Johann Sebastian Bach

The King then led the old master into the room and introduced him to the musicians at their desks, as well as to the gentlemen-in-waiting. He had a pleasant word for each, and showed so little embarrassment in his new surroundings that Philipp Emanuel was greatly surprised. The gentlemen of the Court also were favorably impressed by the old musician, who attracted them all by his simple dignity and ease of manner.

The King looked affectionately at him. “Dear Bach,” he said with genuine tenderness, “I am doubly glad you arrived to-day. Only an hour ago two Silbermann pianos, for which I have long waited, were delivered at the castle, and I would like to have your expert opinion of them. I am aware that you are not an unconditional advocate of the Silbermann technic.”

“I was not at the beginning,” said Bach, modestly. “It would not have been right so long as its mechanism had serious faults; but in the course of years it has been improved by skilful and intelligent men, its faults have been corrected, and now it really is a masterpiece. Your Majesty has made no mistake in getting them.”

“I hope not, I hope not,” said the King; “but now let us look at them. One is in my workroom and the other is in my chamber. Ho, there! Lights! The gentlemen of the chapel are welcome to join us.”

Headed by the King and Bach, they went from one room to another, and Bach tried seven of these pianos, extemporizing so delightfully that the King was lost in admiration. “Splendid! splendid! that was masterly, dear Bach!” he exclaimed several times.

“Your Majesty is too generous,” said the old Cantor. “It does not require much musical ability to show off a piano. I pray you for some more important task than that.”

“Well, well, if you call that of no importance we must try something else. Will you take a theme and construct a fugue and variations upon it?”

“Gladly, Your Majesty, and if you are willing I will use the piano in Your Majesty’s workroom. It is the best of all the instruments.”

“I think so, too. Come in, gentlemen.”

All entered the apartment, eager with expectation, and grouped themselves around the piano. “Now, select a theme, dear Bach, and give us a three-part fugue, if it be not asking too much.”

The old master smiled quietly. “Will not Your Majesty have the goodness to give me the theme?”

“What? I? And you will extemporize a fugue and variations at the same time?”

“If it so please Your Majesty, I will undertake it with God’s help.”

“Well, I must say—but you shall have your way.”

The King went to the piano, stood a moment in thought, and then gracefully and elegantly played this charming theme:

Theme

play

“Does that satisfy you?”

Bach bowed respectfully, seated himself at the instrument, and began extemporizing a prelude of the same character as the theme, and as only he could do it. For some time he developed it beautifully, and then with graceful facility worked up the theme itself, in three parts, with such depth of feeling, richness of conception and harmonic color, and above all with such an absolute mastery of technic, that the musicians held their breath, and the King, standing behind Bach, was transfixed with astonishment.

“Marvellous!” he whispered more than once, and when Bach closed with a contrapuntal masterpiece, the so-called stretto,[47] he exclaimed enthusiastically: “Truly, there is but one Bach!” and embraced the deeply moved master with the affectionate familiarity of a fellow-artist. After this, he said he would retire to enjoy the impression made upon him, but would see Bach again the next day, as he wished to show him the organs in the Potsdam churches and hear him play on them. Bach cheerfully consented, and after making his adieus passed a quiet evening in his own family circle.

The next day, at the appointed hour, the royal carriage stopped at Emanuel’s door, and at the King’s request Friedemann accompanied his father. They were soon at the Church of the Holy Spirit, where the organ was in readiness and the King was awaited. In the meantime the church rapidly filled up with persons of high social standing and Court attendants, and soon the King’s carriage was heard at the door. With a quick step the sovereign entered, hastily greeting those in attendance, and making his way to the organ-loft, where he warmly greeted the master.

“Dear Bach, yesterday you served me a magnificent musical feast, which I greatly enjoyed; but you know the old saying: ‘The appetite grows by what it feeds upon,’ and I am free to say that to-day I am longing to hear a performance such as only you can give us.”

“And what might that be, Your Majesty?”

“A fugue in six parts.”

“Yes, but our theme of yesterday, as Your Majesty well knows, is not adapted to that style of polyphonic treatment. If Your Majesty will graciously choose one that is—”

“No, no, Bach, choose a fitting one yourself; we shall be the gainers thereby.”

“Your Majesty has only to command.”

The King nodded his assent, took a seat a little apart from his retinue, and Bach began.

A majestic prelude rang from the organ in a mighty flood of tone, ever bolder and more triumphant, until, reaching a climax, it gave place to the majestic chorale, “Ich weiss dass mein Erlöser lebt” (“I know that my Redeemer liveth”), which he developed in six parts with a dignity of style and a divine fervor that entranced his hearers. The characteristics of the theme and the accompanying modulations, the freedom and brilliancy of his treatment, the clearness of the composition, and the individuality of the single parts, all combined to make a marvellous performance. The King was so enthusiastic that he embraced the old master, and exclaimed with emotion: “I have heard the utmost of which the divine art is capable! I am glad I have lived to hear it.”

It was an inspiring day for the great musician. His son, Friedemann, also had to play for the King when they came to another church, and was heartily appreciated by the musicians, who could not resist the charm of his talent and performance. Other days not less inspiring followed these. It was a time so full of spiritual comfort and contentment that Bach devoted himself to composition, and produced one great work after another as if he had renewed his youthful power.

The King paid him affectionate attention to the last day of his visit in Potsdam, showed him everything worth seeing and remembering in Berlin, and magnanimously tendered him the highest honors in the royal musical service, which, though with some heaviness of heart, Bach declined out of consideration for his son Emanuel, asking for himself only the continuation of the royal favor and kindness. With sincere emotion the noble sovereign promised this. Bach left Potsdam after many happy weeks, and returned to his disagreeable Leipsic post, with a melancholy presentiment that the King’s promise to have another visit sometime would not be fulfilled.

Chapter VIII
The Last of Earth

It was only natural for the old master, weighed down with official and other burdens in Leipsic, to recall the delightful days in Potsdam and live them over; but the recollection of them was not a mere idle, dreamy revery; all his deeper feelings were so engrossed with the realities of his art that he did not hesitate to respond to its exacting demands. He decided to reset the theme which the King had given him with all the skill of which he was capable. He completed the task in a few weeks. In its new form the work had thirteen numbers, finished with masterly ability. He engraved it upon copper and dedicated it to the King, with the title, “Musical Offering, humbly dedicated to His Majesty, King of Prussia.” He sent it to the King with the following characteristic letter:

“All Gracious King:—Herewith I present to Your Majesty, with deepest respect, a musical offering, the noblest part of which is from your own hand. I recall with the highest pleasure the particular kingly grace with which, during my stay in Potsdam, Your Majesty condescended to give me a theme for a fugue on the piano, and to set me the task of working it out at once in your presence. As a subject, it was my duty to obey Your Majesty’s command. I soon realized, however, that because of lack of necessary preparation, the execution was not up to the standard demanded by such a theme. I then determined, and at once set about it, to work out this royal theme more perfectly, and then give it to the world. I have done this to the extent of my ability, and with no other purpose than the exaltation, though only in one small particular, of the glory of a sovereign who must be admired by all in music, as well as in war and the arts of peace. I make bold to add the following respectful request,—that Your Majesty will deign to honor this small work by graciously accepting it, and continue Your Majesty’s favor to Your Majesty’s most loyal subject and obedient servant,

The Author.

“Leipsic, July 7, 1747.”

While engaged upon this remarkable work, a new joy brightened his home. His daughter Frederica[48] was engaged to Altnikol, one of his best beloved scholars, who, upon Bach’s warm commendation, was given the lucrative position of organist and musical director by the Council of Naumburg. This enabled them to marry and have a home, thus lifting another burden from the loving father. He could contemplate the evening of life with serene hope. His own were all provided for, and he now devoted himself with all his powers to a work he had long contemplated. The evening of life might end in darkness, but now he was ready to go before the throne of the All Highest, to whose service he had devoted his art piously and faithfully all his life.[49]

The great work which he had so much at heart was “Kunst der Fuge” (“The Art of Fugue”), a wonderful creation, unsurpassed in the abundance of its contents and their development. In completely elaborated numbers, not in dry theoretical rules, he shows what a skilful composer may accomplish with a single theme, and how it may be developed in the form and according to the rules of strict counterpoint in every possible way. So far as harmonious combinations are concerned, each part is exhaustively treated.[50] In the closing fugue, beside the two parts of the original theme, he introduces a short but very striking theme of only four notes; but those four notes represent the whole life of the composer, with all its joys and sorrows, its divine inspiration, and its deep soul-sadness—the four notes, “B-A-C-H.”[51]

Bach’s labor upon this colossal work exhausted what little strength he had. His eyesight began to fail. His creative faculty was impaired. He could no longer work. The “Art of Fugue” remained unfinished. Philipp Emanuel added to the last bars of his father’s manuscript the sad words:

“While engaged on this fugue, in which the name of ‘Bach’ is introduced in counterpoint, the author died.”

It was true. The old master did not live to finish the work. The end was near at hand. Two operations were performed upon his eyes, but they failed to help him. His life passed into darkness before death.

But he never lost courage. His spiritual vision remained clear to the last, so that he beheld the glory of his God whom he was so soon to meet. In those last days, so full of pain and of sorrow over the thought that he might lose his faculties completely, he triumphed over sickness and death with the help of that lofty, unwavering faith which had been the inspiration of all his work. Almost with his dying voice he dictated to his beloved Altnikol the majestic chorale (“Wenn wir in höchsten Nöthen sein”):

“When, sunk in deepest misery,

To make escape we vainly try,

When earthly help in vain is sought,

And earthly counsels come to nought,

There still remains this one relief—

That Thou dost hear our cry of grief,

And that our faithful trust in Thee

From earthly ills will set us free.”[52]

This trust, this deliverance did not fail him in those last days of pain and sorrow, in the last hard struggle. He rose triumphant over them, and the Almighty Father’s hand led him to a place in the choir of angels and holy spirits who stand before the throne in adoration, singing, “Holy! Holy! is the Lord! Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be unto our God, forever and ever. Amen.”—Spitta’s “Life of Bach,” Vol. III, p. 274.

On the thirtieth of July, 1750, the world’s greatest musician was buried in St. John’s churchyard, Leipsic.[53]

Appendix

The following is a chronological statement of the principal events in the life of Johann Sebastian Bach:

1685	Born at Eisenach, March 21.
1693	Began his studies with his brother, Johann Christoph.
1700	Chorister at the College of St. Michael’s in Lüneburg.
1703	Organist of Arnstadt Church.
1707	Organist of St. Blasius’s Church, Mühlhausen.
1707	Married Maria Barbara Bach.
1708	Court Organist at Weimar.
1720	Death of first wife.
1721	Married Anna Magdalena Wülkens.
1723	Cantor of St. Thomas’s School, Leipsic.
1725	Composed first part of “Well-Tempered Clavichord.”
1729	Composed St. Matthew Passion Music.
1734	Composed Mass in B minor.
1734	Composed the Christmas Oratorio.
1740	Composed second part of “Well-Tempered Clavichord.”
1747	Dedicated “The Musical Offering” to Frederick the Great.
1749	Partly finished the “Art of Fugue.”
1750	Died at Leipsic in his sixty-fifth year, July 28.

Footnotes

[1]Ohrdruff is a little manufacturing town in Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, about eight miles south of Gotha.

[2]After the death of his father and mother, Sebastian Bach was adopted by his elder brother, Johann Christoph, the organist and music master at Ohrdruff, who gave him his earliest lessons in singing and piano-playing.

[3]Eisenach, a little town in Thuringia, was the birthplace of Sebastian Bach. It is also famous for the Wartburg, which stands on one of the hills near the town, where Luther lived at one time and translated the Bible into German, and as being the scene of many of the song contests of the Minnesingers.

[4]George Erdmann was a schoolfellow of Sebastian Bach and an excellent musician, though in after life he followed other pursuits.

[5]The Amatis were a world-renowned family of violin-makers living at Cremona, Italy, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The most famous members of the family were Andrea A., died in 1577, the maker of the first Violin; Nicola, 1568-1586; Antonio, 1589-1627, and Niccole, 1596-1684, the last the great violin-makers of the family.

[6]The capital of Lüneburg in the province of Hanover, Prussia.

[7]George Böhm, a countryman of Bach, was born at Goldbach in 1661. He was one of the greatest organists of his time.

[8]Reinken was born at Deventer in 1663 and died as organist of St. Katherine’s Church, in Hamburg, in 1722. He had remarkable talent both as player and composer and was greatly esteemed by Bach.

[9]The term “motet” is applied to church music set to Biblical texts for several voices, of moderate length, and without instrumental accompaniment.

[10]A large and beautiful forest, containing a hunting-castle, within the jurisdiction of Lüneburg.

[11]Veit Bach, the founder of the Bach family, was a baker at Presburg, on the Danube. After leaving Hungary he settled in Wechmar, Thuringia, and carried on his business there. He played the lute and, it is related, was so fond of it that he used to play it while his corn was being ground. His son, Hans, was the first of the Bachs to make music a profession.

[12]The Silbermanns were a distinguished family of piano and organ makers whose instruments were highly prized in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The most famous of this name was Gottfried (1683-1753), who lived at Freiburg. He built forty-two organs and introduced the present piano, then known as “hammer-clavier,” into Germany. Bartolomeo Cristofori, who died in Florence in 1731, undoubtedly invented this instrument and gave it its present name, piano-forte, but Silbermann greatly improved it.

[13]Certain scholars in the institution, known as “matin scholars,” received free instruction as compensation for their singing in the choir.

[14]An introduction to a chorale or fugue, and sometimes, as organists frequently improvise on a chorale, a free fantasie. A fugue is generally preceded by a prelude which stands in the same key.

[15]Reinken was born in 1623 and died in 1722. At this time he must have been about seventy-seven years of age.

[16]Clavicembalo was the name of the usual form of the piano in the sixteenth century. It was the successor of the clavichord and the predecessor of the hammer-clavier. It had various forms and names. In Germany it was called klavier and sometimes monocordo, and in England spinet or virginal, according to its size or shape. Cembalist is the equivalent of our word “pianist.”

[17]In its general sense, counterpoint is the art of combining melodies. It is divided into two classes—plain and double.

[18]Spitta, in his Life of Bach, says: “In former times Bach’s grandfather had had an appointment at the court of Duke Wilhelm IV at Weimar. This, however, can hardly have been the cause of his grandson’s being invited to the same town. Other ties must have existed of which we know nothing, but which of course would easily have been formed at Eisenach or Arnstadt.” Bitter, in his Life, says Bach probably owed the appointment to his numerous relatives in the Saxon state.

[19]This organ was in use until 1863, when a fine new one took its place as a memorial to Bach.

[20]Antonio Vivaldi, a distinguished violinist and composer, was born at Venice and died as director of the Conservatorio della Pietà in that city in 1743. His works are very highly esteemed.

[21]Johann Pachelbel, a distinguished organist and one of the foremost promoters of the organ style before Bach, was born at Nuremberg in 1653 and died there in 1706 as organist of St. Sebastian’s Church.

[22]Dietrich Buxtehude, born at Helsingör in 1637, was organist in 1668 at the Marien Church, Lübeck, and remained in that position until he died, May 9, 1707. He was one of the most learned organists and composers of the seventeenth century, but most of his works have been lost.

[23]Maria Barbara was the youngest daughter of Johann Michael Bach. She was at this time about twenty years of age and was a good musician. It is somewhat singular that in the numerous family of Bachs, Sebastian was the only one who took a Bach to wife.

[24]The following notice was inserted by Stauber himself in the parish register:

“On October 17, 1707, the respectable Herr Johann Sebastian Bach, a bachelor and organist to the church of St. Blasius at Mühlhausen, the surviving lawful son of the late most respectable Herr Ambrosius Bach, the famous town-organist and musician of Eisenach, was married to the virtuous maiden, Maria Barbara Bach, the youngest surviving daughter of the late very respectable and famous artist, Herr Johann Michael Bach, organist at Gehren; here in our house of God, by the favor of our gracious ruler, after the banns had been read in Arnstadt.”

[25]In the original:

“Jetzt komm ich, Herr, vor Deinen Thron

Mit loberfülltem Munde,

Und danke Dir durch Deinen Sohn

In dieser Abendstunde.

Nimm an das Opfer, das ich Dir

Mit meinen Lippen bringe,

Und höre gnädig was ich Dir

Zu Deiner Ehre singe.”

[26]Weimar is on the Ilm.

[27]This appointment was made in 1714.

[28]Cöthen was at that time the capital of the Duchy of Anhalt-Cöthen, which was united to Anhalt-Dessau in 1853.

[29]So called because they are dedicated to the Margrave of Brandenburg.

[30]The suite was originally a succession of various national dances. The four most characteristic parts are the Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, and Gigue. Sometimes they also include the Gavotte, Passepied, Branle, Bourrée, and Minuet.

[31]The Sonata (sounding piece) originally was the general term for instrumental pieces, as opposed to Cantata (singing piece). The present form was definitely established by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Its parts are Allegro, Andante or Adagio, Minuet with trio or a Scherzo, and Rondo or Presto.

[32]Inventions, a term first used by Bach in the sense of impromptus. They were small pieces for the piano, written in two or three parts, each developing a single idea.

[33]Symphony (with sound) is a large musical work for full orchestra, in the form of the sonata, with much fuller development of the single parts and richer development of true color in particular instruments.

[34]The title which Bach gave to this work is as follows:

“The Well Tempered Clavier, or Preludes and Fugues in all the Tones and Semi-tones, both with the major third or ‘Ut, Re, Mi’ and with the minor third or ‘Re, Mi, Fa.’ For the Use and Practice of Young Musicians who desire to learn, as well as for those who are already skilled in this study by way of amusement. Made and composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, Chapelmaster to the Grand Duke of Anhalt-Cöthen and Director of his Chamber Music. In the year 1722.”

The first part of the “Well Tempered Clavier,” or “Clavichord,” as it is usually called, was written in 1722, probably during some of his journeys with Prince Leopold. The second part was finished in Leipsic about 1740.

[35]June 25, 1722.

[36]The “Alumni” were charity children, who were provided with food and lodging in the schoolhouse and a small allowance of money in consideration of their singing in church and at funerals.

[37]There were two organs in St. Thomas’s Church, a large and a small one. When Bach’s great Passion music was given there, both were used.

[38]Anna Magdalena was the youngest daughter of the court-trumpeter, Johann Casper Wülkens. She was at this time twenty-one years of age. They were married December 3, 1721.

[39]Wilhelm Friedemann was an accomplished musician, but in his later years he was addicted to drinking, which in time reduced him and his family to poverty, and eventually killed him.

[40]Bach had eight children, five sons and three daughters, by the first wife. The eldest daughter, Caroline Dorothea, born in 1708, survived her father. The eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, was born in 1710. Carl Philipp Emanuel, the most famous of the sons, was born in 1714. By the second wife he had thirteen children, seven of whom were sons. Only two of them survived their father—Johann Christoph Friedrich, born in 1732, died in 1795, and Johann Christian, born in 1735, died in 1782.

[41]It was Professor Gesner who wrote in one of his works upon ancient music: “I, my Fabius, who am in other respects an admirer of antiquity, am of opinion that my Bach and others like him unite in their own persons many Orpheuses and twenty Arions.”

[42]Hohenfriedberg is a town in Silesia where Frederick the Great in 1745 defeated the Austrians and Saxons under Prince Charles of Lorraine. In the same year he defeated the Austrians at Sohr, in Bohemia; and 121 years later the Prussians defeated the Austrians at the same place.

[43]Karl Heinrich Graun was born at Wahrenbrück, Saxony, in 1701, and died in 1757. He was appointed chapelmaster when Frederick ascended the throne, and was also commissioned to organize a company of Italian opera singers in Berlin. He wrote operas for this company and several flute concertos for the King.

Johann Joachim Quantz, born January 30, 1697, died in 1773, was not only chamber musician and court composer, but Frederick’s flute teacher.

Johann Friedrich Agricola, born January 4, 1720, died in 1774, was a pupil of Sebastian Bach and later of Quantz, and succeeded Graun in 1759 as director of the royal chapel.

[44]Johann Adolf Hasse was born near Hamburg in 1699, and began his career as a tenor singer. He wrote his first opera in 1723. In 1731 he was concert-master of the Royal Opera at Dresden. His “Artaxerxes” was produced in 1730. He wrote over one hundred operas.

Porpora was born in 1686 and died in 1766. He was a famous composer and singing teacher, and a rival of Handel in London.

Handel’s “Faramondo” was produced for the first time at King’s Theatre, London January 7, 1738. It was only given five times.

[45]Frederick assisted Graun in writing “Galatea.”

[46]Count Heinrich von Brühl was a Saxon statesman under Augustus III. He became prime minister in 1747, and induced Augustus III to take sides against Prussia in the Seven Years’ War.

[47]“Stretto,” as applied to fugues, means the following of response to subject at a closer interval of time than at first. The term is also applied to lively closing passages such as are found at the end of concerto movements and arias.

[48]Elizabeth Juliana Frederica was born in 1726. Bach’s first grandchild, the issue of this marriage, was named Johann Sebastian.

[49]On all his important works Bach inscribed the initials, “S. D. G.” (“Soli Deo Gloria”),—“To the glory of God alone.”

[50]“The Art of Fugue” includes fifteen solos, two duets for piano in fugue form, and four canons, evolved from a single theme in two parts.

[51]“H” in German represents “B natural,” “B” being reserved for “B flat.”

[52]“By his deathbed stood his wife and daughters, his youngest son, Christian, his son-in-law, Altnikol, and his pupil, Müthel. He had been working with Altnikol only a few days before his death. An organ chorale, composed in a former time, was floating in his mind, ready as he was to die, and he wanted to complete and perfect it. He dictated and Altnikol wrote. ‘Wenn wir in höchsten Nöthen sein’ (‘Lord, when we are in direst need’) was the name he had originally given it; he now adapted the sentiment to another hymn and wrote above it ‘Vor Deinen Thron tret ich hiermit’ (‘Before Thy throne with this I come’).”

[53]“In the church which for twenty-seven years Bach’s mighty tones had so often filled, the preacher announced from the pulpit, ‘The very worthy and venerable Herr Johann Sebastian Bach, court composer to His Kingly Majesty of Poland and Elector and Serene Highness of Saxony, chapelmaster to His Highness the Prince of Anhalt-Cöthen, and Cantor to the School of St. Thomas in town, having fallen calmly and blessedly asleep in God, his body has this day, according to Christian usage, been consigned to earth.’ His grave was near the church, but when, within this century, the graveyard was removed farther from the church and the old site opened as a roadway, Bach’s grave, with many others, was obliterated, and it is now no longer possible to determine the spot where his bones were laid to rest.”—Spitta’s “Life of Bach,” Vol. III, p. 275.

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Transcriber’s Notes

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Johann Sebastian Bach

About This Book

Chapter VIII The Last of Earth

Appendix

Footnotes

LIFE STORIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

Transcriber’s Notes

Chapter VIII
The Last of Earth