C. F. Abdy Williams

“ Hurlebusch had the reputation of being angry if his listeners praised him instead of being so overcome with his playing that they could say nothing. His visit to Bach was made, not to hear but to be heard by, and to astonish, the great man. Bach took him to the harpsichord and listened attentively to a very feeble minuet with variations. Hurlebusch, taking Bach’s politeness as a recognition of his great talent, showed his gratitude by presenting Friedemann with a printed collection of very easy sonatas, recommending him to practise them diligently. ”

“ The prevailing characteristics in Bach’s compositions are intense earnestness of purpose, and, in his church music, a deep religious feeling, too deep for the ordinary everyday person to appreciate; an absolute absence of anything extraneous, such as concessions to singers and performers, or to the fashion of the day. When Bach writes florid or highly ornamental passages, they are not intended merely to exhibit the skill of the performer—their most important purpose is the exact expression of the words or emotions in hand. In this he and Beethoven were at one. ”

“ He insisted at all times not only on the greatest possible purity in the harmony, but on the natural and flowing connection of all the single voices. The models he himself has left are known to every connoisseur, and his inner voices are often so singable that they might serve for the upper part. This style had to be striven for by the pupil, and until he had reached a high degree of proficiency Bach did not consider it wise to allow him to try inventing on his own account. He took for granted that all his composition pupils had the faculty of thinking in music. ”

“ It is scored for four voices, two violins, three violas, bassoon, and organ, and is preceded by a “sonata.” Twelve of his motets are preserved, but they are incoherent in structure, being composed in a time of transition. Some of them are to be accompanied by strings which double the various voice parts, and ten of them are interwoven with chorales. In “Das Blut Jesu Christi” for five voices “the deep feeling of the compositions overcomes us with irresistible power, and one forgets the imperfection of the body in the beauty of the soul which shines through.” ”

“ It was reserved for later generations to fully appreciate what Hilgenfeldt describes as the “spiritual and everlasting” side of his genius. In those days the composer and performer were one and the same person. No one was considered an artist who could only perform, however well, if he could not also compose; and, especially on the organ, good improvisation was considered the chief [175] qualification of a musician. He was expected to be in a position to extemporise at any time and under any conditions a fugue, or a set of variations on any theme given to him ”

“ An organist is rarely a highly paid individual: but modern organists may well be astonished at the meagreness of the salary for which the greatest of their predecessors was content to work. The request for the loan of a cart to bring his modest furniture from Arnstadt brings the matter very plainly before us. One sees in Thuringia, even at the present day, the clumsy four-wheel carts which have not varied in shape for centuries, drawn by a cow and a pony, rarely by two horses ”

“ His reputation throughout Germany was by this time enormous; and in Leipsic itself he was considered by all except the Council and Consistory, as the “glory of the town.” It is true his compositions were heard with more respect than appreciation; but his fame as an organist, harpsichord player, and learned musician was recognised at Leipsic as elsewhere.
War with Rector
The trouble with Ernesti was not of an uncommon nature; where there is a want of appreciation of music on the part of learned men, there is very apt to be jealousy of the reputation and influence of its professors. ”

“ Oratorio had been developed to its greatest splendour, and organ and clavier-playing had reached their highest development on the old lines. His services to art were that he opened new paths in clavier-music, which made possible the creations of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Bitter considers him the father of that particular kind of form which has been found suitable to the modern piano: viz. the sonata form. His smaller sonata forms were based on those of the preludes in the Wohltemperirte Clavier which are in two sections, and this form was developed by Haydn and his successors. ”

“ Not wishing to be behind his predecessor Kuhnau, he undertook all the duties, but soon finding the Latin too much of a task, he paid his colleague Pezold 50 thalers per annum to relieve him of this part of his work. He had to sign an agreement to lead a respectable and sober life; to be faithful and diligent in the performance of his duties; to have a proper respect for the Council; not to make the church music too long or too operatic; to instruct the boys in instrumental as well as vocal music; to treat them with humanity; not to send incapable singers to the New Church ”

“ While Bach was painfully acquiring the technique of his art, by making long journeys on foot to hear and get instruction from eminent German organists, by practising assiduously day and night, and by copying all the best music he could lay hands on, Handel was playing the violin and harpsichord in the German opera conducted by Keiser at Hamburg. ”

“ Like the rest of the choral portions, it has five voices, two sopranos, alto, tenor and bass. The orchestra consists of two flutes, two oboi d’amore, two bassoons, strings and continuo.
The Gloria is scored for three trumpets, drums, two flutes, two oboes, two bassoons, strings and continuo. It will be observed that for the joyful music of the Gloria the tone of the oboe proper was considered more suitable [126] than the perhaps more plaintive tone of the oboe d’amore, which is used in the Kyrie.
At the very outset the hearers are made aware that a work of unusual proportions is commencing. ”

“ The authorities never, from first to last, recognised that they had one of the world’s greatest geniuses to deal with; in fact they did not require a genius; all they asked was that their cantor should be able to carry out the church music in a respectable conventional manner. Bach, with his lofty ideals, was so often at variance with them that the history of his life at Leipsic seems at first sight to consist of one long turmoil and trouble. ”

“ The string accompaniment must also take its part. The instruments are all treated as individuals, not merely as filling up harmonies. Therefore they do not reiterate one note in each chord, but move about. The wind instruments play in four part harmony which is complete in itself. It might perhaps appear that this is merely a display of learning and contrapuntal skill, but a close examination of Bach’s most elaborate works will reveal the fact that the greater the contrapuntal task he sets himself, the more expressive is the music. ”

“ Bach is generally considered as the greatest composer for the organ, but his organ works, wonderful as they are, seem small in comparison with these marvellous cantatas, all different and yet all connected, as it were, by an underlying unity of purpose. ”

“ The answer that he was required to give in eight days completely left his mind, and after more than eight months the Consistory again “represented to the organist Bach that he should declare whether, as he has been ordered to do, he will rehearse with the scholars or not; as, if he feels no shame in remaining in the Church and receiving the salary, he must also not be ashamed to ‘make music’ (i.e. rehearse) with the scholars: for it is intended that these should exercise themselves, so that for the future they may have more skill in music.” ”

“ Bach’s method of fingering
The new kind of fingering was made the more necessary by the use of all the keys equally; for hitherto only a few keys had been used. The hand and arm were to be held horizontally, the wrist straight; the fingers bent in the natural position assumed by the hand when about to grasp any object. Each finger had to fall without disturbing the others; and Bach devoted an immense amount of labour to make his fingers independent and equal in strength. He could perform trills with all fingers equally well, and could play melodies at the same time with the other fingers. ”

“ Although Bach was concertmeister, or leader of the orchestra at Cöthen, it is not to be supposed that he had any extraordinary facility on the violin. Quantz, in “Versuch einer Anweisung, etc.,” rightly considers that for such a post, at any rate in those days, it was more necessary that the holder should be a good all-round musician with sufficient facility to execute the ordinary orchestral music, than that he should be a “virtuoso”—and not every virtuoso makes a good leader. ”

“ In 1738 Mizler, [50] a pupil of Bach’s, founded a society for raising the status of music. Though it was successful, the great musician was not induced to join it until 1747, nine years later, when he handed into the society a triple canon in six voices on the chorale “Vom Himmel hoch, da komm’ ich her” as an “exercise.” It is to Mizler’s society that we owe the preservation of the portrait by Hausmann, now in the Thomas-schule, which is reproduced in this work: and still further have we to thank it for the account of his life, on which all later biographies are based. ”

“ The continuo of most of Bach’s cantatas was written out in two keys, to suit the two pitches in use, “Chorton” being a tone higher than “Kammerton.” All chamber music required the accompaniment of a cembalo in figured bass; and even if there were one or more “Cembali” obbligati a separate instrument would be employed for the continuo. In all Bach’s church compositions in which there is an organ obbligato part, there is another organ part for the continuo. The conductor stood near the organist, as may be seen in the frontispiece to Walther’s Lexicon. ”

“ In the same year, 1736, was published a book of hymns with their melodies by Schemelli, as a second volume to the book of Freylingshausen, to which Bach had in his early days contributed some of the music. On the 14th of May, 1737, there appeared a severe criticism of the way in which Bach wrote out all his manieren or grace notes, instead [85] of leaving them for the performer to add at his discretion. The music thereby loses all its charm of harmony, says the critic, and the melody becomes incomprehensible. He wonders that a man should give himself so much trouble to act against reason. ”

“ He could no longer endure the state of things in Passion Week, and, since in 1723 the great and famous Sebastian Bach had become cantor of the Thomas School and music director of the two chief churches at Leipsic, he associated himself with him in order to see if his ideas could be put in practice. The idea which he propounded to Bach was this: “The early arrangement of the service was the best, but was only suitable to its own date: we must try and make our arrangement on the model of the earliest, but in keeping with modern requirements. ”

“ Germany is much given to honouring those of her sons who have distinguished themselves in art by erecting memorials to them in public places: but not till nearly one hundred years after his death was such a monument thought of for Bach. In 1840, Mendelssohn gave an organ recital in the Thomas Church, with the object of opening a fund for this purpose with the proceeds, and on April 23, 1843, a medallion by Knauer was solemnly unveiled on the walls of the Thomas Church. ”

“ He is connected directly with the Reformation through the chorale, which Luther so much encouraged as a means of spreading the new views of religion. Bach was a strict Lutheran; and the chorale, or hymn to be sung by the congregation, was perhaps the most important expression of Lutheran religious feeling. The words will explain this perhaps better than anything else, if we take an example at random from the Leipziger Gesangbuch, in literal prose translation—e.g. No. 171: “A strong castle is our God; a good defence and weapon; he freely helps us in all trouble that can meet us. ”

“ Throughout his life he was ever eager to become acquainted with everything new that was of any value. New organs, new compositions, newly-invented instruments, were all a source of interest to him. Thus, directly Silbermann of Freiburg had made a few of his “fortepianos” in imitation of the new invention of Cristofori, Bach was eager to try them. But the hammerlike blow required was quite foreign to Bach’s method of playing, in which the fingers were always kept as close as possible to the keys ”

“ Several stories are told of the petty tyranny sought to be exercised over the great man by an ignorant and fussy vestry. Thus, Bach insisted, for sufficient reasons, on his right of choosing the hymns and ignoring those selected by Gaudlitz, the subdean of St Nicholas. Gaudlitz reported him to the Consistory, who sent him a notice that he must have the hymns sung which were chosen by the preacher. He therefore appealed to the Council, showing that it had been the custom for the cantor to select the hymns. ”