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BACH, JOHANN SEBASTIAN (1685–1750)
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See also:BACH, JOHANN See also:SEBASTIAN (1685–1750) , See also:German musical composer. The Bach See also:family was of importance in the See also:history of See also:music for nearly two See also:hundred years. Four branches of it were known at the beginning of the 16th See also:century, and in 1561 we hear of Hans Bach of Wechmar who is believed to be the See also:father of Wit Bach (See also:born about 1555). The family See also:genealogy, See also:drawn Family. up by J. Sebastian Bach himself and completed by his
son Philipp Emanuel, describes See also:Veit Bach as the founder of the family, a See also:baker and a See also:miller, " whose See also:zither must have sounded very See also:pretty among the clattering of the See also: So numerous and so eminent were they that in See also:Erfurt musicians were known as " Bachs," even when there were no longer any members of the family in the See also:town. Sebastian Bach thus inherited the See also:artistic tradition of a See also:united family whose circumstances had deprived them of the distractions of the century of musical See also:fermentation which in the See also:rest of Europe had destroyed polyphonic music.
Johann Sebastian Bach was baptized at See also:Eisenach on the 23rd of See also: 1587), Caspar Kerl (1628–1693), Buxtehude, Froberger, lbiuffat the elder, Pachelbel and probably Johann See also:Joseph See also:Fux (166o–1741), the author of the See also:Gradus ad Parnassum on which all later classical composers were trained. A prettier and no less See also:authentic See also:story than that of his brother's forbidden See also:organ-volume tells how, on his return from one of the many See also:holiday expeditions which Bach made to See also:Hamburg on See also:foot to hear the great Dutch organist Reinken, he sat outside an See also:inn longing for the See also:dinner he could not afford, when two See also:herring-heads were flung out of the window, and he found in each of them a See also:ducat with which he promptly paid his way, not See also:home, but back to Hamburg. At Hamburg, also, Keiser was laying the See also:foundations of German See also:opera on a splendid See also:scale which must have fired Bach's See also:imagination though it never directly influenced his See also:style. On the other hand Keiser's church music was of immense importance in his development. In See also:Celle the famous Hofkapelle brought the See also:influence of See also:French music to See also:bear upon Bach's See also:art, an influence which inspired nearly all, his works in See also:suite-See also:form and to which his many autograph copies of Couperin's music bear testimony. Indeed, there is no See also:branch of music, from See also:Palestrina onwards, conceivably accessible in Bach's See also:time, of which we do not find specimens carefully copied in his own See also:handwriting. On the other hand, when Bach, at the age of nineteen, became organist at Arnstadt, he found See also:Lubeck within easy distance, and there, in See also:October 1705, he went to hear Buxtehude, whose organ works show so See also:close an See also:affinity to Bach's style that only their lack of coherence as wholes reveals to the attentive listener that with all their See also:nobility they are not by Bach himself. Bach's See also:enthusiasm for Buxtehude caused him to outstay his leave by three months, and this, together with his See also:habit of astonishing the See also:congregation by the way he harmonized the chorales got him into trouble. But he was already too great an See also:ornament to be lightly dismissed; and though his answers to the complaints of the authorities (every word of which makes amusing See also:reading in the archives of the church) were spirited rather than satisfactory, and the consistorium had to add to their complaints the See also:grave See also:scandal of his allowing a " See also:strange See also:maiden " to sing in the church,' Bach was able to maintain his position at Arnstadt until he obtained the organistship of St See also:Blasius in Mfihlhausen in 1707. Here he married his See also:cousin, easily identified with the " strange maiden " of Arnstadt; and here he wrote his first great church cantatas, Aus der Tiefe, Gott ist mein See also:Konig and Gottes Zeit. Bach's mastery of the See also:keyboard attracted universal See also:attention, and prevented his ever being unemployed. In 1708 he went to See also:Weimar where his successes were crowned by his appointment, in 1714, at the age of twenty-nine, as Hofkonzertmeister to the See also:duke of Weimar. Here the See also:composition of sacred music was one of his most congenial duties, and the great See also:cantata, Ids hatte viel Bekummerniss, was probably the first work of his new See also:office. In 1717 Bach visited See also:Dresden in the course of a See also:concert tour, and was induced to See also:challenge the arrogant French organist, J. See also: She was a great help to him with all his work, and her musical handwriting soon became so like his own that her copies are difficult to distinguish from his See also:autographs. In 1729 Bach heard that See also:Handel was for a second time visiting See also:Halle on his way back to See also:London from See also:Italy. A former See also:attempt of Bach's to meet Handel had failed, and now he was too See also:ill to travel, so he sent his son to Halle to invite Handel to Leipzig; but the errand was not successful, and much to Bach's disappointment he never met his only See also:coma peer. Bach so admired Handel that he made a manuscript copy of his See also:Passion nach See also:Brockes. This work, though almost unknown in See also:England then as now, was, next to the oratorios of Keiser, in-comparably the finest Passion then accessible, as See also:Graun's beautiful masterpiece, Der See also:Tod Jesu, was not composed until four years after Bach's death. The disgusting poem of Brockes (which was set by every German composer of the time) was transformed by Bach with real See also:literary skill as the groundwork of the non-scriptural See also:numbers in his Passion according to St See also: For the See also:head of so large a family his post was dignified rather than lucrative, and few documents tell a prouder See also:tale of uncomplaining See also:thrift than the See also:inventory of his possessions made after his death. One can only be thankful that he did not live to see anything but the wonderful promise of his son Friedermann, who, in the words of the brilliantly successful K. Philipp Emanuel Bach, was more nearly capable of replacing his father than all the rest of the family together. The prospect of See also:complete loss of the tradition of his own polyphonic art he faced with equanimity, saying of the new style, which in the hands of his own son, Philipp Emanuel, was soon to See also:eclipse it for the next hundred years, " The art has advanced to great heights : the old style of music no longer pleases our modern ears." But it would have broken his See also:heart if he had forseen that Friedermann Bach was to attain a disreputable old age after a dissolute and unproductive life.
The brilliant successes of Philipp Emanuel led to his appointment as court-composer to the See also: The rediscovery of Bach is closely connected with the name of Mendelssohn, who was amongst the first to proclaim by word and See also:deed the powers of a See also:genius too gigantic to work and be grasped by three generations. By the enthusiastic inraerice. endeavours of Mendelssohn, See also:Schumann and others, and in England still earlier by the performances and publications of, See also:Wesley and See also:Crotch, the circle of Bach's worshippers rapidly increased. In 185o, a century after his death, a society was started for the correct publication of all Bach's remaining works. See also:Robert See also:Franz, the great See also:song-writer, did good service in arranging some of Bach's finest works for modern performance, until the experience of a purer scholarship could prove not only the possibility but the incomparably greater beauty of a strict adherence to Bach's own scoring. The See also:Porson of Bach-scholarship, however, is Wilhelm See also:Rust (See also:grandson of the interesting composer of that name who wrote polyphonic suites and fantasias See also:early in the 19th century). During the fourteen years of his editorship of the Bach-Gesellschaft he displayed a steadily increasing insight into Bach's style which has never since been rivalled. In more than one case he has restored harmonies of priceless value from incomplete texts, by means of See also:research and reasoning which he sums up in a modest footnote that reads as something self-evident. His prefaces to the Bach-Gesellschaft volumes are perhaps the most valuable contributions to the See also:criticism of 18th-century music ever written, Spitta's great See also:biography not excepted. 2 The same surgeon operated unsuccessfully on both composers.. Bach's importance in the history of music cannot be exaggerated. His art, neglected as old-fashioned and crabbed by his younger contemporaries, survived only in certain limited aspects as the subject of a desultory and unintelligent See also:academic study, until its re-See also:discovery by Mendelssohn. And yet, whatever disguise may have been foisted on it by corrupt traditions and See also:ignorance of its idioms, whenever any fragment of it gained the inner See also:ear of a true composer the effect on the history of music was immediate and profound. Indeed his influence is by no means chiefly manifested in the time when his work became known in its larger aspects, though the Bach-revival is very obviously connected with certain tendencies in the " Romantic " See also:movement in music. But, however clear we may consider Bach's claim to the See also:title of " the first of Romanticists," the full influence of his whole work has hardly yet begun to show itself. Schumann died before even such enthusiasts as the editors of the Bach-Gesellschaft began to find more beauty than extravagance in Bach's See also:ordinary musical See also:language (see, for example, See also:Hauptmann's letters passim, The Letters of a Leipzig Cantor, trans. by A. D. See also:Coleridge, London, See also:Novello, Ewer; 1892), or, indeed, to grasp the See also:main features of his designs.' The labours of the Bach-Gesellschaft have occupied more than fifty years, during which about four-fifths of Bach's choral works have been published for the first time; and it would be surprising if another fifty years sufficed to make these adequately known to the world at large. It is difficult to make an See also:anthology of such bulky works as church-cantatas, nor does an anthology meet the purpose where the whole work so constantly attains that excellence for which the anthologist seeks. Except for See also:practical difficulties (as when Bach writes for obsolete See also:instruments) the only See also:reason why some cantatas are better known than others is that a beginning must be made somewhere. Indeed, a cantata was recently selected, on the ground of its popularity, for a choral competition in a small English See also:country town the year before it was performed as a novelty in See also:Berlin! It is clear, then, that the influence of Bach's art as an under-stood whole is still undeveloped. In the past history of music his See also:part was hardly suspected except by the great composers themselves; and, to any one contemplating the art of the See also:generation after him, it might have seemed that both he and Handel had worked in vain. Yet his was the most subtle and universal force in the development of music, even when his musical language seemed hopelessly forgotten. See also:Mozart, when rapidly advancing to the height of his mastery, had but to read the See also:Baron von Swieten's manuscript copies of the motets and of the Wohltemperirtes Klavier, and his style, quite apart from his immediate essays in the old art-forms, and apart also from the influence of his study of Handel, See also:developed a new polyphonic richness and See also:depth of See also:harmony which steadily increased until his untimely death. See also:Beethoven studied all the accessible works of Bach profoundly, and frequently quoted them in his See also:sketch-books, often with a See also:direct bearing on his own works. His rendering of the Wohltemperirtes Klavier is said to be recorded in the marks of expression and tempo given in See also:Czerny's edition; and if that See also:record is true, Beethoven must have been completely in the dark as to Bach's meaning in many important respects; but art is full of such illustrations of the way in which great minds influence each other in spite of every barrier which diversity of language and time can set. Beethoven's great Thirty-three See also:Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli were actually described in the publisher's puff as worthy of their kinship with the " See also:Goldberg Variations " of Bach; and that kinship is revealed in its truest See also:light by a comparison between Beethoven's 31st variation and Bach's 25th; for here, just where the resemblance is most obvious, each composer utters his most intimate expression of feeling. In 'the same way, See also:Chopin is nowhere more characteristic than where he shows his love of the Wohltemperirtes Klavier in his Etudes and Preludes; and so subtle is the influence of poly- ' See the See also:wild conjectures of the editor of the Four See also:Short Masses as to the " displacing " of structure in the See also:kyrie of the G minor Mass (B.-G., Jahr. viii. See also:preface, with Rust's See also:answer in the preface to Jahr. BACH) phonic style even over a- writer so little See also:apt to make direct useof it as Chopin, that one of Schumann's few plagiarisms occurs in his use of a phrase from Chopin's F minor Etude (written for the Methode See also:des met/lodes) as the subject of a See also:fugue (Op. 72, No. 3). And, apart from fugues, which Schumann cultivated assiduously at a See also:late See also:stage in his career, the influence of Bach pervades the texture and See also:rhythm of his work in more ways than can easily be followed. In a more See also:external, but not less significant way, the Passion according to St Matthew made its See also:mark on Mendelssohn from the time when he discovered it at the age of twelve, and suggested to him many features in the general See also:design of oratorios, by means of which he rescued that branch of art from the operatic influences that ruined Beethoven's See also:Mount of See also:Olives. Without the example of Bach, See also:Wagner's schemes of Leitmotif would never in his lifetime have become See also:woven into that close polyphonic texture which secures for his music a flow as continuous as that of See also:drama itself:—and intimately connected with this is the whole subject of Wagner's harmonization, which in many of its boldest characteristics was foreshadowed by Bach. A close study of the texture of See also:Brahms's work shows that he develops Bach's and Beethoven's artistic devices pari passu, and that the result is a complete unification of that opposition between polyphony and form which in the See also:infancy of the See also:sonata (as in every transitional stage in musical history) threatened to See also:wreck the art as a false See also:antithesis wrecks a See also:philosophy. Perhaps the only great composers who escaped the direct influence of Bach are See also:Gluck and See also:Berlioz. Even Gluck reproduced in every detail of harmony and figure the first twelve bars of the Gigue of Bach's B See also:flat Clavier-Partita in the See also:aria " Je t'implore et je tremble " in Iphigenie en Tauride. But See also:plagiarism, however unconscious, is a very different thing from that profound indebtedness which makes a great See also:man attain his truest originality; and Gluck's training practically deprived him of Bach's direct influence, useful as that would have been to the attainment of his aims in See also:harmonic and choral expression. The indirect influence no one could See also:escape, for whatever in modern music is not traceable to Sebastian Bach is traceable to his sons, who were encouraged by their father in the cultivation of those See also:infant art-forms which were so soon to dazzle the world into the belief that his own work was obsolete. Bach's See also:place in music is thus far higher than that of a reformer, or even of an inventor of new forms. He is a spectator of all musical time and existence, to whom it is not of the smallest importance whether a thing be new or old, so long as it is true. It is doubtful whether even the forms most See also:peculiar to him (such as the See also:arpeggio-prelude) are of his invention. Yet he left no form as he found it,—not even that most conventional of all, the Da See also:Capo Aria, which he did not outwardly alter in the least. On the other hand, with every form he touched he said the last word. All the material that could be assimilated into a mature art he vitalized in his own way, and he had no imitators. The language of music changed at his death, and his influence became all-pervading just because he was not the See also:prophet of the new art, hut an unbiassed seeker of truth. Whether so great a man becomes " progressive " or " reactionary " depends on the artistic resources of his - time. He will always work at the See also:kind of art that is most complete and consistent in all its aspects. The same spirit of truthfulness that makes Sebastian Bach hold himself aloof from the progressive art which he encourages in his sons, drives Beethoven to invent new forms and new means of expression with every work he writes. Gluck abolished the Da Capo Aria, because it was unfit for dramatic music. Bach did not abolish it, because he did not intend to write dramatic music in the strict sense of the See also:term. Mature musical art in Bach's time could not be dramatic, except in the loose sense in which the term may be applied to an epic poem. Dramatic expression, properly so called, can only be attained in music by the full development of resources that do not blend with those of Bach's art at all. Meanwhile there are many things unsuitable for the stage which are nevertheless valuable on purely musical grounds; and the Da Capo Aria was one. Bach developed it in a great variety of ways, while retaining even the minor details of what in other hands had long before become its conventional form; but the one thing he did not do was to abuse it according to time-honoured See also:custom as the See also:staple form for opera. For that he had too much dramatic insight. His treatment of other important art-forms is illustrated in the articles on CONTRAPUNTAI. FORMS; See also:CONCERTO and See also:INSTRUMENTATION. Here we may attempt to illustrate his methods by such forms and characteristics as cannot be classified under those headings. r. The toccatas of Buxtehude and his predecessors show how an effective musical See also:scheme may be suggested by See also:running over Matra- the keyboard of an organ as if to try (toccare) the dons of See also:touch, then bursting out into sustained and full Bach's harmony, and at last settling down to a fugue. But method. before Bach no one seemed able to keep the fugue in See also:motion long enough to make a convincing See also:climax. Very soon it collapsed and the See also:process of quasi-extemporization began again, to culminate in a new fugue which often gave the whole work a happy but deceptive See also:suggestion of organic unity by being founded on an ingenious variation of the subject of the first fugue. But in Bach's hands the toccata becomes one of the noblest and most plastic of forms. The See also:introductory runs may be disjointed and exaggerated to grotesqueness, until the gaps between them gradually fill out, and they build themselves up into See also:grand piles of musical See also:architecture, as in the organ toccata in C;- or they may be worked out on an enormous scale in long and smooth canonic passages with a definite theme, - as in the greatest of all toccatas, that in F for organ, which is most artistically followed by a fugue unusually quiet for its See also:size. In one instance, the toccata at the beginning of the E minor clavierpartita, the introductory runs, though retaining much of the extempore See also:character from which the form derives its name, take shape in a highly organized and rounded-off See also:group of contrasted themes. The fugue follows without See also:change of time, and is developed in so leisurely a manner that it is fully as long as a normal fugue on a large scale by the time it reaches what sounds like its central See also:episode. At this point some of the introductory See also:matter quietly enters, and leads to a recapitulation of the whole introduction in the See also: If this is Bach's treatment of a comparatively small and specialized art-form, it is obviously impossible to reduce the scantiest account of the rest of his work into practical limits here, nor is there as yet a sufficient See also:body of accepted criticism of Bach for such an account to carry further conviction than an expression of individual See also:opinion. Fortunately, however, Bach was constantly re-arranging his own compositions; indeed he evidently regards adaptability to fresh environment as the test of his finest work: and we cannot do better than See also:review the See also:evidence thus given to us, evidence which only Beethoven's sketch-books surpass in significance. a. The successful transplanting of a work of art to a fresh environment is obviously la convincing test of our See also:definitions of the art-forms concerned, if only we take care to distinguish between the alterations produced by the change of environmentand those that imply the composer's dissatisfaction with the See also:original version. In Bach's case this seldom causes much difficulty; his methods of See also:adaptation are so logical and so varied as to form a scheme of musical See also:morphology with all the See also:interest and none of the imperfections of the See also:geological record; and the few cases in which a work owes its changes to the need for improvement as well as adaptation cause no confusion, but rather form a See also:link between the pure adaptations and the numerous revisions of his favourite works without change of See also:medium. There is, for example, no difficulty in separating the See also:element of corrective criticism from that of the impulse to give an already successful composition a larger or more permanent form, in such cases as the transformations undergone by the movements of the birthday cantata, Was mir behagt ist See also:nut See also:die muntre Jagd, during their See also:distribution among the church cantatas, Also See also:hat Gott die Welt geliebt and Man singet mit Freuden vom Sieg. The See also:fine See also:bass aria, " Ein See also:Furst ist seines See also:Landes See also:Pan," was obviously ill-proportioned, with its breakneck return to the tonic and its perfunctory close; and Bach's See also:chief concern in adapting it for its place as the aria, "Du bist geboren mir zu Gute," in Also hat Gott, was to remedy this defect. On the other hand, the use of the delightful ritornello for violoncello from the little aria, " Well die wollenreichen Heerden," in the birthday cantata, and the restoration of the rejected long instrumental fugato that was to follow, were obviously brought about by the conception of the entirely new material for the voice in the famous aria, " Mein glaubiges Herze." And when the last See also:chorus of Was mir behagt became the first chorus of Man singet mit Freuden, it was See also:expanded to the proportions necessary for a triumphant opening (as distinguished from a cheerful See also:finale) by the adroit insertion of new material between every See also:joint in the design. This material, being new, could not produce the effect of diffuseness that would result from the expansion of the old material already complete in its simplest form, and thus this instance does not imply criticism. A highly interesting example of pure self-criticism is the Passion according to StJohn,which was twice revised, and each time reduced to a smaller scale by the omission of some of its finest numbers. The final result was a work of perfect proportions, and of the rejected numbers one (a magnificent aria with See also:chorale) remained unused, two were replaced by finer substitutes, others took shape as one of the most complete and remarkable of the church cantatas, Du wahrer Gott, while the greatest of the figured chorales was transferred to the Passion according to St Matthew, of which it now crowns the first part. 3. Such instances of self-criticism might be paralleled in the works of other composers; but there is no parallel in music to Bach's See also:power of reproducing already perfect works in different See also:media. Here Bach reveals to us identities in difference which we should otherwise never have suspected. Of course it is possible to arrange works in different ways without illustrating any profound identities at all. Handel, for instance, collected several of his favourite choruses in an enormous instrumental concerto (see vol. 46 of the Handel-Gesellschaft), and the result in the case of a chorus like " Lift up your Heads " was ridiculous. Bach, however, does not arrange old work merely to please a court where it was already admired. He never leaves it in a See also:state of See also:mere make-shift, though he cannot always attain his evident aim of a new originality. His methods of orchestration and the profoundly significant identity of certain forms of chorus with certain concerto forms may better be described under their proper headings (see articles INSTRUMENTATION and CONCERTO). Here we will attempt first to show, by illustrations of Bach's power of adding parts to already complete harmonic and contrapuntal schemes, what was his conception of the nature of an art-form, and secondly, by means of a short See also:analysis of cases in which he adapts the same music to different words, to define his range of expression. Bach arranged all his violin concertos for clavier, including two that are lost in the original version. Here his power of providing new and apparently necessary material for the left hand of the cembalist (or, in the See also:double concertos, two left hands) without disturbing the already complete See also:score, is astonishing; and it fails only in the slow movements, which he prefers to leave obviously in the See also:condition of an arrangement rather than to spoil their broad cantabile style by a too polyphonic bass. But these cases are insignificant compared with such trans-formations as that of the prelude of the E See also:major partita for unaccompanied violin into the sinfonia for organ obligato accompanied by full See also:orchestra (including three trumpets and a pair of drums) at the beginning of the church cantata, Wir danken See also:dir, Gott. The original version is perhaps the most complete and natural of the violin solos, for its arpeggios produce full harmony without recourse to that See also:constant attempt to play on all four strings at once, which makes the performance of the polyphonic movements a tour de force in which steady rhythm is nearly impossible. Yet in the sinfonia its proportions seem to reveal themselves for the first time. Not a See also:bar is displaced and not a See also:note of the newuccompaniment is unnecessary. The whole is almost entirely without themes; for even this, the largest of all arpeggio-preludes, consists essentially of the See also:gradual unfolding of a scheme of harmony in which rhythmic and melodic organization is reduced to a minimum. Only in the first See also:line does the incisive initial figure persist a little longer in the new See also:accompaniment than in the original solo, but on the last See also:page it reappears and pervades the whole orchestra, even the drums thundering out its rhythm at the climax where the holding-notes of the See also:trumpet span the torrent of harmony like a See also:rainbow. Deeper still is the thought that underlies the transformation of two movements of the great violin-concerto in D minor (unfortunately lost except in its splendid arrangement for clavier) into parts of the church cantata, 'See also:Fir miissen durch viel Traibsal in das Reich Gottes eingehen. In both movements the violin is replaced by the organ an See also:octave See also:lower, the orchestral accompaniment remaining where it was. This treatment, with the addition of new and plaintive parts for See also:wind instruments, turns the already very long and sombre first movement into an impressive idealization of the " much tribulation " that lies between us and the See also:kingdom of See also:heaven. The slow movement is still more See also:solemn, and is arranged in the same way as regards the instruments ; but from the first note to the last a four-part chorus sings, to the words of the title, a mass of quite new material (except for the bass and for numerous imitations of the solo-part), treated with every variety of vocal colouring and a grandeur of conception which is not dwarfed even by the Passion according to St Matthew. 4. The four short masses, the See also:Christmas oratorio and the B minor mass, contain every variety of adaptation from earlier work. The four short masses are indeed obviously compiled for use in a church where the orchestra was small. Only four movements in the whole collection are not traceable to other extant works; all the rest comes from church cantatas. The adaptations are not always significant; no attempt, for example, is made in the G minor mass to conceal how unfit for a Kyrie eleison is the tremendous denunciatory chorus, Herr, deine Augen ashen nach dem Glauben. But the F major and G major masses are very instructive; and the A major mass, except for the damage done to the instrumentation, is a work that no one would conceive to be not original. The -Kyrie is one of Bach's most individual utterances and could surely never have fitted any other See also:text, but we should say the same of the Gloria if we did not possess the church cantata, See also:Halt See also:im Geddchtniss. The Gloria begins with a triumphant polyphonic chorus accompanied by a spirited See also:symphony for strings. At the words et in terra See also:pax " the time changes, and two flutes softly accompany a single solemn See also:melody in the altos. At the " laudamus te" the material of the beginning returns, and is interrupted again by the See also:calm slow movement, this time in another key and for another voice, at the words "adoramus te." Twice the " laudamus " and " adoramus " alternate in a finely proportioned design; at last the words " gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam See also:tuam " are set for the full chorus to the music of the slow movement, the strings join with the flutes, arid this most appropriate setting of those words is finished. And yet it is quite impossible toregard this as superseding the last chorus of Halt im Geddchtniss. Not one bar or harmony of the framework differs; yet the two versions are two independent works of art. In the cantata the beginning is for instruments only; when the slow movement (here adequately scored for a See also:flute and two See also:oboe d' amore) begins, the basses, permanently separated from the rest of the chorus, sing " See also:Peace be unto you." The other voices then sing the triumph of the faithful helped by the Saviour in their See also:battle against the world. The slow movement is, of course, set for bass alone throughout, and at the last recurrence of the See also:allegro the bass continues to sing "Friede sei mit euch" through the rest of the chorus, as if leading the chorus of humanity through strife to the kingdom of heaven, and then the single voice of peace remains to the end. Hardly a bar of the chorus-material is on the same themes in the two versions. The study of the See also:sources of the Christmas oratorio will complete the evidence on which we support our estimate of Bach's methods and range of expression. It is certain that the occasional cantatas, from which all except the chorale-tune numbers and those set to words from the See also:Bible were taken, date from shortly before the oratorio; and that Bach, being incapable of putting inferior work even into birthday odes, rescued it from oblivion by having the verses for the oratorio numbers built on the same rhythms as those of the odes in See also:order that he might use those occasional works as a sketch (see B.-G., Jahr. xxxiv. preface). Be this as it may, the alterations are confined to details even where an aria is transposed a See also:fourth or fifth; but the effect of them is startling. See also:Pleasure (Wollust) sings a lovely soprano aria to allure See also:Hercules from the paths of Virtue, to which Hercules replies indignantly with an aria in a spirited staccato style. It is no doubt a See also:shock to our feelings to find that Wollust's aria became the Virgin's See also:cradle-song, while Hercules's reply became the See also:alto aria in which See also:Zion is bidden to "prepare for the See also:Bride-See also:groom." But it does not See also:warrant the inference that Bach''s music lacks definite characterization : on the contrary, these two arias are the best demonstration of his profound insight into the possibilities of musical expression within his range. It is no part of his conception of art that Wollust should be represented by a Wagnerian Venusberg-music; the obvious way to represent Pleasure was by See also:writing pleasant music, and with Bach's ideas of pleasance the step from this to the solemn beauty of the sacred cradle-song was a mere matter of change of See also:colour and tempo. The key is lowered from B flat to G, the strings are veiled with the See also:tender See also:reed See also:tone of a group of oboe d' amore, the soprano becomes an alto whose notes are, as it were, surrounded with a nimbus by being doubled in the upper octave by a flute; and the aria becomes worthy of its new purpose, not by losing a grossness which it never possessed, but by gaining the richness which distinguishes the perfect work from the boldly executed draft. As to the aria of Hercules the change is in manner, while the character, in the human sense of the term, is quite rightly the same. Both Hercules and the faithful See also:Christian of the oratorio are renouncing pomps and vanities for the claims of a higher life; in the one case indignantly, in the other case inspired " mit zartlichem Triebe." A change to a legato style, the substitution of a single oboe d' amore for tutti violins, the addition of delicate ornaments indicative of a slower See also:pace, and the See also:noble stream of melody preserve its identity while changing its aspect. Bach's larger designs react on their changing contents as a See also:cathedral reacts on the impressiveness of the See also:rites performed within it, or as nature reacts on a poet's thoughts; and in the same way Bach's melody is greater than any possible See also:mood of the moment, not because of that vague and negative pseudo-classical quality misnamed " reserve," but because of its vital individuality. In their proper directions its changes are limitless; elsewhere change in inconceivable. No amount of " Umarbeitung " could, for instance, turn the aria of Hercules into the Virgin's cradle-song, or Wollust's aria into the exhortation of Zion to prepare for the Bridegroom. In short, Bach's meIc lies are characteristic; not like a See also:mask with a set expression, but like a living See also:face that is the more individual for the mobility of its features. Within these limits, that s,,' eat of dramatic expression in just so far as the end of drama is not character but See also:action," there is nothing good that Bach's art does not See also:express. He has. plenty of See also:humour, if the term may be applied to art which is, so to speak, always literal,—art in which a jest is a jest and serious things are treated with See also:familiar directness, and all, whether in jest or See also:earnest, is primarily beautiful. In Der Streit zwischen See also:Phoebus and Pan Bach answers the critics who censured him for his pedantry and provincial, ignorance of the grand See also:Italian operatic style, by making effective use of that style in Pan's See also:prize-aria (" Zum Tanze, zum Sprunge, so wack-ack-ack-ackelt das Herz "), nobly representing his own style in Phoebus's aria, and promptly caricaturing it in the second part of Pan's (" Wenn der Ton zu miihsam klingt "). See also:Midas votes for Pan—" denn nach meinen beiden Ohren singt er unvergleichlich schon." At the word " Ohren " the violins give a pianissimo " hee-haw" which is fully as witty in its musical aptness as Mendelssohn's See also:clown-theme in the See also:Overture' to the Midsummer Night's See also:Dream; and in the ensuing See also:dialogue their prophecy is verified. As with many other great artists, Bach's playfulness occasionally showed itself inconveniently where little things shock little minds. The hilarious aria, " Ermuntre dich," in the church cantata, Schmiicke dich, o liebe Seele, is one instance, and the See also:quaint See also:representation of the words " dimisit inanes" in the Magnificat is another. This great work, one of the most terse and profound things Bach ever wrote, contains, among many other subtle inspirations, one conception with which we may fitly end our survey, for it strongly suggests Bach himself and the destiny of all that work which he finished so lovingly, with no prospect of its becoming more than a family See also:heirloom and a salutary tradition in his Leipzig choir-school. In the Magnificat he sets the words " quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae " to a touchingly appropriate soprano solo accompanied by his favourite oboe d'amore. With the next See also:sentence " ecce enim beatam me dicent " the tone brightens to a quiet joy, but Bach takes See also:advantage of the syntax of the Latin in a way that defies See also:translation, and the sentence is finished by the chorus. " Omnes generationes " seem indeed to pass before us -in the crowded fugue which rises in perpetual stretto, the incessant entries of its subject now mounting the whole scale, each part a step higher than the last, and now See also:collecting in unison with a climax of closeness and volume overwhelming in its impression of time and multitude. B. Without Orchestra 5 motets a See also:capella (but there is reason to believe that these, except Komm Jesu komm, were intended to be partly supported by the organ). A See also:sixth motet has an obligato figured-bass accompaniment. A few early choruses, mostly turned to account in later works. A large collection of See also:plain chorales, including several original melodies. 11.—SECULAR VOCAL MUSIC Der Streit zwischen Phoebus and Pan and Der zufrieden gestellte See also:Aeolus; both entitled Dramma per Musica, but showing no more essential connexion with the stage than Handel's See also:Acis and Galatea. 7 solo and 7 choral cantatas, of which latter three were almost entirely absorbed into the Christmas oratorio and the B minor mass. Of the solo cantatas two are Italian (one of these being Bach's only developed work for voice and clavier) and two are See also:burlesque. Several tunes with clavier bass, almost foreshadowing the modern song. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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