Sebastian Bach

[1] The lines on this print are given by Spitta, vol. i. p. 9:—

[2] Spitta, i. 160. The genealogist, however, in a list of thirty-seven musicians, signalises one drunkard, Johann Friedrich, the third son of the great Johann Christoph: ibid. 139.

[3] Ausdrückend was the distinctive title associated to his great-uncle by Philipp Emanuel Bach: Spitta, i. 50.

[4] According to the new style the day is the 31st. Handel was born a month earlier; and English notices, since the year in this country began on the 25th of March, place his birthday in 1684. That this should create a misconception in the minds of foreign writers was natural; but it is curious that they have all failed to detect the source of the confusion, and unanimously exposed an imaginary error.

[5] Bach-Gesellschaft, II. No. 15.

[6] They are a fugue in C minor, and a prelude and fugue in the same key, printed in Peters’ collected edition of the instrumental works, series v. pt. 4. 9 and 5.

[7] Dr. Spitta analyses the characteristics of Bach’s pedal-use in these early fugues as (1) incidental, for a single emphasis, (2) in cadences, and (3) as a pedal-point to strengthen a prolonged fundamental harmony: i. 243 f.

[8] To the latter part of the stay at Arnstadt are attributed the preludes and fugues in C and A minor (Peters, v. 3. 7, 9) and a fantasia in G (v. 4. 11). Another fantasia and a fugue, both in G and presumably of the same period, remain in MS., one in the Berlin library, the other in the possession of the present cantor of S. Thomas’s, Leipzig, Dr. Wilhelm Rust.

[9] Besides the pieces mentioned below, a prelude and fugue in E flat (a MS. in Dr. Rust’s possession), and a fugue in E minor seem to belong to the Arnstadt period, if indeed this latter does not date as far back as Lueneburg. It appears at No. 212, p. 12, of Peters’ cheap edition, to which, as the most generally accessible, I always refer for the clavichord works.

[10] Another capriccio, which may be even earlier than the preceding, has in one copy the interesting heading, In honorem Joh. Christoph. Bachii, his brother and old preceptor at Ohrdruf (No. 216, p. 2).

[11] Bach’s appointment is dated 14th June, 1707. The signatures of three members of the consistory are absent; they offer a pathetic excuse. Their houses had just been burnt to the ground in a great fire that had laid waste much of the town, and they were destitute even of the means of signing their names, hätten keine Feder oder Tinte, wären wegen des Unglücks so bestürzet, dass sie an keine Music dächten; wie es die anderen Herren machten wären sie zufrieden: Spitta, i. 851 f.

[12] The description of the scene, in somewhat sesquipedalian Latin, is quoted by Spitta, i. 801.

[13] Note to Quintilian, Inst. Orat. 1. xii. 3, in Spitta ii. 89.

[14] Forkel, Life of J. S. Bach, pp. 30 f., E. T., London, 1820.

[15] The early works for organ have already been enumerated, above pp. 21 f.

[16] An excellent catalogue of this edition is contained in Alfred Doerffel’s Thematisches Verzeichniss, u.s.w., Leipzig, 1867.

[17] He might indeed just go too far, as we may see from the complaints made against Bach when at Arnstadt (above p. 25).

[18] Handel too was a student of Legrenzi, as a motive in one of his oratorios bears witness.

[19] Mattheson proposed the theme some years later, without stating its derivation, to a candidate for examination on the organ: Spitta, i. 634 f.

[20] This fugue is based upon the G minor violin-sonata, and possibly was composed at Coethen.

[21] To this period belongs also a fragmentary Fantasia in C minor, preserved in MS. at Berlin.

[22] The inventory of Bach’s property at his death mentions among his books August Pfeiffer’s Anti-Calvinismus. He certainly possessed it at Coethen, as witnesses the inscription on a Clavier-Büchlein written for his second wife.

[23] Their intimate relations may be illustrated by the fact that a child of Bach’s, born in November, 1718, was christened after the Prince and one of his brothers, who with a sister and two courtiers all stood sponsors to the boy.

[24] Bernhard Bach came to occupy his father’s old post at Muehlhausen. He afterwards studied law at Jena, but died there of a fever in 1739.

[25] Spitta, i. 665-669.

[26] A fifth, in A minor, remains in MS. at Berlin.

[27] Dr. Spitta argues in support of its genuineness, and is inclined also to accept another one, at present unpublished, of which he quotes the opening bars: vol. ii. p. 686.

[28] Add to these three detached minuets printed at 216, pp. 30 f.

[29] An early sonata and two capriccios have already been noticed above, p. 23.

[30] At Weimar he had already written a concerto in C minor, which remains in MS. The arrangements for clavichord of Vivaldi’s violin concertos (217) are of singular interest, as evidence of Bach’s view of the requirements and capacities of the clavichord; but they cannot be included in a list of his original works.

[31] The other three have been already included under the concertante instruments.

[32] Three of them have been excellently transcribed for the pianoforte by Joachim Raff, and published at Leipzig by Rieter-Biedermann.

[33] Another composition for these instruments is one of the endless varieties of the Musikalische Opfer, but its position there removes it somewhat from the field of Bach’s chamber works.

[34] Forkel, pp. 22 f.

[35] Goerner has one claim to remembrance, since he lived to draw out the stops for Mozart when he made his historical visit to the Thomaskirche in 1789.

[36] Vol. ii. p. 52.

[37] To this class we may assign without hesitation the cantatas, Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Glücke (No. 84) and Ich habe genug (No. 82). The latter is printed in a form which Bach afterwards gave to it, changing the soprano into a bass solo. Possibly Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten (93) had a like origin: see Spitta, ii. 274 f., 302 f., 269 ff. A secular cantata of which the subject closely resembles that of the two first-named works should seem to belong to the same category: it is printed in the Bach-Gesellschaft xi. (2) p. 105.

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