noticing the mysteries which Bach consecrated to the history of the Passion — works by the side of which, the Christmas Oratorio takes a worthy place, rather by virtue of its great compass and masterly performance, than by any close affinity of scheme — we may complete the summary of his German works by a brief mention of the Motets. The motet may be described as a sacred madrigal : in other words, it is written in several parts, commonly four, five, six, or eight ; it does not require an instru- mental accompaniment; and it is set to a text from the Bible, or a verse from a church hymn. It was a style of composition entirely polyphonic, which had gradually declined in popularity as instrumental music and especially solo singing came into vogue. And it is one of Bach's great services to church-music to have revived it, so that in the present day the weekly motet- singing in his own Church at Leipzig remains one of the most popular institutions of the town. Contrary, however, to the custom now, Bach seems to have had the motets accompanied, apparently on the organ ; and this fact indicates their principal distinction from the older style. They are in fact based upon an organ treatment, and have precise parallels in several chorale- movements in the church cantatas. Few, however, have survived the carelessness of Bach's successors at the Thomasschule, though their melodious figuration and religious sublimity might, one would have thought, SEBASTIAN BACK. 87 have secured their unintermitted performance there. When Mozart came to Leipzig in 1789, and heard one of thern (No. 5) he exclaimed, Here is a new thing from which I may learn, and, finding that the piece existed only in parts, he ranged them round the room until he had mastered their structure. The following are all that remain, not included in the body of church cantatas : — 1 . Lobet den Herrn 1 ' for four voices ; 2. Nun danket alle Gott for five ; 3. Jesu, meine Freude, also for five ; 4. Her Geist hilft unsrer Schivachheit auf; 5. Singet den Herrn ein neues Lied;. G. Fiirchte dich nicht ; 7. Komm, Jesu, homm ; the last four for a double chorus of eight voices. 7 All but No. 2 have been published at Leipzig by Breitkopf and llaertel : a few others are of doubtful genuineness. 88 SEBASTIAN BACH. CHAPTER VII. Bach is stated to have written a Passion music in five different shapes. Two of these are the familiar Passions according to 8. Matthew and 8. John, which are the truest reflexion of the master's genius in his ripest years. The other three were long supposed to have been lost, unless a S. Luke Passion, which exists in Bach's autograph, might possibly be claimed as his work. Lately, however, the acute study of Dr. Rust has discovered part of a 8. Marie Passion to lie hid under the guise of the Dirge for the Queen of Poland, Bach having sought in this way to give permanence to a work of which the original motive was merely fugitive ; l and Professor Spitta has made it probable that Bach also wrote the music to a Passion following the text of no single evangelist, which was produced at the Thomaskirche in 1725. 3 He further offers an elaborate and conclusive defence of the genuineness of the 8. Luke Passion, which he places without hesitation in the early years of Bach's residence at Weimar. 3 1 Preface to the twentieth volume, first division, of the Bach- Gesellschaft. 3 Vol. ii. pp. 335 ff. 8 Vol. ii. pp. 338— 346. SEBASTIAN BACH. 89 The 8. John Passion comes second in the series, and was brought out in 1724. Of the presumptive work of 1725, above-mentioned, a solitary chorus exists in record. The Passion according to 8. Matthew follows in 1729; and last of all, in 1731, that according to 8. Mark. The printed text of this, which we still possess, was adapted by Picander to the Dirge of 1727; but it had necessarily to be greatly aug- mented for the occasion, and of this supplemental music nothing remains to us. The dramatic presentment of the passion of Jesus Christ is one of the oldest traditions of the German people. A continuous line unites the Passion Play of Ober-Ammergau with the Mystery of the medieval church. In this respect the reformation made no change in the popular religious custom. We may find it at Zittau, in 1571, when a stage was erected in the church, and the drama acted by the schoolmasters and choir ; or we may trace it in every part of Silesia, Upper Saxony, and Thuriugia, down to the close of the seventeenth century. Side by side this popular representation stood the church usage of distributing the parts of the passion-narrative between the officiating priest and the choir, a usage which plainly took its origin in a desire to give life to the Latin words. The necessity of it was removed when the Gospel came to be recited in the vernacular tongue, but the habit had struck too deep roots in the heart of the people to be interfered with. The Catholic wont survived, with so much else in the Lutheran churches of Middle Ger- many ; and the musical Passion remained, at Leipzig 90 SEBASTIAN BACH. at least, a part of the regular service until the second half of the eighteenth century. German Passions at once sprang up, and won an ever-increasing popularity, since it was now attempted to exalt their religious impression by an artistic treatment of the subject as a whole. At first the music hardly departed from the strict medieval recitation; then it was varied by the introduction of hymns; the form of the motet was added, and found so attractive that it was applied universally and nothing was left for a solo voice. The recited Gospel — once the basis of the whole — seemed to be falling into disuse, when it was suddenly revived in the shape of the new Italian discovery, the recitative, especially in that most expressive variety, the arioso. Instrumental accompaniment became the rule ; the story was interrupted by short symphonies ; above 'all, the aria was introduced, to give sti-ess to the spiritual feeling of the text, as a sort of emotional commentary. Finally, the Italian importation was naturalised, as it were, by the insertion of chorales, at first sung by the congregation, and increasing in number to twenty, thirty, or even more. Hitherto the foreign element had been drawn from the concerted music of the Italian churches. A more potent influence entered Germany during Bach's youth, that namely which proceeded from the Italian theatre — opera or oratorio, it mattered little ; for in each, though the form was different, the spirit was the same. 4 The first result in Germany has an analogy in * Sometimes in Italy the oratorio was actually presented with SEBASTIAN BACH. 91 the contemporaiy stage of the history of the church cantata. The place of the chorale or direct biblical recitative was taken by poems written for the occasion ; it was sought to realise a religious impression, not by these plain and popular means, but by the poetic unity of the composition. A reaction, however, soon took place in favour of the popular form ; and the Passion text of Brockes (1712), which combined chorales and the words of the Gospel, slightly altered, it is true, with the general structure of an oratorio, immediately established itself as a model, and was set to music, within six years of its publication, by musi- cians of the eminence of Keiser, Telemann, Handel, aud Mattheson. It forms also the basis of Bach's 8. John. Passion ; but here the biblical narrative is followed with entire fidelity, 5 and the master has pro- ceeded with such independent judgment that his work stands quite remote from the strange medley of sacred and secular, old and new, with which his immediate predecessors had to be contented. The music they wrote to it was indeed of great individual beauty, but in their hands it never gained the symmetry of an organic whole. It is Bach's peculiar glory to have succeeded in this endeavour where everyone else had failed. He adopted not the forms of the Italian oratorio, but he absorbed its spirit. He blended it in a manner of all the scenic accessories of the opera, just as Liszt's Saint Elisabeth vras performed at Weimar, in 1881. 5 The only change is by way of addition, namely, of two place from S. Matthew xxvi. 75, xsvii. 51, 52, to the distinct in- vigoration of the somewhat colourless narrative of the fourth Gospel. 92 SEBASTIAN BACH. which no previous composer had ever suspected the possibility, with the profound religiousness of the national chorale. Above all, he created a recitative of his own, stripped of all that was theatrical and entirely appropriate to the setting 1 forth of the divine narrative. In his Passion music he brings to absolute completeness the form for which his conception of the church cantata had been through long years the pre- paration. But musical power alone could not have achieved what Bach achieved. It was his perfect sympathy with the religious sense and emotional needs of the German people, his reverent acceptance of all that was noble in the musical tradition of his race, that enabled him to mould the ideal fulfilment of that which had been imperfectly foreshadowed in the pre- sentments of the passion, whether as an act of diviue service, a folk-play, or an oratorio. The Passions according to 8. John and 8. Matthew lie before us as the noblest monuments of Bach's spirit. Often as they have been compared, to the inevitable disadvantage of the former work, it needs little study of them to shew that any comparison must be strained and unnatural. Each is in truth incomparable, whether in relation to the other, or to the rest of sacred music. The 8. John Passion is the perfection of church-music ; the 8. Matthew reaches the goal of all sacred art, while its colossal dimensions take it almost, happily not quite, out of the range of church performance. The 8. John Passion stands closer to the oratorio, as we may learn from the way in which nearly every choral sentence, that is to say, whatever is spoken by SEBASTIAN BACH. 93 the disciples, the Jewish crowd, or the soldiers, ia wrought into a regular chorus, or at least several times repeated. This arrangement certainly impairs the proportion of the different parts, since it appears to lay a greater emphasis upon the voice of the many than upon the single utterance of Christ or another. There is, however, always a musical fitness in these elaborations, and nothing can be more artistic than the way in which, for example, the sentence, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, is rehearsed as the subject of a fugue, the most formal and (so to say) legal phrase that music admits, and also the most expressive of the dispersed yet unanimous speech of a multitude. It is part of the idea of Passion music to break the continuity of the narrative in the Gospel by chorales and by meditations, in the form of arias or of developed recitative (called arioso), dwelling upon the weighty moments of the story, after the fashion of the chorus in Greek tragedy ; and Bach has taken advan- tage of the custom to insert in the S. John Passion some of his most melodious and most profoundly impressive creations. But, what is highly significant of the spirit in which he planned his work, he never allows these to interrupt the real unity of the narrative, almost invariably prolonging the vocal cadence of the foregoing recitative by leaving it on the dominant harmony. " The course of the action and the re- flections upon it seem thus to be linked in unbroken sequence, as if the one sprang irresistibly to the other." 6 6 G. A. Macfarren, preface to Novello's edition of the Passion, p. ii. 94 SEBASTIAN BACH. The entire work is begun and ended by great choruses. The opening one was written and prefixed later, the original chorus having been relegated to the close of the first part of the 8. Matthew Passion f that at the end has also a similar inspiration to the concluding chorus of the latter work, but its preservation in its present form as well is a matter for which we cannot be too grateful, whether we regard most the exquisite pathos of its melody or the perfect flow of the several instruments, which, in their separate progressions, give a personal, almost an individual, sentiment to the composition. This sentiment lies at the root of the Passion according to 8. John, and makes a peculiar contrast to the universality which is the note of that according to 8. Matthew. As though to merge this mood in a broader sympathy with his fellow-believers, Bach has protracted the end so as to close the work by a chorale, the distinctive symbol of congregational brotherhood. If this be the motive of the unusual termination of the earlier Passion, Bach has no need to explain his intention in the Passion according to S. Matthew. In the first bars of the opening chorus the long majestic tread of the basses is heard clearly to introduce us to the thought of a drama of which the whole world is the spiritual scene, all mankind, in their Eepresentative, the actors. The never-ending wail of the violins preludes to a tragedy which sums up all human 7 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. SEBASTIAN BACH. 95 suffering. The cry has slowly risen to its height when the daughters of Zion are shown to us, assembled to mourn, in the same piercing measures, the Bridegroom as he passes on bearing his cross. A chorus of believers, with wondering question, first interrupts their lament, finally takes up their burthen and unites in the common sorrow. Meantime the listening ear detects a third choir, of a single voice, singing as from afar, and again strangely breaking off, the chorale, Lamb of God. The art of the work is stupendous ; but more wonderful still is the truthfulness with which it figures forth the immensity of the drama to which it is the prologue. Nevertheless it was far remote from Bach's mind to present the Passion in the guise of a drama ; it would have been altogether foreign to the essence of his genius. The Passion he will shew to us as a picture, or rather as a series of pictures. He takes the text of S. Matthew without gloss or change; choruses he leaves in the terse briefness of natural utterance, repeating little or not at all. He seeks to give just expression to the words by a thoughtful distribution of the speeches between two complete choirs, each with. its own organ and orchestra. Above all he separates the words of Jesus from the rest of the recited narrative by a different accompaniment, that of a string quartet, within which setting he places them, with the purity of a crystal, as within an aureole. 8 At 8 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 9(3 SEBASTIAN BACH. certain moments of supreme dignity, the simple re- citative rises into the measured melody of the arioso, the words, however, remaining without change. In this way the solemn act of the last supper is carried to a sublime height, and inspired with a supernal tender- ness, wherein music reaches its noblest and mosf divine ideal. Once only does the glory fade from around Christ's words, and that is at the last cry, Eli, Eli, lama asabthani. Here it is the organ — the accompaniment of the human recitative — which alone sustains the harmony. It is the finest thought in all Bach's writing. The additions to the text of the Gospel are of two sorts. First there are the chorales, which appear in great frequency owing to the numerous repetitions of a few melodies. One, the special Passion chorale, Haupt voll Blut and Wunden, recurs five times, with different words, and the harmonies each time newly constructed. The intention is evidently to fix the thought upon the prevailing tone of the subject, in the same fashion, diversely applied, as that of the modern Leitmotiv. Beside these chorales stand Picander's verses which are set in the form, not only of arias or ariosos, but also of recitative ; and these, to throw the biblical recitative into greater relief, have, for the most part, an accompaniment of wind instruments : sometimes the single voice is blended, as in converse, with the voices of the choir. Usually in the Passion music the company of the faithful came simply as Christ's words to a chorus, as though too great for any single voice : Spitta, vol. ii. pp. 374 f. SEBASTIAN BACH. 97 prologue and epilogue; here, on the contrary, it attends throughout, and from one side of the church answers to the voice of the Daughter of Zion on the other. Once and again the multitudinous cry breaks in upon the pathos of her song ; and it seems as if no place were void of the all-pervading agony. At the end both choirs join together in a hymn of tender watching addressed to the Saviour as he lies sleeping in the tomb. We should certainly fail to appreciate Bach's place as a writer for the church, if we left out of regard his Masses. That a composer so peculiarly representative of Protestantism should have written such works will only surprise those who are unfamiliar with the usage of Lutheran worship. The conservatism of Leipzig, in particular, retained many Catholic customs which the Protestant churches as a rule had discarded, for in- stance, the surplices of minister and choir, and the ringing of a bell during the eucharistal office. Latin motets, hymns, and responses, were sung on high festivals ; and the use of the Latin Magnificat furnished Bach with a theme for perhaps the splendidest of his shorter church compositions. The original performance of the Magnificat throws an interesting light on the manner in which the old tradition of the Latin singing was fused with an entirely popular service. The famous work, notable also as the first masterpiece which Bach produced at Leipzig, was not performed on the Christmas of 1723, as we now hear it, as a continuous whole. It was broken up by a string of Christmas songs, which, wo H 98 SEBASTIAN BACH. may rather say, served as a curiously wrought setting to enhance the beauty of the gem it enclosed. At every pause the thanksgiving of the virgin-mother was interrupted by verses of a well-loved German hymn, Vom Himmel hoch, by the Gloria in Excelsis, and by little songs, part in Latin, part German, of the most homely simplicity. Most likely the church too kept the old German fashion, with its cradle and lullaby and touching chorus of angels. Strangely out of place must the superb canticle have sounded, but for that reverent spirit which breathes through it and makes it a fulfilment of Protestant feeling, and a contrast only by completion. Besides these occasional performances, the first three divisions of a complete Mass — the Eyrie, Gloria, and Credo — formed a regular part of the service on Sundays and feast-days ; the Sandus distinguished the three high festivals of the Lutheran kalendar : the only element of the Mass which is not known to have been sung was the Agnus Dei, and even of this we have evidence that it was performed in the University Church (from a Mass of Haydn) later on in the eighteenth century. Accordingly there is nothing to hinder the suppo- sition that Bach employed his Masses for production in the Leipzig churches. Concerning two of the five he wrote 9 this is highly probable; and a similar influence 9 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 JPassion; those in G and A apparently dating from about 1737, SEBASTIAN BACH. 99 is suggested by the transcripts of several Italian Masses, drawn from such different sources as Pales- trina and Lotti, which exist in Bach's autograph and in that of his wife and son. At the least the latter bear witness to the hold which this form of church- music had taken upon his mind. But it was not until he had traversed the whole field of Protestant music that he allowed himself to rise to the conception of a work that should embrace the universal faith of Christendom, whose voice should be persuasive to the hopes and beliefs of Catholic and Protestant alike, the sonorous majesty of the one growing intense in the human earnestness of the other. To this Mass in B minor 1 Bach put all his strength, consecrated every resource of inspiration and art, every possibility of voice and instrument. While Catholic writers have treated the Mass music as the gorgeous accompani- ment of a mighty pomp, in which the outward, dramatic, impressiveness stands in the foreground, Bach passes back to the verities of which the sacred office is the symbol. Thus his Kyrie is not the mere opening of a stately pageant. From four bars of majestic chorus, the orchestra go on at once to The four Masses are printed in the eighth volume of the Bach- Gesellschaft. A Christe eleison in C minor and four Sanctases (B.-G. si. pt. 1) complete the list of Bach's Latin works. 1 As already mentioned, p. 65, the Kyrie and Gloria of tha 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. H 2 100 SEBASTIAN BACH. announce a theme unsurpassed in the entire range of Bach's music ; each of the five voices of the choir take it up in turn and weave together their passionate, yet restrained cry for mercy. The human passion of the Kyrie eleison has its counterpart in the tender, almost personal feeling of the Christe eleison, which is set as a duet to an exquisitely melodious accompaniment of the violin, and in the closing Kyrie chorus, which, instead of being conceived in the usual way as a petition to the Holy Spirit, resumes the tone of the first and sums up the total supplication in a spirit now suggestive of the broad treatment of the Catholic writers but soon betraying the hand of Bach in its conciseness, its more nervous motion and acuter harmonies. The same abandoning of traditional currents in order that he might go back straight to the springs lying deep in the nature and experience of the world, to which the office of the holy communion owes its life, is equally manifest throughout the Mass. The Gloria becomes again the angel-song of the nativity. Bach throws himself at once into the spirit in which he wrote the Christmas Oratorio; and of this great work the later chorus is a sort of summary, to be used again for performance at Christmas. But if his profound grasp of the reality of that which he expressed is the supreme excellence of Bach's High Mass, no less striking in its way is the discrimination with which he treats the different elements of the Creed. Intel- lectual dogmas find an intellectual rendering, as in the curious places in which the union of the divine nature in Christ is reflected by a canon, first in the unison, SEBASTIAN BACH. 101 then in the fourth below. But doctrines which are more directly bound up with the soul of Christianity- are recited with a fulness of living sympathy, which feels the pathos of the human life of Christ, pulses with unspeakable awe and an intensity almost terrific at the rehearsal of his death, then springs up in most glorious rejoicing at the resurrection. The declaration of his personal faith did not obscure in Bach's mind the fact that he was writing a work which should hold true for the one catholic, apostolic church of which existing churches were all alike members. He returns to this thought openly in the article of baptism, where the Gregorian intonation, Gonjiteor unum baptisma, is pronounced, as a second subject, by the basses and wrought with superb art into the texture of the fugue. Words, however, can give but a very faint impression of this masterpiece of universal Christendom; and daring with forced fingers rude to touch its perfect outline, I leave inviolate the lyrical tenderness of the Agnus Dei and the yearning desire 2 of the Dona nobis pacem, the restful consummation of the whole. Nor can I describe the infinite fertility of the design, the happy frequency with which in the a/trie a single 2 Bach's thankfulness has often this same emotional tenour. In the Mass it is made con-picuous by the identity of the music of the Bona nohis with that of the Gratias agimus. The subject is an old church one. Bach had used it before in the great chorus of his Kathswahl-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. 102 SEBASTIAN BACH. instrument, violin, flute, hautboy, or horn, is made to enhance the delicacy of the human voice, or the splen- dour of the grouping of the orchestra, equally noble in sonorous magnificence and in chastened softness. Whether in its art or in its religion the High Mass stands among the creations of Bach's master-spirit, first and alone, but for 'its sole equal, the Passion according to Saint Matthew. SEBASTIAN BACH. 103 CHAPTER VIIL We quitted the direct narrative of Bach's life at the point when the arrival of the new rector of the Thomasschule gave it an interval of peace and quiet- ness, an interval of which we took advantage to review the great ranges of church-music which fell as an official task to the cantor. The four years of Gesner's rule are the ripest and busiest in Bach's life; not that they include his greatest individual works, with the notable exception of the High Mass, but that they are the most productive, and of works attaining a more uniform level of first-rate excellence than any others. After 1735 Bach was content to relax some- what, and he employed his time, less in composing new cantatas or the like, than in revising, solidifying, and balancing his earlier works. He must also have retired more into the quiet of his family life, and devoted himself to his private pupils, after the blow struck at his influence in the school by Gesner's suc- cessor, Ernesti. Ernesti, a young man of great learning and a good teacher, was as incapable as his father, the old rector under whom Bach first taught, of grasping the primary conditions of the school, namely, its combination of 104 SEBASTIAN BACH. musical with general education. He was jealous of the predominance of the former, and therefore started with a bias against Bach. He succeeded in winning a victory for his own schemes, but at the expense of the ruin of the music. Bach was not the only sufferer; the same dispute was going on elsewhere in Germany at the time, and was in fact one of the incidents of a transitional period in the history of education. The Thomasschule from its double government, the cantor having an equal supremacy in musical matters with the rector's in secular, was peculiarly liable to such a conflict. Unless the two heads were joined by a strong bond of sympathy, as happened with Bach and Gesner, rivalry was, perhaps, inevitable. When Ernesti suc- ceeded to the place, we have not long to wait before the unpleasant spectacle presents itself. It is needless to follow the details of the quarrel which kept Bach in a nervous state of exasperation for nearly two years, and left him in official discomfort for the rest of his life. Suffice it to say, that in 1736 Ernesti quite unwarrantably usurped the cantor's right of nominating the musical prefects. Bach's contention was throughout the just one, only he made the mistake of losing his temper about it. However, it is to, be observed that his language, if occasionally violent, is consistently to the point, and the musician shews better breeding than the scholar, who is not ashamed of vulgar abuse, charges of lying, and like scurrilities. The whole thing, indeed, began by a scene that tells strongly for Bach's sense of justice. A prefect had been, as he believed, wrongly condemned to a public SEBASTIAN BACH. 105 flogging before the school. Bach, who had had nothing to do with his subordinate's crime, interposed by taking the whole blame upon his shoulders. The rector was in a rage, and refused to remit the punish- ment : so the prefect had to leave, and the rector filled up the vacancy. Hence the quarrel. To Bach it must have been irritating beyond bearing to have a man, little more than half his age, intruding upon his incontestable rights, still more to find the Town Council and consistory unscrupulous in supporting the claim of the stronger, by declining to disturb a right which had no precedent. It was not until he had appealed to the King, and delighted him by some evening-music, produced when he was next at Leipzig, that the matter came for a fair hearing. As often happens, when we have elaborate documents of the progress of a case, the conclusion has disappeared, but it is presumed that the royal judgment was broader than the indecent partiality of the Leipzig officials, and that the grievance was redressed. But the harm had gone too far to be undone, and while Bach and Ernesti lived there was no more unity in the school. How deeply Bach resented the injury is seen from the eager interest he took in a quarrel that turned on the same principles as his own, the very year before his death. He not only had a critique of the offending school- master written and printed for him but actually changed the phrasing of a secular cantata, The Contest of Phoebus and Pan, when it was next performed, so as to convey a covert sneer at him and Ernesti jointly. One more assault came to disturb Bach's tranquillity 106 SEBASTIAN BACH. a short time after the controversy with Ernesti had come to an end. This was an insolent article by Scheibe, a musician not without a superficial clever- ness, whom Bach had rejected as unqualified for a certain organistship. It appeared anonymously in Sckeibe's own review, the Gritische Musicus, in 1737; nor was Bach's name given, though the reference was too clear to escape notice. Bach is said to have resented the attack, which was a mere flippant pas- quinade upon his music, bitterly ; and he was almost- induced to enter into literary warfare in defence. Happily we are spared the sight of a master in one art essaying to use weapons with which he is sure to show to disadvantage ; and it was Bach's friend, Magister Birnbaum, who took up his cause for him. Bach had certainly warm admirers and true friends in Leipzig. His old pupils remained faithful to him, and one, Altnikol, married his second daughter. Their number continually increased with the master's fame, and among them are reckoned three at least of his kinsmen and not a few musicians of high repute in the younger generation, such as J. L. Krebs (afterwards court organist at Altenburg), J. F. Agricola (capell- meister at Berlin), J. F. Doles (cantor of the Thomas- schule), G. A. Homilius (cantor of the Kreuzschule at Dresden), and J. P. Kirnberger (a noted contra- puntist, and court musician at Berlin), not to mention the most eminent of all, Bach's two eldest sons. Another, J. T. Goldberg, was the clavichord-player for whom Bach made his Thirty Variations. He was attached to the suite of the Baron von Kayserling, an invalid who SEBASTIAN BACH. 107 suffered greatly from sleeplessness. The Baron would often have Goldberg pass the night in a room adjoining his, that he might play to him when he could not rest. Once he said to Bach that he should like to have some music "of a soothing and rather cheerful character, that he might be a little amused by them in his sleep- less nights." 1 To this request Bach replied by his variations which combine a monotony of ground-work with an endless variety of treatment, including canons in all intervals, and winding up with a quodlibet of delightful freshness. 2 Kayserling was more than amused by the present. He was never tired of hearing the pieces, and " for a long time afterwards, when the sleepless nights came, he used to say, Dear Goldberg, do play me one of my variations ;" — they were always his variations. He thanked Bach for them with a gold cup filled with a hundred louis-d'or (or about 751. sterling). But while students thronged to Bach as a master; and while he was often assailed by smatterers who only wanted to be known as his pupils — and were disap- pointed — his later years were years of declining influence in Leipzig, precisely in proportion to his increasing celebrity outside. Like Milton his fame grew when public recognition failed. He became merely one of the sights of the place. No musician who passed through or near Leipzig was satisfied without an interview. But when any real occasion came, when his help and judgment would have been of use, he was not called. I do not refer to the Society 1 Forkel, pi 87 s See above, p. 53. 108 SEBASTIAN BACH. of Musical Sciences, to which Bach was only admitted years after it was established at Leipzig, and only as an ordinary member with a canon sent in as testimonial. Probably its scientific discussions on the theory of music were little to Bach's taste : perhaps he declined to join at first ; though to a man of smaller generosity it would have been a blow to see Handel chosen as an honorary member. The occasion on which even courtesy should have decided a resort to Bach's advice and co-operation was the establishment in 1743 of the Grosse Concert, the parent of the famous con- certs of the Gewandhaus. It was arranged by an association of rich burghers; and its tendencies were from the outset in a distinctly modern direction. Rossini — of all people — notes Dr. Spitta, supplanted Beethoven among contemporaries; and the great Leipzig master became a stranger in his own town. But the fact that Bach had nothing to do with the beginning of the decisive musical movement 3 of the town does a great deal to fix his position in one's mind. Equally significant is the circumstance that some time, perhaps some years, after 1736 he resigned the leadership of the Musical Society over which he had presided since 1729. If he was not to be first, he preferred to retreat into privacy. This privacy must have become closer when his three eldest sons left • One good he got from it. The town having awoke to the advantage of hearing good music, it became more liberal in tbe arrangements, and especially the financial arrangements of the Thomaskirche. It had slept apparently through the S% Matthew Passion. SEBASTIAN BACH. 109 him to follow a musical calling elsewhere, Friedemann at Dresden and then at Halle, Emanuel at Berlin, and Bernhard at Muehlhausen. One daughter of his first marriage was all that remained to him. Of the thirteen children of his second marriage, seven died in early childhood and one was an idiot. Friedrich and Johann Christian were the only sons of musical promise ; the former became capellmeister to the Count of Schaum- burg at Bueckeburg, the latter made the name of Bach famous in London drawing-rooms, but only through his own thin productions. Born in 1735, he was the darling of his father's old age, and was the only son who remained with his three sisters in the home when Bach died. With Friedemann and Emanuel their father always kept near relations, as far as the difficulty of travelling allowed. It was through the latter that Bach came to make his famous visit to the court of Frederick the Great. The king had often expressed a desire to see him and Emanuel had informed his father of it. But Bach was usually now too busy to undertake so long a journey. At last, in 1747, he decided to go, and, characteristically enough, fetched Friedemann from Halle on the way to accompany him. I give the account of the interview at Potsdam in the words of Forkel, who had it from Friedemann himself : — " At this time the king had every evening a private conceit, in which be himself generally performed some concertos on the flute. One evening, just as he was getting his flute ready, and his musicians were assem- bled, an officer brought him the list of the strangers 110 SEBASTIAN BACH. who had arrived. With his flute in his hand he ran over the list, but immediately turned to the assembled musicians, and said, with a kind of agitation, Gentle- men, old Bach is come. The flute was now laid aside, and old Bach, who had alighted at his son's lodgings, was immediately summoned to the Palace At that time it was the fashion to make rather prolix com- pliments. The first appearance of J. S. Bach before so great a King, who did not even give him time to change his travelling-dress for a black chanter's gown, must necessarily be attended with many apologies. I will not here dwell on these apologies, but merely observe, that in William Friedemann's mouth they made a formal dialogue between the King and the Apologist. " But what is more important than this is, that the King gave up his concert for this evening, and invited Bach, then already called the Old Bach, to try his fortepianos, made by Silbermann, which stood in various rooms of the palace," and numbered fifteen. " The musicians went with him from room to room, and Bach was invited everywhere to try and to play unpremeditated compositions." The king gave him a subject to develop in fugue, and Bach concluded by adding one that occurred to himself, which he extem- porized in six voices. It was the greatest display of Bach's life, and certainly an exhibition that has never been equalled on its own lines. A permanent record of the visit lies in the MusiJcalische Opfer, wherein Bach treated the theme which the king had proposed to him with an exuberance of learning and variety SEBASTIAN BACH. Ill beyond the possibilities of ex tempore composition. It comprises fugues in three and six parts, eight canons, and a sonata for three instruments, ending in a perpetual canon. The Musical Offering has always been an object of admiration for the ingenuity of its workmanship. But its object was mainly the display of contrapuntal learning. It was a parergon to which Bach delighted himself by applying every resource of musical science ; and there- fore stands on a different footing to the three great collections of fugues which Bach composed, the last of which was his employment almost to the time of his death. The Art of Fugue stands nearest to the Musical Offering, since it too consists of fugues and canons, all upon a single subject. It differs from that work inas- much as here he wrote not to display his own skill, but to illustrate the final possibilities of contrapuntal art. But equally it appeals to a very limited class of musi- cians; to us in the present moment it is chiefly interesting as shewing that, if Bach's productive energy ceased comparatively early, his power only became the more massive when he chose to use it. Far otherwise is it with the two sets of preludes and fugues through all the major and minor keys, called the Wohltemperirte Clavier. 4 These no musician or pianist can ignore with impunity; Schumann himself, whose style of playing and composing lies at the anti- 4 The title is often given in French as the Clavecin lien tempere ; but this is confusing, for the works were never intended for the harpsichord (clavecin), but for the more expressive clavichord (clavier). 112 SEBASTIAN BACH. podes of Bach's, commends them to "young musicians " as tteir " daily bread." 5 The Forty-Eight Preludes and Fugues were begun partly with an educational purpose. Bach wished to prove the capacity of the clavichord, now that he had enlarged its sphere by an improved method of tuning, and to impress this variety upon his pupils. The first half, to which alone the title Das Wohltemperirte Clavier properly belongs, was completed in 1722, just before the author left Coethen; the second was finally ar- ranged some time befoi'e 1746, perhaps before 1740. The labour and the years Bach took to mature these great works seem to indicate that he regarded them as representative works. Not a bar but was subjected to the most thoughtful remodelling. 6 The first part in particular needed many a trial before it could find the master's approval, and thrice did he transcribe the whole with his own hand. Every idea that was out of place, every line that led nowhere, was ruthlessly pruned away. When the root of the piece was reached, perhaps the motive of the original would germinate afresh, and the whole would assume a quite new and statelier form. The two parts are in some measure distin- guished by the greater development of some of the preludes in the second, which are now and then sonatas on a small scale, and by the technical incom- pleteness of some fugues in the first. But, though the latter part is perhaps the richer and more full of s " You will then," he adds, " surely become an able musician." 6 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 SEBASTIAN BACH. 113 fancy, there is a symmetry about the whole series which makes inconceivable that Bach should have not intended the two parts to be combined. Indeed we are told that Bach liked to have the whole played through at a sitting. The work as it stands bears no trace, except in its various readings, of the multiple processes through which it has passed to gain each time in purity and simplicity and freedom. 7 For it must at the outset be explained that the Forty-Eight were never intended as model fugues. Learning was to Bach a means to an end. Except for amusement, as in the Musikalische Opfer, he never let it shew itself. To produce living work it needed the touch of his imagination and the guidance of his clear artist's instinct. In fact, nothing is freer than his management of the several voices of a fugue. "He considered his parts," it has been finely said, "as persons, who conversed to- gether, like a select company. If there were three, each could sometimes be silent, and listen to the others, till it again had something to the purpose to say. But, if in the midst of the most interesting part of the discourse, some uncalled and importunate note suddenly stepped in, and attempted to say a word, or even a syllable only, Bach looked on this as a great irregularity, and made his pupils comprehend that it the same fugue at p. 44. The relation of these essays to their inimitable successor is full of suggestion. Similarly the pre- lude and fugue in A flat (also in the second part) were at first written in F. See 214, p. 40. 7 It is interesting to compare the great organ-fugues, as that in G which dates from 1724-5, or that in C from 1730. I 114 SEBASTIAN BACH. was not to be allowed." But " no part, not even a middle part, was allowed to break off, before it had entirely said what it bad to say. . . . This high de- gree of exactness in the management of every single part is precisely what makes Bach's harmony a mani- fold melody." What Forkel here says of Bach's part-writing in general is true in an even fuller sense of the fugues. I quote him because he was not only one of the most learned contrapuntists of his day, but also a man who discerned clearly the limits of counterpoint and the difference bstween musical learning and musical art. His description of the fugues is concise and plain, and so much to the point that it deserves quotation here : — "A highly characteristic theme, an uninterrupted principal melody, wholly derived from it, and equally characteristic from the beginning to the end; not mere accompaniment in the other parts, but in each of them an independent melody, according with the others, also from the beginning to the end ; freedom, lightness, and fluency, in the progress of the whole, inexhaustible variety of modulation combined with perfect purity; the exclusion of every arbitrary note, not necessarily belonging to the whole ; unity and diversity in the style, rhythmus, and measure; and lastly, a life diffused through the whole, so that it sometimes appears to the performer or hearer, as if every single note were animated ; these are the pro- perties of Bach's fugue. . . . All Bach's fugues. . . . are endowed with equally great excellencies, but each in a different manner. Each has its own precisely denned character; and dependent upon that, its own SEBASTIAN BACH. 115 turns in melody and harmony. When we know and can perform one, we really know only one, and can perform but one; whereas we know and can play whole folios full of fugues by other composers of Bach's time, as soon as we have comprehended, and ren- dered familiar to our hand, the turns of a single one." 8 There is no work that realizes better the conception of a perfect fugue than that in C sharp minor in the first part of the Wohltemperirte Clavier. That it is in five voices and contains three subjects, are facts that would by themselves place it among the most verte- brate of the collection. But least of all does the grandeur of the fugue rest upon its complexity. It is the character-drawing of the several voices, and the nobility of them, that make their discourse sublime — three voices entirely contrasted and entirely blended — each time with a new and surprising effect, now of pomp, now of tenderest pathos — one a slow organ- voice, the nest delicate and flowing, and the third vehement, striking hammer-blows. The second and then the last gradually die away; the solemnity of the original theme communicates itself again to the whole web of thought, and the end is plaintive and restful. 9 A story is told which displays in a characteristic way Bach's instinctive knowledge of the nature of a 8 Pp. 57 f, cp. 68 f . * 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 mo.st convenient for students, since it is unencumbered by the addi- tions of later pianoforte-music makers, marks of tempo, empha- sis, &c.' i 2 ] 1 6 SEBASTIAN BACH. fugue. When he happened to be in a strange churct where a fugue was announced, and one of his two eldest sons stood near him, " he always, as soon as he had heard the introduction to the theme, said before- hand what the composer ought to introduce, and what possibly might be introduced. If the composer had performed his work well, what he said happened : then he rejoiced, and jogged his son, to make him ob- serve it/' Otherwise, it is added, his modesty made him the most lenient of critics. The Art of Fugue has already been mentioned as the last and most massive of Bach's works. It must have been begun in 1749, and so careful was the author of what he wished to be considered as his masterpiece — in the strict sense — that he had it engraved under his own eyes. 1 He did not live to see it published 2 ; the carelessness or ignorance of those into whose hands it came allowed it to appear with several ex- traneous insertions, and its intended regular structure of fifteen fugues and four canons upon a single theme in D minor remained long obscured. Not content with this gigantic fugue — for it is one fugue through all its fifteen sections — Bach resolved to penetrate still further into the labyrinth of har- 1 Not, however, by his sons hands, as is commonly stated. The Kunst der Fuge is edited by Dr. Bust in the twenty-fifth volume of the Bach-Gesellschaf t (first division) : its study should be accompanied by Moritz Hauptmann's musician-like ErliiU' terungen, published by Peters. 2 It was published in 1752. The only works that appeared in Bach's lifetime were the five parts of the Clavier-TJebung containing clavichord and organ compositions, the Musikalische Ojifer, and a Canon written for Mizler's Musical Society. SEBASTIAN BACH. 117 monic combinations, and to write., so it is said, a fugue in four parts with, four subjects, all of them to be reversed in each of the parts. He had not, how- ever, gone much beyond the introduction of the third subject, which contained in the German notation the letters of his own name, when his excessive applica- tion was terminated by a painful disorder in the eyes. He had always been near-sighted, and now his vision almost failed. He consulted an English oculist of repute, who was then in Leipzig ; but after two opera- tions he became totally blind, and the medical treat- ment he underwent broke his hitherto hale constitution. For half a year he declined, until he found his rest on the evening of Tuesday, the 28th of July, 175U. Ten days before his death his eyesight for a short space suddenly returned to him. It was a few days after that strange illumination that he called Altnikol, his son-in-law, to him, and bade him write at his dictation the chorale When we are in the depths of need. But death had become a new presence to him. Often had he lingered upon the idea in chorale and cantata; but now he felt himself to have passed beyond the gulf. He bade Altnikol set other words at the head of the music. The words were these : Herewith I come before thy throne. z 8 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, "Tho 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 tho last fugue, " p. 91. The rigour of criticism has of course re- legated the piece to the category of ory;an-works (vii. 58). 113 SEBASTIAN BACH. CHAPTER IX. The fact of Bach's death was registered by the Town Council in the following terms : The Cantor at the Thomasschule, or rather the Gaipelldirector , Bach, is dead. They proceeded to resolve that the school needed a Cantor, and not a Capellmeister, although he must understand music too. Such was the public recogni- tion of Leipzig's greatest man. His widow was suf- fered to live on in need, and to die a pauper ten years after her husband. The youngest daughter was at last relieved by a public subscription, in which Beethoven was proud to join; but not by the town. The last infamy of Leipzig was achieved when S. John's churchyard, in which Bach had been laid to rest, was rooted up and made into a road. His bones were scattered, no man knew or cared where. The boys of the Thomasschule, of course, followed their cantor's funeral, and one of his colleagues pub- lished a short memorial upon his friend. But Bach was very soon forgotten in his own school. His works were doubtless performed, more or less frequently ; but cantatas and motets were required for the church service, and it was easier to fall back upon the stores of music he had left, than to buy or transcribe new SEBASTIAN BACH. 119 pieces. How little tlie treasure was valued we may learn from the circumstance that in 1803 over a hundred church compositions existed there in auto- graph, while seven years later there remained but three in score and forty-four in parts. Nevertheless the name, only the name, of Bach con- tinued powerful in Leipzig. When the Gewandhaus was opened, in 1781, it was painted in great letters upon a screen behind the orchestra ; but nothing of his was performed there until the concerts had existed for more than half a century. It was his feeblest son, Johann Christian, whose compositions were admired. The visit of Mozart, in 1789, of which I have before spoken, did somethiug to revive the interest in Bach's music ; but the process was a slow one. His works became known among an increasing number of scat- tered admirers ; then they came to be partially pub- lished; but it was not uutil 18 12 that he had a monument on the Promenade, behind the windows of his old house, not until 1850 that a worthier monument was begun in the establishment of the Bach Society, whose collection of the master's works has hardly an equal in critical accui'acy or magnificence of form. The erection of the first was due to the efforts of Mendelssohn; the second, in great measure, to Schumann. From these two monuments we turn again to their original. Of Bach's figfui*e we know nothing but the head and the square shoulders. His countenance was one of singular dignity and refinement. The thick eyebrows that stood out beneath his great forehead, 120 SEBASTIAN BACH. knotted above his long firm nose, seemed to denote a force, if not a severity, of character ; but the impres- sion was softened by the sweet, sensitive lines of his mouth. Both traits are true of the man. He had a strong self-dependence, which was reflected in his sense of duty, the consistency, the uprightness of his life, but which was liable to exaggeration in self-will, even obstinacy. Partly this was owing to his irritable temperament, the other side of his nature, born of an acute sensibility, which might reveal itself either so or more often in the tender charities of his family life. These double tendencies, the fine and the strong, had their ground in his active and contemplative religious faith ; they find their testimony in his music. Only here we see a third factor, not so manifest in his own life, in the boundless flexibility of mind to which it points. If, however, one is asked the dominant characteristics of it, there is but one reply, — manli- ness and melody, the one never too vigorous to over- power the melody, the other restrained by it from any approach to effeminacy. It is these qualities that adjudge Bach the same place among musicians as Milton holds among our own poets ; and the thought has a touching suggestion in the lack of recognition of his later years, and in his blindness. But the likeness goes deeper into their work. Each is in his craft the most learned of artists; each is ruled by an absorbing religious sense. They are equals in chastened grace, in balance and ear; and equally wanting in two special gifts, humour and dramatic power. SEBASTIAN BACH. 121 This is not the place to pursue the parallel more closely ; but the statement of it may help us to realise how little popularity can be taken as an index of artistic worth, it may also serve as a warning to those who insist on comparing Bach with other masters. He can as little be compared with Beethoven, for in- stance, as Milton with Shakespeare. That he should have been constantly brought into comparison with Handel was, perhaps, inevitable; but to see the unfairness to both, it is only necessary to observe that neither produced his best work in the same fields as the other. Bach wrote nothing more than distantly akin to the Oratorio ; Handel attempted nothing great in Masses or in Passion Music. Wherever they do enter into comparison, only ignorance can excuse the claim of superiority often made for Handel. So it is remarkably when they are set side by side as organists. With his prodigious brilliancy Handel was untrue to the nature of the organ ; he made it a concert instru ment. Bach, on the other hand, developed its powers to the utmost extent possible while preserving its church character. Accordingly, it is not strange that no single work for organ solo by Handel is known to exist, while among contemporaries Bach was hardly known except as an organ-master, and his works have remained to organists the most precious of possessions Mattheson, no unqualified judge, courteously decided that in this sphere their names must stand in alpha- betical order. To complete the picture of Bach as a performer, we must add to his command of the organ and clavichord 122 SEBASTIAN BACH. the skill he acquired as a violinist. In both his appointments at Weimar this was his instrument, and to have written and played the sonatas for violin solo, he must almost have attained perfection in its techni- calities. But his favourite stringed instrument in later years was the viola, because it placed him, " as it were, in the middle of the harmony, whence he could best hear and enjoy it, on both sides;" 1 and, when he was in the vein, he would extemporize an additional part to a trio or whatever was being played. In the same way he would at sight combine scores on the clavichord with astonishing fluency. That he could readily ex- pand a figured bass is only to say that he was pro- ficient in the ordinary training of an accompanist; but there are some details noticed by Forkel in this connexion, which bear in an interesting manner upon a vexed question of the present day, namely, the lawfulness of writing " additional accompaniments " to his vocal works, and must not be passed over. Bach was able, we are told, " if a single bass part, often ill-figured, was laid before him, immediately to play from it a trio, or a quartet ; nay, he even went so far ... as to perform extempore, to three single parts, a fourth part, and thus to make a quartetto of the whole/' 2 The plain meaning of this is that, when he pleased, he did not play simple chords to the given bass, but extracted from them two or three strains of independent melody. The principle has been applied to many of Bach's compositions, especially by Kobert Franz, whom a close study of the master led to the 1 Forkel, p. 78. « Forkel, p. 28. SEBASTIAN BACH. 123 opinion that, when Bach had left a vocal piece accom- panied only by a single bass, the natural way of making the accompaniment satisfactory was to treat it polyphonically, in the same style as Bach is recorded to have done sometimes himself; in other words, to write new parts over it in counterpoint and imitation. The necessity for some such treatment is argued from the decay, in modern times, of the art of expanding even the common harmonies of a figured bass. The real reason against it is that we may be thus obscuring the relief of light and shade which Bach designed to produce by leaving some pieces barely accompanied, as in contrast to the elaborate orchestration of others. This is more weighty than the argument drawn from the absence of any authoritative example of it ; as for instance, that it is not to be found in some exercises in figured bass by a pupil which Bach corrected. It is obvious to answer that a master would probably be content with accuracy in his scholar's work, and would not apply to it the same standard of elaboration, or allow the same freedom of treatment, as he would desire in his own. No doubt Bach employed, probably he preferred for teaching purposes, a simple accom- paniment of three or four- part harmonies. But side by side with this must be placed the testimony of a pupil, that he had never heard anything more excellent than the singing of the voices among each other, when Bach accompanied : the accompaniment was in itself so beautiful that even the principal voice could not withdraw from the pleasure he received from the accessory. Failing this faculty now-a-days, it is probably wisest to adopt 124 SEBASTIAN BACH. the judgment of Mendelssohn and limit the additional accompaniment to the writing out of the implied organ part. 3 Two other facts demand notice in reference to the pro- duction of Bach's music in modern times. One is the non-existence of distinctive solo singers. When an aria was to be sung, a single member stood up out of the body of the choir. This will explain the almost equal difficulty of each. The other fact relates to the proportion of the choir to the orchestra. In the last century the latter regularly outnumbered the former ; and Bach's own scheme for the organisation of the music at S. Thomas's desiderated only twelve singers to a band of eighteen, exclusive of the organ — the organ, be it remembered, being entrusted by Bach with a very important part. Such a distribution must have given the performances which he conducted a different colour from that which they present now. He did not separate the voices and the instruments so broadly as we are accustomed to do. The voice was to him hardly more than any other instrument ; and if we are to judge his music fairly, we must consider the two elements of his band, not as choir and accompani- ment, but as one mass of sound, composed of two balanced and co-ordinate parts. It remains to give a brief sketch of the reception which Bach has had in England. Probably Dr. Burney, the learned historian of music, was the first to 3 See Spitta, vol. i. 713 ; ii. 1241 : and compare W. S. Kock- stro's article, Orchestration, in Mr. Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. SEBASTIAN BACH. 125 introduce him here ; but he afterwards confessed that his partial verdict was based solely upon a copy of the first half of the Forty-Eight Preludes and Fugues — " a vile and most diabolical copy/' as it turned out, fall of mistakes — and had never heard one played. The first serious steps to promote the knowledge of Bach in England were taken by a company of three enthusiastic worshippers at his shrine; to one of whom is due the honour of the first publication anywhere of the Wbhltemp&rirte Clavier. It was brought out in London by A. F. K. Kollman in 1799. The impulse thus given was carried on by two leading musicians, Horn and "Wesley, who planned a complete edition of Bach's works. The series was begun in 1809, but, although well received, did not proceed very far. Eleven years later appeared a translation of ForkeFs Life of Bach. The most interesting record, however, of this move- ment, lies in a recently published collection of letters by Samuel Wesley, 4 the greatest organist of his time. The little band of enthusiasts set out as the aposLles of a new religion. Wesley proclaimed his champion- ship of Saint Sebastian, as a sacred mission, in the defence of truth and justice, against the idolaters of * A second edition appeared in London in 1878. There are few more amusing examples of ardent bero-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 wonder/til, &c, which are not only common, but weak, as is every other epithet applied to one whom none can sufficiently praise)," p. 36. 126 SEBASTIAN BACH. Handel — quite unconscious how necessarily such a combat must resolve itself into mere partisanship, and the very bigotry which he opposed. He has, however, the credit of having convinced the redoubtable Burney of the injustice of his published opinion of Bach, and also of being the first in England to observe, what Forkel had seized upon independently abroad, that of his " characteristic beauties " " air " was " one of the chief and most striking.'" ' No doubt his wonderful playing of the organ did something to make Bach known in England; but it was long before he was really accepted. The movement, in fact, for a time subsided - } it was roused again into life by the energetic work of Mendelssohn, who declared it was high time that the " immortal master, who is on no one point inferior to any master, and in many points superior to all, should no longer be forgotten." He prepared the road for the successful labours of Sterndale Bennett, who, as the most prominent English musician, was able to force Bach into notice in London. In 1849, a year before the foundation of the German Bach-Gesellschaft, he established the Bach Society, with the main object, however, not of publishing, but of producing the works of Bach. By this the 8. Matthew Passion was per- formed in 1854 and 1858, to be followed by part of the High Mass, and lastly by the Christmas Oratorio. Moreover, as musical professor at Cambridge, Sir • 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). SEBASTIAN BACH. 127 "William extended the study of Bach in a wider circle ; and it was taken up by many provincial associations. In the meanwhile Schumann's widow was asserting, by her wonderful playing, the rightful place of Bach's clavichord works among the treasures of the pianist. At length in 1C71, the S. Matthew Passion was pro- duced at Westminster Abbey, and since that time, there, or in S. Paul's Cathedral, the Passion Music and the Christmas Oratorio have taken their constant position as the special services of Holy Week and the new year. Other churches in London, notably S. Anne's, Soho, have taken up the example, and the formation of the Bach Choir has added a new zeal to the cultivation of the master. If England was late in acknowledging his greatness, nowhere now are his works performed more regularly, and nowhere does he stand in so wide and so assured a popularity. PEDIGREE OF MUSICIANS (Composers are distinguishes VEIT BACH, d. 1619 (Cithara), Wechmar. Lips (See page ISO). Hans. d. 1628 (Der Spielmann), Arnstadt. Johann, 1004-1673 (Town Musician and Organist), Erfurt. Cheistoph, 1613-166L (Town Musician), Erfurt rind Arnstadt. J oil arm Aefjulius, 1645-1717 (Viol), Erfurt. Johann Christian, 1640-1682 (Viol), Erfurt and Eisenach. Johann Johann Johann Johann Jakob, Christoph, Bernhard, Christoph, 1068-1692 1673-1727 1676-1749 1685-post {Town (Cantor and (Organist), 1735 Musician), Organist), Eisenach. (Town Eisenach. Gehren. Musician) Erfurt. Johann Georg Kikolaus, Christoph, 1653-1682 1642-1697 (Viola-da- (Cantor), Gamba), Schweinfurt. Erfurt. Johann Valentin, 1669-1720 (Town Musician) , Schweinfurt. Johann Ambeosius, 1645-1695 (Viol), Eisenach. I Johann Christoph, 1671-1721 (Organist), Ohrdruf. Johann Ernst, 1722-1777 (Capell mcister) , Weimar. Johann Johann Lorenz, Elias, 1695-1773 1705-1755 (Organist), (Cantor), Lahm. Schweinfurt Tobias Friedrich, b. 1695 (Cantor), Uttstadt. Johann Johann Bernhard, Christoph 1700-1744 b. 17u2 (Organist), (Cantor), Ohrdruf. Ohrdruf. IN THE BACH FAMILY. by spaced type.) He i nri c h, 1615-1692 (Organixt) t Arnstadt. Johann Christoph, 1645-1693 (Viol), Arnstadt. Johann Jakob, 1682-1722 (Haut- „ boy), Stockholm. Johann Johann Sebastian, Ernst, 1685-1750 (Director Musices), Leipzig. 1683-1739 (Organist), Arnstadt. I Johann Johann Christoph, Michael, 1642-1703 1648-1694 (Organist), (Organist), Eisenach, Gehren. Johann Guenther, 1653-1683 (Organist). Arnstadt. Johann Johann Johann N i k o 1 a u s.Christoph, Friedrich, 1669-1753 (Organist), Jena. b. 1674 " d. 1730 (Music (Organist), Master), Muehlhausen. Erfurt and England. Johann Michael, (Organ Builder), abroad. Johann B einrich, b. 1707 (Cantor), Cehnngen. Johann Andreas, b. 1713 (Organist), Ohrdruf. Wilhelm, Carl Johann Johann Johann Friede- Philipp Gottfried Christoph Christian, mann, Emanuel, Bernhard, Friedrich, 1735-1783 1710-1784 1714-1788 1715-1739 1732-1795 (Organist), (Cuprll- (Organist), (Concert- Halls meister), Muehlhausen, meister), Berlin. Bueckeburg. (Court Musician)^ London. Wilhelm, 1753-1846 (Court Musician), Berlin. Second Line. LIPS BACH, d. 1620 ; presumably a eon of Veit. 1 Wendel, , 1 Jonas and two 1619-1682. other sons (Musicians in Italy.) Jak ob, 1655-1718 (Cantor), Ruhla. 1 Johann 1 Nikolaua 1 Georg L u d w i g, Ephraim 'Michael, 1677-1741 (Organist), 1703-1771. (Capell- Gandersheim. director), Meiningen. I Samuel Gottlieb Joh inn Anton, Friedrich, Christian, 1713-1781 1714-1785 1743-1814 Court Organist), (CourtOrganist), (Music Matter), Meiningen. Meini Joha ngen. nn Hall*. Philipp, d. 1846 (Court Organist), Meinii igen. A LIST OF CHURCH CANTATAS IN PRESUMED ORDER OF PRODUCTION. 1 (An obelus indicates that the date to which it is affixed is not absolutely certain. The numbers following the titles are those of the edition published by the Bach-Gesellschaft; those to which no number is attached remain in manuscript, with few exceptions, at Berlin.) I. Derm du wirst meine Seele (15) . . Easter day, 1704 f II. Meine Seele soil Gott loben 2 1707-8 f III. Aus der Tiefe rufe ich : Psalm cxxx. (131) . . „ IV. Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (106) (Actus tragicus) „ V. Gott ist mein Konig (71) (Municipal) 4th February, 1708 VI. Der Herr denket an uns 3 (Wedding) „ VII. Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mien . . . 1708-12 f VIII. Uns ist ein Kind geboren . . Christmas day, 1712-14 f IX. Gleichwie der Regen unci Schnee (18) Sexagesima 1713-14 f X. Ich weiss, dass mein Erloser lebt . Easter day, 1713-14 f XI. Nun komm', der Heiden Heiland (61) 1st in Advent, 1714 XII. Ich hatte viel Bekummerniss (21) . Per ogni tempo, „ XIII. Himmelskonig, sei wilikommen 4 Palm Sunday, 1714-15 XIV. Der Himmel lacbt, die Erde jubiliret (31) Easter day, 1715 XV. Barmherziges Herze der ewigen Liebe 5 4th after Trinity, „ XVI. Komm, du siisse Todesstunde 16th after Trinity, „ f XVII. Ach ich sehe, jetzt da ich . 20th after Trinity, „ 1 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 com- pare the various prefaces in tbe edition of the Bach-Gesellschaft, vols. i. — xxviii. 2 An incomplete work discovered by Dr. Spitta in the chantry at Langula near Muehlhausen : vol. i. pp. 339 f. 3 Printed by the Bach-Gesellschaft, xiii. (1), p. 73. 4 Printed in J. P. Schmidt's Kirchengesiinge. ' Printed in tbe same. K 2 132 LIST OF CHURCH CANTATAS. XVIII. Nut jedem das Seine . 23rd after Trinity, 1715 1 XIX. Bereitet die Wege (132) . . 4th in Advent, „ XX. Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn Sunday after Christmas, „ XXI. Mein Gott wie lang, ach lange 2nd after Epiphany, 1716 f XXII. Alles was von Gott geboren 6 . 3rd in Lent, „ XXIII. Wer mien liebet, der wirdmeinWort(59) Whitsunday, „ XXIV. Wachet, betet, seid bereit (70) 2nd in Advent, „ XXV. Herz und Mund und That . . 4th in Advent, „ XXVI. Der Friede sei mit dir Candlemas or Easter Tu., befor el717 XXVII. Wer sich selbst erhohet (47) . 17th after Trinity, 1720 XXVIII. Das ist je gewisslich wahr . . 3rd in Advent, ,, f XXIX. Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwolfe (22) Quinquagesima, 1723 XXX. Du wahrer Gott und Davidssohn ^ (23) „ „ XXXI. Die Elenden sollen essen (75) 1st after Trinity, „ f XXXII. Die Himmel erzahlen (76) . 2nd after Trinity, „ XXXIII. Ein ungefarbt Gemiithe (24) . . 4th after Trinity, „ f XXXIV. Aergre dich, o Seele, nicht . . 7th after" Trinity, „ XXXV. Ihr die ihr euch von Christo nennet 13th after Trinity, „ + XXXVI. Preise, Jerusalem (119) (Municipal) 24th August, „ XXXVII. Hochsterwunschtes Freudenfest (Church festival at Stoermthal) 2nd November, „ XXXVIII. Christen, atzet diesen Tag (63) . Christmas day, „ f XXXIX. Dazu ist erschienen (40) 2nd Christmas day, „ f XL. Sehet, welch' eine Liebe (64). 3rd Christmas day, „ f XLI. Gottlob, nun geht das Jahr zu Ende (28) Sunday after Christmas, 1723-7 t XLII. Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied New Tear's day, 1724 f XLIII. Schau, lieber Gott . Sunday after New Tear, „ f XLIV. Sie werden aus Saba (65) . . . Epiphany, „ XLV. Mein liebster Jesus ist verloren 1st after Epiphany, „ f XLVI. Jesus schlaft (81) . . 4th after Epiphany, „ XLVII. Erfreute Zeit im neuen Bunde (83) , Candlemas, „ XLVIII. Christ lag in Todesbanden (4) . . Easterday, „ f XLIX. Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen (12) 4th after Easter, „ f 6 Rewritten as No. 80 of the B.-G. 1 Originally intended as the Prole-Stuck 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. LIST OP CHURCH CANTATAS. 133 L. Erschallet, ihr Lieder . . Whitsunday, 1724 f LI. Erwiinschtes Freudenlicht . Whitsun Tuesday, „ f LII. hedges Geist und Wasserbad . Trinity Sunday, „ •}• LIII. Siehe zu, dass deine Gottesfurcht 2nd after Trinity, „ LIV. Lobe den Herrn,meine Seele, No.i.(69) 12thafter Trin., „ LV. Herr Gott, dich loben wir (16) New Year's day, 1721-7 8 LVI. Alles nur nacb Gottes Willen (72) 3rd after Epiphany, „ LVII. Herr, wie du willt (73) . 3rd after Epiphany, „ LVIII. Nimm, was dein isfc, und gehe hin. Septuagesima, „ LIX. Leichtgesinnte Flattergeister . Sexagesima, „ LX. Halt im Gedachtniss Jesum Christ (67) 1st after Easter, „ LXI. Du Hirte Israels (104) . . . 2nd after Easter, „ LXII. Wo gehst du hin .... 4th after Easter, „ LXIII. Wahrlich, ich sage euch (86) . 5th after Easter, „ LXIV. Sie werden euch in den' Bann thun (44) Sunday after Ascension, „ LXV. Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (20) . 1st after Trinity, „ LXVI. Ihr Menschen, riihmet GottesLiebe S. John Baptist, „ LXVII. Erforsche mich, Gott (136) . . 8th after Trinity, „ LXVIII. Thue Rechnung .... 9th after Trinity, „ LXIX. Herr, gehe nicht in's Gericht (105) „ „ LXX. Schauet doch und sehet (46) 10th after Trinity, „ LXXI. Du sollst Gott, deinen Herren lieben (77) 13th after Trinity, „ LXXII. Liebster Gott, wann werd' ich sterben (8) 16th after Trinity, „ LXXIII. Es erhub sich ein Streit (19) . Michaelmas, 1725 f LXXIV. Ich lasse dich nicht (Mourninff at Pomssen) 6th February, 1727 LXXY. "Wunsehet Jerusalem Gliick (Municipal) 25th August, „ LXXVI. Falsche Welt, dir trau ich nicht (52) 23rd after Trinity, 1727-34 LXXVII. Widerstehe doch der Siinde (53) „ „ LXXVIIT. Schlage doch, gewunschte Stunde (54) . . „ LXXIX. Meine Seele ruhmt und preiset . . . . „ LXXX. Wer nur den lieben Gott (93) . 5th after Trinity, 1728 f LXXXI. Gott, man lobei dich (120) [Municipal) . before 1730 8 The dates of Nos. lyi. — lxxiii. do not admit of an exact deter- mination. 134 LIST OF CHUECH CANTATAS. LXXXTI. Ehre sei Gott in der Hohe 9 Christmas day, 1729-30 f LXXXIII. Gott, wie dein Name . . . New Year's day, „ f LXXXIV. Sehet, wir gehen hinauf gen Jerusalem Quinquag., „ f LXXXV. Auf, mein Herz .... Easter Tuesday, „ f LXXXVI. Ich steh mit einem Fuss im Grabe 3rd after Epiph., 1730f LXXXVII. Herr Gott, Beherrscher aller Dinge (Wedding), „ f LXXXVIII. Ein' feste Burg (80) (Reformation Festival) 31st Oct., 1730f LXXXIX. Erhohtes Fleischund Blut 10 Whitsun M onday, about „ XG. Schwingt freudich euch empor (36) 1st in Adv., about „ XCI. Ich habe meine Zuversicht 2lst after Trinity, 1730-31 XCII. Wer da glaubet und getauft wird (37) Ascension, 1731 f XCIII. Dem Gerechten muss das Licht . . (Wedding), „ f XCIV. Es ist das Heil (9) . . . 6th after Trinity, „ f XCV. Herr, deine Augen sehen (102) 10th after Trinity, „ f XCVI. Geistund Seele wird verwirret (35) 12th after Trin., „f XCVII. Wir danken dir, Gott (29) (Municipal) 27th Aug., „ XCVIII. Es ist nichts Gesundes (25) 14th after Trinity, „ f XCIX, Wer weiss, wie nahe mir mein Ende (27) 16th after Trinity, „ C. Man singet mit Freuden vom Sieg . Michaelmas, „ CI. Ich glaube, lieber Herr (109) 21st after Trinity, „ t CII. Ich armer Mensch (55) . 22nd after Trinity, „ f CIII. Wachet auf, ruf uns die Stimme(140) 27th after Trin., „ CIV. Ich habe genug (82) . . . Candlemas, 1731-2 CV. Ich bin vergmigt (84) . . . Septuagesima, „ CVI. Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt (112) 2nd after Easter, „ CVII. Ich liebe den Hochsten . Whitsun Monday, „ CVIII. Jauchzet Gott in alien Landen (51) 15th after Trin., „ CIX. Gott soil allein mein Herze haben l%th after Trin., „ CX. Ich will den Kreuzstab (56) 19th after Trinity, „ CXI. Ich geh' und suche (49) . 20th after Trinity, „ f CXII. Was Gott thut, das ist wohlgethan, No I. (98) 21sf after Trinity, „ f CXIII. Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott Trinity Sunday, 1732 CXT/V. Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ 4th after Trinity, „ 9 Fragment afterwards mainly absorbed into a marriage cantata (No. xciii.) printed by the Bach-Gesellschaft, xiii. (1), p. 3. 10 Rewritten from a Coethen serenade : see above, p. 79, n. 3. LIST OP CHURCH CANTATAS. 135 CXV. Siehe, ich will viel Fischer (88) 5th after Trinity, 1732 CXVI. Vergniigte Ruh .... 6th after Trinity, „ f CXVII. Es wartet alles auf dich . .7 th after Trinity, „ CXV1II. Lobe den Herren, den machtigen Konig (137) 12th after Trinity, „ CXIX. Christus, der ist mein Leben (95) 16th after Trin., „ f CXX. Was soil ich aus dir machen (89) 22nd after Trin., „ f CXXI. O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (60) 2Uh after Trinity, „ f CXXII. Ach Gott wie manches Herzeleid (58) Sunday after New Tear, 1733 CXXIII. Was Gott thut, das ist wohlgethan, No. n. (99) 15th after Trinity, „ f CXXIV. In alien meinen Thaten (97) .... 1734 CXXV. Nun danket alle Gott (imperfect) ■ . . about „ CXXVI. Lobet Gott in seinem Reichen (11) (Oratorium) Ascension, about „ CXXVII. Was willst du dich betriiben (107) 7th after Trinity, about „ CXXVIII. Sei Lob und Ehr' dem hochsten Gut (117) about „ CXXIX. Was Gott thut, das ist wohlgethan, No.m.(lOO) about „ CXXX. Es ist ein trotzig und versagt Ding Trinity, after 1732 CXXXI. Unser Mund sei voll Lachens (110) Christmas, after 1731 CXXXII. Wir miissen durch viel Triibsal (Jubilee music) after „ CXXXIII. Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brod|(39) Trinity, after „ CXXXIV. Es ist dir gesagt, Mensch (45) 8th after Trin., after „ CXXXV. Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele, No.n. New Year's day, 1735 CXXXVI. War' Gott nicht mit uns (14) 4th after Epiphany, „ CXXXVII. Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen (66) . Easter Monday, „ CXXXVIII. Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum 11 (134) Easter Tuesday, „ CXXXIX. Ich bin ein guter Hirt (85) . . 2nd after Easter, „ CXL. Ihr werdet weinen (103) . . 3rd after Easter, „ CXLI. Es ist euch gut, dass ich hingehe (108) 4th after Easter, „ CXLII. Bisher habt ihr nichts gebeten (87) 5th aft. Easter, „ CXLIII. Gott fahret auf mit Jauchzen (43) Ascension day, „ CXLIV. Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein (128) Ascension day (second service), „ 11 Kewritten from a secular cantata : see above, p. 79, n. 1. 136 LIST OP CHURCH CANTATAS. CXLV. Sie werden euch in den Bann thun Sunday after Ascension, 1735 CXLVL Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort (74) Whitsunday, „ CXLVII. Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt (68) Whitsun Mon., „ CXLVIII. Er rufet seine Schafe mit Namen Whitsun Tuesday, „ CXLIX. Was frag' ich nach der Welt (94) 9th after Trinity, „ CL. Wo soil ich fliehen hin (5) . 19th after Trinity, „ CLI. Gott, der Herr, ist Sonn und Schild (79) 21st after Trinity, „ *f CLII. Ich freue mich in dir (133) 3rd Christmas day, „ CLIII. Jesu, nun sei gepreiset (41) . New Tear's day, 1736 CLIV. Bleib' bei nns (6) Easter Monday, „ CLV. Wer Dank opfert (17) • 14-th after Trinity, lefore 1737 CLVI. O Jesu Christ, mein's Lebens Licht (118) „ CLVII. Gott ist unsre Zuversicht 12 . ( Wedding), 1737-8 CLVIII. Freue dich erloste Schaar (30) S. John Baptist, 1738 CLIX. ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe (34) Whitsunday, 1740-1 CLX. Du Friedefiirst, Herr Jesu Christ (116) 25th after Trinity, 1744 CLXI. Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (62) 1st Sunday in Advent, 1736-44 CLXII. Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ (91) Christmas day, „ CLXIII. Christum wir sollen loben schon 2nd Christmas day, „ CLXIV. Selig ist der Mann (£7) . „ „ f CLXV. Siisser Trost, mein Jesus kommt 3rd Christmas day „ f CLXVI. Das neugeborne Kindelein (122) Sunday after Christmas, „ CLXVII. Liebster Immanuel (123) . . . Epiphany, „ CLX VIII. Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen (32) 1st after Epiphany, „ f CLXIX. Meinen Jesum lass ich nicht (124) „ „ CLXX. Meine Seufzer, meine Thranen (13) 2nd after Epiphany, „ f CLXXI. Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid (3) „ „ !3 Printed by the Bach-Gesellschaft, xiii. (1), p. 97. LIST OP CHURCH CANTATAS. 137 CLXXII. Was mein Gott will, das g'scheh' allzeit (111) 3rd after Epiphany, 1736-44 CLXXIII. Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin (125) Candlemas, „ CLXXIV. Ich hab' in Gottes Herz und Sinn (92) Septuag., „ CLXXV. Herr Jesu Christ, wahr' Mensch und Gott (L27) Quinquagesima, „ CLXXVI. Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbaths (42) 1st after Easter, „ ) CLXXVII. Ach Gott vom Himmel sieh darein (2) 2nd after Trinity, „ CLXXVIII. Schmiicke dich, o liebe Seele „ „ CLXXIX. Christ uuser Herr zum Jordan kam (7) 8. John Baptist, „ CLXXX. Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort (126) 6th after Trinity, „ CLXXXI. Meine Seele erhebet den Herren (10) Visitation of S. Mary, „ CLXXXII. Warum betriibst du dich, mein Herz (138) 15th after Trinity, „ f CLXXXIII. Nun ist das Heil and die Kraft (50) Michaelmas, „ CLXXXIV. Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir (130) „ „ CLXXXV. Ach lieben Christen, seid getrost (114) 17th after Trinity, „ CLXXXVI. Herr Christ der ein'ge Gottessohn (96) 18th after Trinity, „ CLXXXVII. Ich elender Mensch (48) 19th after Trinity, „ CLXXXVIII. Aus tiefer Noth schrei ich zu dir (38) 21st after Trinity, „ CLXXXIX. Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit (115) 22nd after Trinity, „ CXC. Ach wie fluchtig, ach wie nichtig (26) 24:th after Trinity, „ CXCI. Es reifet euch ein schrecklich Ende (90) 25th after Trinity, „ CXCII. Ihr Pforten zu Zion {Municipal) composed in Leipzig. 13 CXCIII. Ach Herr, mich armen Sunder (135) 3rd after Trinity. CXCIV. Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns halt 8th after Trinity. CXCV. Nimm von uns, Herr (101) 10th after Trinity. 13 This and the eight following numbers are of uncertain date. L 138 LIST OP CHUECH CANTATAS. CXCVI. Herr Jesu Christ, du hochstes Gut (113) 11th after Trinity. CXCVII. Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (33) 13th after Trinity. CXCVIIL Jesu, der du meine Seele (78) 14th after Trinity. CXCIX. Wohl dem, der eich auf seinen Gott (139) 23rd after Trinity. CC. Wie schon leuchtet der Morgenstern (1) Annunciation. XEE END. XOVDOSi PRINTED BY GILBERT AND RITOCGTOS tJ5., ST. JOHN'S HOVSE, CLEHKENWEIX ROAl> ; E.O» h ncmv ntUIUWML UBKAKY ("AUILI f Y AA 000 176 016 4