CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY MUSIC Cornell University Library ML 410.B1183S76 1884 Jotann Sebastian Bach. ^^^^^^ 3 1924 022 477 701 The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022477701 DHANN SEBASTIAN, BACH HIS WORK AND INFLUENCE ON THE MUSIC OF GERMANY, 1685-1750. PHILIPP SPITTA TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY CLARA BELL AND J. A. FULLER-MAITLAND. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON NOVELLO, EWER & CO. CONTENTS. Preface i Translators' Postscript •. xv BOOK I. bach's ancestors. I. — The Bach Family from 1550-1626 i II. — Tnp Backs of Erfurt 14 III. — Heinrich Bach and His Sons ". 27 IV. — JOHANN ChRISTOPH BaCH AND JOHANN MiCHAEL BaCH ... 40 V. — Instrumental Works of Christoph and Michael Bach 96 yi. — JoHANN Christoph Bach's Sons 131 VII.— Christoph Bach and His Sons 142 BOOK II. the childhood and early years of JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH, 1685 TO 1707. I. — Early Days. Education. Ohrdruf and Lunebbrg, 1685 TO 1703 181 11. — Life at Weimar and Arnstadt, 1703-4. Influence of KuHNAU. Works for Clavier and Organ 220 III. — Visit to LtJBECK. Buxtehude and His Style. Influence on Bach, 1704-5 256 IV. — Bach's Return to Arnstadt, and Dispute with the Consistory. His Marriage with His Cousin... ;.. '311 BOOK III. the first ten years op bach's " mastership." I. — Bach at Muhlhausen. His Religious Opinions ... 335 II. — Bach at Weimar. His Friends and Companions ... 375 III. — The Weimar Period. Organ Music, Concertos, Can- tatas, &c. ... ... , ... 392 IV. — Church Music. Analysis of the Cantata Form ... 466 v.— Bach's Visits to Various Towns. Some of His Pupi.ls 513 VI. — Cantatas Written at Weimar to Texts by Franck ... 526 VII. — At Meiningen : Johann Ludwig Bach. At Dresden : Organ Works of the later Weimar Period ... 574 Appendix (A, to Vol. I.) 621 PREFACE. THE work of which this volume is an instalment bears for its title nothing but the name of the man whose life and labours form its main subject. And since it is beyond dispute that no individual character can have full and complete justice done to it unless all the circumstances are laid bare under which it was developed, and worked out its results, this principle must above all be applicable in the case of a man who forms, as it were, the focal point towards which all the music of Germany has tended during the last three centuries, and in which all its different lines converged to start afresh in a new period, and to diverge towards new results. To describe all these can indeed hardly be my present task, all the less because the time is not yet come for saying the last word as to the profound influence exercised by Bach, more particularly on the music of the nineteenth century. My task is rather to disentangle, in the period that pre- ceded him, the threads which united in that centre, and to trace the reasons why it should have been in Bach that they converged, and in none other; for such a course could not be avoided by a writer whose purpose it was to give even an approximate idea of the grandeur of his personality as an artist. The deeper and more ramified the roots by which he clung to the soil of German life and nature, the wider was the extent of ground to be dug over in order to lay them bare. Hence the reader will find in this book much which he would hardly seek in a mere " life " of Sebastian Bach, but which is nevertheless intimately and inseparably con- nected with him. And thus, I think, its title will be justified by its contents. No attempt at such a comprehensive picture has as yet been made ; but there is no lack of books which have for their subject-matter the outward events of Bach's life or certain aspects of his artistic labours. Among these,- the A PREFACE. most important is the Necrology, which was published four years only after the master's death in L. Chr. Mizler'l Musikalische Bibliothek, Vol. IV., Part I., pages 158 to 176 (Leipzig, 1754). Its statements would be entitled to our belief, if only from its having first seen the light at a time when Bach's memory was still fresh, and in the city where he had lived and laboured for twenty-seven years ; and this is confirmed by the fact that it was compiled by Karl Philipp Emanuel Bach, the composer's second son, and by Johann Friederich Agricola, one of the most distinguished of his pupils. It is obvious that they combined for this work, because Agricola had enjoyed the benefit of Sebastian Bach's instructions at a time when his son had quitted the paternal roof, and so had personal knowledge of some cir- cumstances which Philipp Emanuel Bach had learned only indirectly. Agricola also contributed to Jakob Adlung's Musica Mechanica Organoedi (Berlin, 1768) a number of valuable notes regarding his illustrious teacher. The simple picture of Bach's life and artistic powers which the Necrology contains, with a summary review of his compo-j sitions, has been transcribed by almost all the later biogra-j phers — so called. Thus, in the first place, Johann Adam' Hiller, in his Lebensbeschreibungen beriihmter Musikge4 lehrten und Tonkiinstler neuerer Zeit, Part I., pages 9 to 29 (Leipzig, 1784). He was followed by Ernst Ludwig Gerber,;! Historisch-Biographisches Lexicon der Tonkunstler, Part I., col. 86 (Leipzig, 1790), who does not seem to have known whence Hiller had derived his information. Still, even in Gerber, we here and in other places come upon original observations worthy of remark, founded on statements sup- plied by his father, who had been Sebastian Bach's pupil. A curious production in the way of a biography occurs in Hirsching, Historisch-literarisches Handbuch beriihmter und denkwurdiger Personen, welche im achtzehnte Jahr- hundert gestorben sind, Vol. I., page 77 (Leipzig, 1794). Here the dates given in the Necrology are repeated approxi-: mately, and with several errors; then follows a sketch of Bach's characteristics which is derived from Proben aus Schubarts Aesthetik der Tonkunst, published by Schubart's PREFACE. Ill son in the Deutschen Monatsschrift (Berlin, 1793). This fantastic work is of course not to be relied on — not even where some facts seem to shine through of which the inaccuracy is not immediately obvious. C. A. Siebigke, Museum beriihmter Tonkiinstler, pages 3 to 30 (Breslau, 1801), repeats Gerber and Hiller — that is to say, the Necro- logy, but adds a few remarks on Bach's style. J. Ch. W. Kiihnau, Die blinden Tonkiinstler (Berlin, 1810), and J. E. Groszer, Lebensbeschreibung des Kapellmeister Johann Sebastian Bach (Breslau, 1834), have not even any inde- pendent musical judgment ; and none of these, excepting Gerber in a few passages, can be said to have made any researches of their own. The first advance that was made in the literature of the subject after Mizler's Necrology is marked by J. N. Forkel's book, Ueber Johann Sebastian Bach's Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke — Fiir patriotische .Verehrer echter musikalis- cher Kunst (Leipzig, 1802; a new edition in 1855). Forkel, the most learned musician of Germany of his time, and a passionate admirer of Sebastian Bach, had been personally acquainted with his two eldest sons : he thus became pos- sessed of valuable materials, which he worked up into his book. With regard to the facts of Bach's life, even he has little to add to the contents of the Necrology, though he enlarges on his characteristics as an organ and clavier player, as a composer, teacher, and father of a family. Still, valuable as Forkel's book is as an authority, and little as we can reproach him with mere fanciful inventions, we must use him with caution. For instance, he does not sufficiently distinguish the actual statements and judgments of Bach's sons from his own opinions, but, on the contrary, has worked them up together into a continuous narrative, so that it is often hard to discover the beginning and the end of those passages which give the book its special value. For- kel's own judgment, even as regards Bach, is often strangely narrow. Frequently, no doubt, independent inquiry leads us to a result which coincides so exactly with Forkel's state- ment as to leave no doubt as to the value of the source whence he obtained his fact ; but presently, again, we are A 2 IV PREFACE. Startled by some evident inaccuracy, or the discovery that, under the most favourable interpretation, he has misunder- stood his authority. Finally, it must be borne in mind that Bach's sons may themselves have made mistakes. For these reasons, though we must necessarily refer to this vi^ork at every step, for due security we must accept none of its assertions without testing them. On the occasion of the centenary of Bach's death, July a8, 1850, two memorial works appeared. First, Johann Sebas- tian Bach's Lebensbild— Fine Denkschrift, &c., aus Thiirin- gen, seinem Vaterlande; Vom Pfarrer Dr. J. K. Schauer (Jena, 1850). In this is collected all that was then kiiown, briefly, and for the most part correctly ; it is conscientious in giving the authorities, and includes a careful list of the published works of the composer, but betrays no profound artistic intelligence. The second centenary writer, C. L. Hilgenfeldt, goes more deeply into his subject, Johann Se- bastian Bach's Leben, Wirken und Werke — Ein Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts (Leipzigl 1850). The book is written with earnest purpose, and is so far a small advance on Forkel that the author has carefully collected a number of dates and of criticisms on Bach from the literature of the last century, and has worked them in with his picture. He too first gave us some detailed infor- mation as to Bach's ancestors, and a general review of Bach's compositions, which deserves credit at any rate on the score of industry. Historic breadth of view and scientific! method we must not indeed expect to find ; his artistic judg- ments and his historical purview, like the work generally, are but shallow and amateurish. However, as the author himself is modest as to his powers, it would be unfair to reproach him farther. Since then a singular literary effort has emanated from C. H. Bitter, Johann Sebastian Bach (two vols., Berlin| 1865). The author has been swept away by the historic current of our time, and attempts to wield the paraphernalia| of science, but without being in any way capable of doin| so. However, we must be grateful to him for disinterring certain archives previously unknown, for such documents,! PREFACE. V like books, have their destinies. Unfortunately they are very incorrectly reproduced. The author's own attempts at his- torical inferences and other reflections could have been omitted with advantage to the author and his book. He has done better in a later work, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach und Wilhelm Friedemann Bach und deren Bruder (two vols., Berlin, 1868). Here, no doubt, the task was an easier one. From this sketch it is evident that the only authorities that can be really considered available are the Necrology, Forkel, and parts of Gerber. To procure new material, next to an exact comparison of all the writers contemporary with Bach, a careful search was necessary through all the archives in which any trace of Bach's life as a citizen and official personage might occur. Then it was requisite to produce as clear a picture as possible, not only of the general condi- tions of the time when he lived, but of the various places where he resided, with his surroundings and duties ; to trace all the indications of his wider activity, and follow up the history of those persons with whom he seemed to have had any connection. It is quite certain that Bach rarely wrote letters, most rarely of all to private persons ; hence we can reckon very little on this most important source of biogra- phical facts. It has been all the more gratifying to light upon a few valuable discoveries of this kind. An inestimable document is a private letter, full of details, addressed from Leipzig, October 28, 1730, to the friend of his youth, Georg Erdmann, in Dantzig, which I have been enabled to bring to light from among the state archives at Moscow, by the help of my excellent friend, Herr 0. von Riesemann of Reval. Erdmann died, October 4, 1736, as " Hofrath " to the Russian Empire and Resident at Dantzig. He left a daughter under age, and her education, with the arrange- ment of his somewhat disordered affairs, was undertaken by his sister-in-law, a certain Fraulein von Jannewitz. This lady writes, on November 9, 1736 : " Some quite old letters, and papers also, which my late brother-in-law had laid by in a room apart, even before the bombardment, I laid, as soon as I remembered them, in a coffer, and sealed it twice with his seal, which was also used for the other sealing." She Vi PREFACE. herself wished to quit Dantzig, and this property was a burden to her. But among the "quite old letters" was this one from Sebastian Bach, which consequently travelled away to Moscow with Erdmann's official papers, and slum- bered there nearly a century and a half, awaiting its present resurrection. ' Though such autographs as these, of which the discovery often turns upon a mere happy accident, are extremely rare, we are better off as regards the autographs of Bach's compo- sitions. It may indeed be boldly asserted that the greater number of them still exist, and that a considerable portion are accessible to all. Nor are they only of inestimable value to musicians by reason of their contents; under skilful treatment they yield a mass of biographical data which is sometimes really astonishing; and this source would flow still more readily if the date at which they were written were not usually wanting. Here a field is opened for expert criticism to establish some sort of chronology, in which its utmost skill may be exercised ; for, since Bach's manuscripts extend over a period of more than forty years, it would be a by no means impossible task to assign to each period the handwriting that belongs to it by certain distin- guishing marks, though in its main features it is curiously constant. The differences in the paper would assist in this, and a third factor would be the investigation of the text for his vocal compositions. The style of the poetry used for these by Bach is for the most part too undefined for us to draw any inferences from it, though sometimes it is possible; but it is a fertile source of information to trace out the writers and the publication of these texts. It was the custom of the time to have the words of the hymns sung in churches printed and distributed to the congregation, that; they might follow them, and this contributes to baffle us and to conceal, at any rate, the first printing of the hymns. The various handling which the manuscripts frequently offer to our investigation I shall not, of course, any farther refer to in this place. The publications of the Bach-Gesellschaft (Bach Society of Germany) have been of immense use in my labours ; they PREFACE. vn now extend through twenty-seven yearly series, and are based on the best authorities, and give evidence of the greatest critical care, especially wherever Herr W. Rust has set his experienced hand. F. C. Griepenkerl and F. A. Roitzsch have edited, with no less learning and care, the collected edition of Bach's instrumental works, published by C. F. Peters of Leipzig ; and A. Dorffel supplemented it in 1867 by an accurate thematic catalogue. Nevertheless, for the reasons given above, I felt it my duty to examine every autograph by Bach that I could discover. This, by degrees, I was able to accomplish with all that are preserved in public libraries, particularly in the Royal Library at Berlin. It is, of course, always more difficult to obtain access to private collections ; however in most cases I have met with a friendly and liberal help. No doubt there are still several autographs which, lying perdu in the hands of unknown owners, for the present defy research — and, in saying this, I refer particularly to England. When shall we recover from thence that which is our own — so far, at any rate, as regards the matter of its contents ? The mention of Bach's compositions has led us away from the biographical to the artistic and historical as part of this work. From the writings of those authors who have already endeavoured to treat of Bach more or less comprehensively — Winterfeld, in Vol. IIL of his Evangelisches Kirchengesang ; Mosewius, in his discussion of Bach's Passion Music according to St. Matthew, and others — I could only use a few details here and there, for it is very clear that they either under-estimated, or wholly ignored, precisely that very impetus which, gathering force during a whole century, culminated triumphantly in Sebastian Bach. Indeed, it is always better to see with our own eyes than through those of others. Besides, all that the seventeenth century produced in the way of musical forms stands in such close and inti- mate connection with Bach's art that a somewhat exacter study of it seemed indispensable. In this, no less than in considering Bach's own compositions, I have, of course, attributed the greatest weight to the element of form, in proportion as an exact scientific estimate of this is more VIU PREFACE. possible than of the ideal element. Still, I could not regard myself as justified in altogether neglecting this, and so leaving undone a part of my task— the production, namely, of a comprehensive picture of Sebastian Bach and his art. The musical writer must always find himself here in a pecu- liarly difficult position. He may lay bare the foundations of a certain form, point out the modifications which it has under- gone in special cases under the subjective treatment of the artist, but still he will not have conveyed to the reader an essen- tially musical conception, which is the feeling and purport of the piece. In vocal music the words contribute to bridge over the gulf; in instrumental music he has the option of offering to the reader a mere anatomy, or of attempting in a few words to call up the spirit which alone can give it life and soul. I have selected the latter method, and must trust , to the chance that what I find and feel in this or that com- position may be also felt by others. I shall not, I think, be accused of having treated this part of my work in too subjec- tive a manner. A homogeneous strain of feeling lies at the base of all Bach's compositions, permeating them so strongly that it must be evident to any one who really studies the master. Every epoch, every distinct musical form, has its own character and sentiment ; nay, every kind of instrument is limited to its own sphere of feeling. Up to this point we walk securely, but beyond this the ground is shifting, the eye is dazzled by the play of hues which at every instant are born and die — none but a poet can find language to convey the effect. Here, however, I must expressly protect myself against the misconception that in order thoroughly to enjoy a work of art it must be possible to transcribe its sentiment in words. Every instrumental composition — like any other work of art— must produce its effect by its own means and by its own nature. I have only attempted to fulfil what I conceived to be an author's duty. In order to give a broad historical view of Bach as an artist, and of his works, it was necessary first to give due consideration to a circumstance which cannot be a matter of indifference. The hero of this biography was descended PREFACE. IX from a family who had already been musicians for more than a century ; Bach himself, and his sons, laid stress on this long artistic pedigree, and we owe our knowledge of it to the MS. genealogy of the Bach family, which is preserved in the Royal Library at Berlin. It was obtained from the property left by G. Polchau, professor of music at Hamburg, who had it from that left by Forkel, to whom it had been given by Philipp Emanuel Bach. It contains iifty-three numbers, in each of which the parentage and birth and death days of a male member of the Bach family are recorded ; the first were written by Sebastian Bach himself, according to his son's statement. By whom the work was continued we are not told ; still it may be guessed with some degree of certainty. ' In the first place it is demonstrable that it was drawn up in the last months of the year 1735, since Sebastian's son Johann Christian, who was born September 5) I735> is mentioned by name under No. 18. Philipp Emanuel was at that time a student at Frankfort-on-the- Oder. Besides this, it is clear from certain details that, with the exception of course of the first number, the genealogy cannot have been drawn up under the eye of Sebastian Bach. The date of his eldest brother's death is wanting, which he must certainly have known ; and, what is more, in the notice of Sebastian himself a false date is given (see on this subject Appendix A, No. 9), which relates to an occurrence so important that Sebastian himself could hardly have made a mistake in the year. Now this error is repeated in the Necrology, and we know that the Necrology was in great part drawn up by Philipp Emanuel Bach. The inference is obvious. When Philipp Emanuel subse- quently sent a copy of the genealogy to Forkel, he added a ■ variety of explanatory notes to extend and improve it ; but copies had already become distributed among the Bach family, particularly in the line which in the second half of the seventeenth century had settled in Francohia. A copy of it was in the possession of Johann Lorenz Bach, a cousin of Philipp Emanuel; and his great-grandson, Johann Georg Wilhelm Ferrich, minister of Seidmannsdorf, near Coburg, to whom it descended in due course, allowed X PREFACE. it to be published in the Allgemeine Musikalische ^eitung, Vol. XLV., Nos. 30 and 31. He erroneously supposed that Lorenz Bach himself had drawn it up, but a comparison makes it evident that it is only a copy. The trifles which are wanting in the Ferrich genealogy are partly unintentional oversights, and partly wholly unimportant ; some, too, are easily accounted for by the illegibiHty of the original MS. On the other hand it has a series of additions, such as the dates of Sebastian Bach's appointment to be " court com- poser " to the King of Poland (1736), and of his death, with fuller notices of the Bachs of Schweinfurt and Ohrdruf. In No. 18, also, the date " 1735 " is added later, apparently because the copyist observed that this date was essential for determining and verifying several others, while at first he had omitted it as not coinciding with the date at which he made his transcript. At any rate these additions must have been made before 1773, the year of Lorenz Bach's death, since it is not mentioned ; nay, more, we know that the MS. from which Lorenz Bach copied was not the original that had belonged to Philipp Emanuel Bach, but only a copy from that. This copy also has been preserved, though only in a fragment, beginning with No. 25 ; this is now in the possession of Fraulein Emmert, of Schweinfurt, who is connected with a lateral branch of the Franconian Bachs, and who was so obliging as to send it for my inspection. From No. 41 in that copy it is plain that it was made before 1743, and might therefore have had some more information than Philipp Emanuel's. Still more in- teresting is it to note that in No. 39, where Johann Elias Bach is the subject of the notice, the words "p. t. Cantor in Schweinfurth " are omitted, and instead of them we find " Born at Schweinfurth, February 12, 1705, at three in the morning. — Studios Theol." This Johann Elias Bach was studying theology in Leipzig during the summer-time of 1759, a^ is proved by the register of the university, and during that tirne became personally acquainted with Sebas- tian Bach. From the exactitude of the date of his birth, as given in the Emmert genealogy, as well as from the insertion between Nos. 39 and 40 of his younger brother, Johann PREFACE. XI Heinrich Bach — ^who, it is expressly stated, died very young, and who therefore cannot have been known to a very extensive circle — we may conclude with certainty that these details proceed from some member of the Franconian Bach family; from a near relative of Elias Bach, if not from himself. Other "additions, again, indicate that it was written under the direct supervision of Sebastian Bach ; not indeed the Emmert genealogy, which, as has been said, begins with No. 25, but the additions to the Ferrich genealogy, which is well-preserved. We inferred, from the omission in the original genealogy of the dates of birth and death of Sebastian's eldest brother, that it cannot have been drawn up under his eye ; but the Ferrich genealogy has both (No. 22). Now if we suppose that this was transcribed from the copy, it seems to me the probability is as great as possible that Elias Bach was the writer of that copy, and in further corroboration of this view we have the minute details as to his father, Valentin Bach (No. 26) ; thus the Emmert genealogy would have been written between 1739 and 1743, and subsequently, after it had received further additions, the Ferrich copy must have been made from it. This copy has one trifling omission in No. 43, but it is unimportant, and may have been either intentional or accidental. Besides these genealogies, the Bachs also preserved thd family pedigree. One such family tree was in the possession of Philipp Emanuel Bach, who gave it, with the genealogy, to Forkel ; it has disappeared, but a trace of its existence remains in the Beschreibung der Konigl. Ungarischen Hauptstadt Pressburg, a work published in that city in 1784, by Joh. Mathias Korabinsky; in this there is a little pedigree with numbered shields and a list appended, containing the names of sixty -four male Bachs ; and on page no the author remarks that it is the family tree of the famous " Herr Capellmeister Bach, of Hamburg." Its insertion in this wotk is due to the fact that the Bachs were supposed to be a Hungarian family. Another pedigree was in ' the possession of Sebastian Bach's pupil, Johann Christian Kittel, Organist of Erfurt ; it was published, with ex- planatory notes, by Christian Friedrich Michaelis, in the Xii PREFACE. Allgemeinen Musik Zeitung, Vol. XXV., No. i2 : where it is now is unknown. Fraulein Emmert, of Schweinfurt, has a genuine original pedigree ; it is very carefully drawn and written, and splendidly coloured. From its general plan it must have been drawn up between 1750 and 1760; some supplementary notes have been added by another hand, and in different ink. A still living descendant of the family, Herr Bach, of Eisenach, has exerted himself to have it carried down to the present time. All these materials have been a valuable contribution to the history of Sebastian Bach's ancestors. The next thing was to reinvestigate all the authorities from which they had been derived, to test the data they afforded— and there was much to rectify — and to exhaust them further ; in short, to acquire new materials : for if this biography is to be of any value it must be by working up the more important personages to the most vivid individuality possible, and by giving them for a background as definite a sketch as may be of the times and conditions in which they lived: I have done my best to extract what the materials at hand would afford. In this part of my labours I am especially indebted to my friend, now already dead. Professor Th. Irmisch, late of Sondershausen, who was at all times ready to assist me with his exact knowledge of the history of manners in Thuringia ; and I must acknowedge this all the more emphatically because such assistance is less conspicuous in prominent matters than in various suggestions and small information of which the value is hardly perceptible, excepting to the person who has benefited by them. The history of Bach's ancestors has involved me in some places in a considerable number of genealogical details, and while I beg the reader not to regard them as mere useless details, I do so with a lurking hope that the request may be un- necessary. It is evident that, in composing a "picture," a bare enumeration of the unusually numerous members of the Bach family is insufficient ; the reader must see them, live with them in the deepest strata of their evolution, and if any should think this dry and uninteresting, it must be remembered that though the beauty of a tree lies in its PREFACE. XIH trunk, branches, leaves, and fruit, the condition of this growth resides in strong and healthy roots. The genea- logical matter is therefore worked up into the picture on a definite plan. As regards the general arrangement of the work, it has been my endeavour to produce a coherent picture, equally elaborated throughout ; all that did not directly contribute to this had to be eliminated. This gave rise to two appendices: the one for strictly critical discussions, and the other for quotations of some extent from authorities, and for certain explanations which the plan I had laid down excluded from the body of the book. But it need not there- fore be thought arbitrary when some short critical views are introduced into the context, for there are matters which are so closely interwoven with the tissue of a biographical or historical narrative that it is impossible to avoid discussing them without neglecting at the same time a number of things which it is highly desirable, if not absolutely indispen- sable, to mention. Then, again, is it by mere accident that in so many questions connected with Bach's life we find our- selves thrown back on circumstantial evidence ? It seems to me that a reflection of the man's own nature falls across our investigations — of his quiet, modest, and reserved life, absorbed in the contemplation of the ideal of his art. Much in my picture is taken directly from the authorities them- selves ; this, however, could hardly ever be done without remodelling and smoothing it, so far as to make it homo- geneous with the rest. Documentary precision had in these cases to be sacrificed to the requirements of style ; however, the characteristics of an antique and original writer need not be thereby effaced. A single unusual expression is often enough to give its tone, nay, even an antiquated form of spelling; it rests with the author to use his tact, and hit the precise limits. The only exception I have made is in the case of documents by Bach himself,^ or such as refer to his words. When printed works of any rarity are quoted. ' For these the curious re'ader must be referred to the original German of this work (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hartal). XIV PREFACE. their titles, with the dates, are given in full, in the foot-notes to each chapter; these also contain references to authorities, i and such short observations as were unsuited to find a place in an appendix, and which, to have any value, were necessary adjuncts to the text. The letters B.-G. refer to the publications of the Bach- Gesellschaft ; P. to the Peters Edition.^ The book did not all appear at once in its original German dress. The first volume was published in the spring of 1873, the second in the winter of 1879-80. In the interval I was enabled to obtain some fresh materials for the subjects treated in the first volume, as well as to correct certain errors that had crept in. All that I then added as a supple- ment to the second volume is, in this English edition, worked up into the text. On the other hand, it appeared possible and desirable to effect an abridgment in one or two places. With regard even to the second volume, though so short a time has elapsed since it came out, I have learnt the truth of the proverb, dies diem docet; and the reader who realises the extent of the materials dealt with, and the purely aceidental way in which a new discovery is often made, will not be surprised at this. Of course, in this edition, I have availed myself for the second volume also of all the additional information I have acquired. In its English form, therefore, it may be regarded, not merely as a translation, but as a revised and improved edition, and I send it forth with a sincere desire that it may contribute over an ever-widening circle to the knowledge and compre- hension of one of the grandest spirits of any time or nation. PHILIPP SPITTA. Berlin, Summer of 1880. 2 The arrangement of this edition is exceedingly confused, there being two different sets of references, one in use abroad, and one for the corresponding English edition, published by Augener and Co. The former, the old method of arrangement, is referred to by the words " Serie" and "Cahier" (As, for instance, " Ser. V., Cah. I." or " S. V., C. I."), and the latter method by" the simple number in brackets. In almost every case both references will be found. TRANSLATOR'S POSTSCRIPT. A FEW words of explanation seem desirable on one or two points connected with the translation of this book. In the first place as to the word Clavier, which has been left untranslated because, at different dates, it has not had precisely the same meaning. It is a general term for all instruments of the pianoforte kind, such as clavichord, harpsichord, spinet, or pianoforte ; in its other meaning of the keyboard of an organ it is of course rendered by Manual. Christian names have not been altered into their common English forms, excepting the familiar ones of royal per- sonages. German titles of musical officials also remain untranslated, the most important being Kapellmeister, the official conductor of an orchestra with a fixed salary, as, for instance, the conductor of the opera ; and Concertmeister, the leader of the first violins, when that also is an official post. For the explanation of technical terms the reader is referred to Stainer and Barrett's " Dictionary of Musical Terms," or to Grove's "Dictionary of Music and Musicians "; for that of the German terminology of the organ to " The Organ : its History and Construction," by Rimbault and Hopkins. In rendering the texts of cantatas, &c., rhyme has occasionally been sacrificed to sense and rhythm, as these seemed essential to explain the motive and raison d'etre of the music. When the words are given in conjunction with their musical setting, they have been left untranslated, except in cases where the meaning has an important bearing on the music, or on the subject in hand. Quotations have been made from translations published in England with the music, where such existed. Texts from the Bible are given in the Bible words. The German edition of this work is supplied with copious references to the archives and parish registers of German xvi translator's postscript. towns.^ These have not, for the most part, been copied for the EngHsh reader, since any one desiring to consult such recondite authorities will no doubt study the original work. Here and there the authority for important facts has been given, and every reference to a book is reproduced. A list is given of those works of which copies are to be found in the British Museum. ' Those of Sondershausen, Eisenach, Arnstadt, Weimar, Erfurt, Hamburg, Miihlhausen, and many others. BOOK I. BACH'S ANCESTORS. I. THE BACH FAMILY FROM I55O-1626. THE family of which Johann Sebastian Bach was a descendant was purely and thoroughly German, and can be traced to its home in Thuringia even before the time of the Reformation. The same constancy which led its . members, throughout the seventeenth and during part of the eighteenth centuries, to the pursuit of music, kept it settled in one place of residence for two centuries and a half, multiplying and ramifying, and appearing at length as an essential element in the popular characteristics of the place. It clung with no less tenacity to certain Christian names, and, by a singular coincidence, the first of the family concerning whom we have been able to procure any informa- tion bore the name which was commonest among all that occur, and which was owned also by our great master. This earliest representative is Hans Bach of Grafenrode, a village lying about two miles south-west of Arnstadt. In the beginning of the sixteenth century Grafenrode was subject to the Counts of Schwarzburg, but apparently it belonged to the princely Counts of Henneberg, and was held by the Count of Schwarzburg only under a mortgage. The great lords of Thuringia at that time often found themselves in need of money, and would pawn villages or whole districts like mere household chattels. Hans Bach, whom we must fiicture to ourselves as a mere simple peasant, appears to have laboured with his fellow-villagers — among whom was one named Abendroth — in the neighbouring mines of Ilmenau, 6 2 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. of which the management was at that time taken possession of by Erfurt. Well-to-do citizens of Erfurt took up a tern- porary residence, no doubt, for this purpose in Ilmenau, ai)d one of these may have been Hans Schuler— whether this Hans Schuler was or was not identical with Johannes Schuler, a tetrach of the council of Erfurt in the years 1502-3 and 1506. At any rate this Schuler was the cause of an action being brought against Bach— on what ground is unknown— before the spiritual court of the archbishopric of Mainz, and he was taken into custody with the above-named Abendroth. Not only did Erfurt belong to the diocese of Mainz, but the Archbishop had long had property of his own in the city, and constantly aimed at increasing his influence there. The prisoners endeavoured to obtain their freedom through the mediation of Giinther dem Bremer, at that time Count of Schwarzburg, who seems, however, to have interceded for his subjects without any particular success. A letter has been preserved which he wrote, in February, 1509, after many vain efforts, to Canon Sommering, in Erfurt, declaring that he would have the matter decided according to the strictest form of law, in his own supreme court, if Bach and Abendroth were not set at liberty, and this letter is the authority for our narrative of the transac- tion.^ The name of Bach is to be found among the inhabi- tants of Grafenrode throughout the sixteenth and seven-,! teenth centuries, and in the year 1676 one Johannes Bach was diaconus in Ilmenau itself.^ Now, quitting Arnstadt and going a good mile to the north-east, we find ourselves in the village of Rockhausen. Here dwelt in the second half of the sixteenth century Wolf Bach, a peasant of considerable wealth. When he died he left the life-interest of his entire property to his wife Anna, by whom he had eleven children. In the ' See Appendix, B. No. I. 2 Archives at Sondershausen. One Bernhard Bach, schoolmaster in Schleusingen, was one of those who signed the Concordienbuch ^ i.e., the volume containing the laws and tenets of the Reformed Church of Luther, before 1580 (Concordia e Joh. Muelleri manuscripto edita a Phillipo Muellero. Lips, et Jenae, 1705, p. 889). This place is beyond the district in which the Bachs dwelt. bach's ancestors. 3 year 1624 she was " a woman of great age," and desired to divide the property among her surviving children. We hear of a farm, four good fields and thirty-two smaller ones, valued altogether at 925 florins, a very considerable estate at that time ; at any rate the most considerable of the place, and this in itself would indicate a long settlement there. The children — of whom three sons are named, Nikol, Martin, and Erhart, and one married daughter — were tolerably advanced in life. Erhart had been for some years away from home and was already past fifty, and Nikol in the year 1625 married for the third time. He, even before the division of his father's estate, had a handsome property, and it is quite certain that he was the only representative of the family remaining in Rockhausen. In consequence of his second marriage he was involved in all sorts of disputes over money matters ; a state- ment drawn up in his own hand on this occasion has been preserved, from which it would appear that he was not unfamiliar with the use of the pen. By the first decade of the eighteenth century there would seem to have been no member of the Bach family left in Rockhausen. Not far from Rockhausen, in a westerly direction, lies Molsdorf, where also a family of Bachs, with numerous branches, had its residence throughout the seventeenth century. The earliest and most important of the parish registers was destroyed during the Thirty Years' War ; those that remain go back only to the year 1644. According to them the eldest of the Bach family living there — his name again was Hans — was born in i6o6. But one Andreas Bach, whose widow died March 21, 1650, must certainly have gone back to the former century. Ernst and Georg Bach may have been his sons; the latter was born in 1624. Above twenty members of the Molsdorf family are mentioned within a period of scarcely seventy years ; the men bearing the names of Johann, Andreas, Georg, Ernst, Heinrich, Christian, Jakob, and Paul, all of which, excepting the last, were con- stantly repeated in the line whence Sebastian Bach descended, while the female names varied much. Other authorities also mention one Nikol Bach of Molsdorf, who entered the Swedish army, and who was buried June 23, 1646, at Arnstadt, having B 2 4 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. " been stabbed in a drunken riot on grounds of his own pro- voking." I Also, we can hardly be mistaken in supposing that Johann J Bach, "musician to General Vrangel," was a native of this place, a man famous as an " ingenious musician," but of whom we only know that he was already dead in 1655, leaving a daughter.^ He, then, was the first musician of the Molsdorf line. The above-mentioned Georg Bach had by his wife Maria (May 23, 1655) a son Jakob, who became a corporal in a regiment of cuirassiers under the Elector of Saxony, and was the father of a long line. This branch quitted Molsdorf at the beginning of the eighteenth century, to settle farther north at Bindersleben, near Erfurt, where it still exists, after having produced several admirable musicians, of whom Johann Christoph (1783-1846) seems to have been the most remarkable; he, though a simple farmer, enjoyed a great reputation in his time as organist and composer in Thuringia. For a third time we must turn to the south-west, where we shall find, near Gotha, the home of Sebastian Bach's direct ancestry. The exact connection between this branch and those before mentioned is not ascertainable ; but it is in the highest degree improbable that there should be no con-| nection whatever between two families of the same name,| having, too, many christian names in common, and dwelling near to each other within a comparatively small circuit. Moreover, we must fix the date of the first common ancestor in the middle of the fifteenth century, since in the sixteenth the main stem had already thrown off vigorous branches in various directions. Even in Wechmar — the ultimate goal of our wanderings — the Bachs were well settled so early as 1550. The oldest representative, who also bears the name of Hans, figures on the Monday before St. Bartholomew's Day in 1561 as one of the guardians of the municipality {Gemeindevormund- schaft.Y Such an office required a man of ripe age, so we may refer his birth to about the year 1520. Veit Bach, who " Marriage register of Arnstadt. ♦ According to the records of the Municipal Acts preserved at Wechmar. VEIT BACH. 5 is spoken of by Sebastian Bach himself as the forefather of the family, may be regarded as the son of Hans, and may have been born between 1550 and 1560 ; apparently he was not the only one, as will appear from what follows. He took his christian name from St. Vitus, the patron saint of the church at Wechmar,^ thus pointing to an intimate connection of some duration with the affairs of the place. He learnt the trade of a baker, quitted his native place, as his forefather Erhart had quitted Rockhausen, and settled in some place in Hungary.^ It is well known that the Lutheran religion met with the earliest acceptance in the Electorate of Saxony, to which, at the beginning of the Reformation, Gotha and the neighbourhood belonged ; and in the same way it spread and blossomed rapidly in Hungary under the Emperors Ferdinand I. and Maximilian H. The reaction set in under Rudolph II. (1576-1613) ; the Jesuits were recalled, and oppressed the Lutherans with increasing success. Veit did not wait for the events of 1597, when the influence of the Jesuits became paramount by one of their order being made Provost of Thur6cz. " He journeyed from thence," as we are told by Sebastian Bach, " after he had converted his property into money, so far as was possible, and returned to Germany," and, as we may add, to his native village in Thuringia, where he found safety for himself and his creed. Here he seems to have extended his trade as baker, but certainly not for very long, since by the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries the bake- houses of Wechmar were in other hands. The notice written by Sebastian Bach describes Veit not properly as a baker but as a miller ; still these two trades were often combined.' Being a true Thuringian he loved and practised instrumental music. " He has his greatest pleasure," says his great descendant. ' Briickner, Kirchen- und Schulenstaat im Herzogthum Gotha. Gotha, 1760. 6 There is no foundation for stating that it was in Presburg. This tradition probably originated with Korabinsky. ' The suggestion that the trade of a baker was invented for him, only on account of his name (Backer-Bach), is disproved by the circumstance that the vowel in the name was pronounced long, " Baach", and even frequently written so in the seventeenth century. 6 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. " in a small cithara^ (Cythringen), which he even takes into the mill with him, and plays on it while the mill works. They must have sounded sweetly together! He must, at any rate, have learnt time in this way. And this was, as it were, the beginning of music among his descendants." However, the art which Veit Bach pursued for pleasure was already followed as a profession by a contemporary member of his family, possibly his own brother. Veit died March 8, 1619, and was buried that same day. He probably had several children, for the large number of male and female descendants of the Wechmar line can scarcely be all traced back to the sons of whom the genealogy speaks. This names two, or more exactly one, since of the other the existence, only is mentioned, while it is silent as to his name. The one named was of course called Hans, and was the great-" ,j grandfather of Sebastian Bach. We may very properly! suppose that he was born at Wechmar about 1580, since Veit seems not to have married till after his return from his sojourn in Hungary. He showed a taste for music, so his father decided on letting him become a " player " (Spielmann) by profession, and placed him at Gotha to learn of the town' musician {Stadtpfeifer) in that place. He also was a Bach, by name Caspar, and may have been a younger brother, of at any rate a near relation of Veit's. He took Hans to live with him in the tower of the old Guildhall, his official resi- dence. The sounds of bustle and business came up from the stalls which occupied the whole of the market-place on the ground floor, and from the gallery above he and his assistants must have piped out the chorale at certain hours, according to long usage.^ His wife's name was Katharina, and of his children we learn that Melchior was already a grown-up man in 1624, that a daughter, Maria, was bom February 20, 1617, and another Son, Nikolaus, December 6, 1619.^" After this he moved to Arnstadt, where he died, the » The old cithara was a guitar-like instrument, distinct from the modern German zither. The word " Cythringen " is a diminutive. » Appendix A, No. i. 1° Register of St. Augustine's Church in Gotha. HANS BACH. 7 first representative of the family in that place; his wife followed him, July 15, 1651." Hans, " after serving his years of apprenticeship," returned to the paternal village, and took to wife Anna Schmied, the daughter of the innkeeper there. As we very frequently find in those times that the musicians followed some trade besides the profession of music, so Hans Bach commonly practised his craft of carpet-weaving.^^ Still music was his special calling, as is proved by his being called a Spielmann in the parish register. This led to his travelling all about Thuringia ; he was often ordered " to Gotha, Arnstadt, Erfurt, Eisenach, Schmalkalden, and Suhl, to assist in the town-music of those places." There his fiddle sounded merrily ; his head was brimful of fun, and he soon became a most popular personage. It would be difficult otherwise to account for his attaining the honour of twice having his portrait taken. Philipp Emanuel Bach possessed both pictures in his collection of family portraits : one was a copper-plate engraving, of the year 1617, the other a woodcut ; in this he was shown playing the violin, with a big bell on his left shoulder. On the left side was written a rhyme to this effect : — Here, you see, fiddling, stands Hans Bach ; To hear him play would make you laugh : He plays, you must know, in a way of his own, And wears a fine beard, by which he is known.'' and under the verse was a scutcheon with a fool's cap. We shall see presently how this gay temper was transmitted to one of his children. '' The register of deaths at Arnstadt states that she was eighty-two and a half years old. This does not perfectly agree with the former events cited ; there is probably some clerical error. " The genealogy says that he first learnt the baker's trade, and then devoted himself entirely to music. But a very trustworthy authority is a funeral sermon on Heinrich Bach, Hans Bach's son (Arnstadt, 1692), in which Hans is called a musician and carpet-maker of Wechmar. '3 Hier siehst du geigen Hansen Bachen, Wenn du es horst, so mustu lachen. Er geigt gleichwohl nach seiner Art Und tragt einen hiibschen Hans Bachens Bart. 8 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. Hans did not live to a great age ; he died December 26, 1626, in the year of the plague, which snatched away other, members of his family. When, nine years after, this pesti- lence raged still more furiously in the village, so that of the 800 inhabitants 503 died (191 in the month of September alone), his widow followed (September 18, 1635). Of his children only those three will occupy our attention in whom: . the musical talent of their father reappeared ; but that there must have been others which were not remembered in the later genealogies, because they remained simple peasants, is quite certain. Without pausing over the various females of whose existence traces still exist, we must devote a few words to the other sons. It certainly is not easy — often not possible — to find our way with any certainty through the mixed crowd which the parish registers reveal to us ; I can only give so much information as was attainable. The authority above mentioned only speaks of Johann, the eldest of the three sons who were musicians ; but besides him we come across six other individuals, who may be supposed to have been about the same age, and to have been sons of Hans Bach, or of his brothers, or of other contemporary relatives in the same place. First, there is one Hans Bach, who is often spoken of as junior in contradistinction to Hans Bach senior, and who thus must have been his son. He cannot be identical with Johann Bach, since he attended the Lord's Supper with his wife so early as 1621, while Johann was not married till 1635 > hence, I consider him to have ■, been an elder brother, probably the first child of old Hans Bach, who, according to the simple manners of the time, married very early. The son died, still young, November 6, 1636 ; his widow, Dorothea, survived till May 30, 1678, to the age of seventy- eight. Of the sons of this marriage nothing is known. Then there is yet another Hans Bach who seems to have been somewhat younger, and who married June 17, 1634, a maiden named Martha. She brought him sons, Abraham, born March 29, 1645; Caspar, born March 9, 1648, who was subsequently a shepherd at Wechmar ; and a third son, not named, born March 27, 1656, "who at his birth was scarcely^ OTHER MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY, 9 a span long." The third Hans was also a son of the " player.' " Thus there were three brothers of the same name, and it is characteristic of old Hans, with the bell, that he should have taken pleasure in this triumvirate of Hanses. Then there was Heinrich Bach, of whom we only learn that two sons were born to him, in 1633 and 1635, both of whom died January 28, 1638. The youngest of the musical trio bore the same name ; if he were the brother of the former Heinrich, the jolly fiddler must have had three sons named Hans and two named Heinrich. Next, Georg Bach, born in 1617 ; his first wife, Magdalena, was born in i6ig, and died August 23, 1669. He married for the second time October 21, 1670 ; his bride's name was Anna, and she died in childbirth, February 29, 1672. But these folks could not live unmarried : he wedded for the third time November 19, 1672, and died March 22, 1691 ; his wife, Barbara, followed April 18, 1698. No sons of his are named, nor do we know whose son he himself was. One Bastian (or Sebastian) finally is mentioned, of whose existence we know only by the date of his death, September 3, 1631. He may have lived to be an old man, and he is the only one of the family who bore the name of Sebastian before the great composer. As has been said, the genealogy mentions another son of Veit Bach's without giving his name, nor can he be certainly identified by any other means ; still we learn from the parish register that there was a contemporary of Hans Bach, the elder "player," who may have been his brother. His name was Lips, and he died October 10, 1620 ; a son of the same name fell a victim to the plague, September 21, 1626. The sons who continued this family would therefore be wanting in the register. The genealogy speaks of three, who were sent to Italy by the reigning Count of Schwarzburg-Arnstadt for the advancement of their musical education, and of these Jonas, the youngest, seems to have been blind and the subject of many strange " See Appendix A, No. 2. 12 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. have been fulfilled by Nikolaus Ephraim can rarely have been loaded on to the ^shoulders of a single individual ; it is plain he was a factotum.^" Georg Michael Bach (1703- 1771), the teacher of the eighth class in the Lutheran Town College at Halle, was also probably a son of the Cantor of Ruhla ; his son again, Johann Christian (1743-1814), was music-teacher there, and was called for short " ier Clavier Bach." He was connected with Friedemann Bach, the eldest son of Sebastian, when the latter was Organist at the Liebfrauenkirche at Halle, or perhaps indeed when he was there no longer. For it was from him that he acquired that " Clavier-Biichlein vor Wilhelm Friedemann Bach" ("A little harpsichord-book for W. F. B."), which the great Sebastian wrote at Cothen for his favourite child, in great part with his own hand, and to which we shall presently devote our special attention .^^ Finally, we have to mention Stephan Bach, who, according to the genealogy, must have been connected with this line without its being stated in what way. He was Cantor and Succentor on the Blasius Foundation at Brunswick, an office which he assumed in i6go, and held till his death in 1717. His first wife was Dorothea Schulze, and therefore Andreas Heinrich Schulze, afterwards the Organist of St. Lambert's Church at Hildesheim, whose singing-master Stephan Bach was, must be regarded as a relative of his wife's.^ 2° The document presented to Nik. Eph. Bach by Kessler is almost perfect, and is set forth on two sheets of parchment, of which the back was subse- quently used for portraits in pastel. They are at present in the possession of Herr Brackebusch, Cantor of Gandersheim. The rest I have derived from documents in the archives of Wolfenbiittel, and the church registers of Ganders- heim. The house, which tradition declares to have been built for Nik. Eph. Bach, as Organist and Intendant, still exists at Gandersheim. It was at one time inhabited by the father of Ludwig Spohr ; the accomplished landscape- gardener Tuch now lives in it. 2'. After the death of Johann Christian this book was acquired by Herr Kotschau, the musical director at Schulpforte, and at his death it passed into the possession of Herr Krug, Judge of Appeals in Naumburg, to whom I am indebted for this information. According to the church register of Meiningen a son of Johann Bach, " Court lackey and hautbois player," was christened August 13, 1699, and named Johann Christian Carl. This Johann was, perhaps, a fourth son of Jakob Bach. " J. G. Walther, Musicalisches Lexicon., Leipzig, 1732. B.M. THURINGIA DURING THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. I3 His eldest son was named Johann Albrecht (born 1703), and was the child of his second marriage. Anything else that might be related of him would be merely a history of the sickness and general misery which this family always had to contend with. These we shall meet with often enough when dealing with the direct ancestors of Sebastian Bach, and we will therefore be silent about them here.^^ We have been able to discover the roots of the Bach family in various places in Thuringia, and have found them everywhere to be mere village peasants and farmers ; so truly did Sebastian Bach spring from the very core and marrow of the German people. And as, before the Thirty Years' War, the whole population of Germany was well-to-do, peaceful comfort was not lacking to the peasant farmer of Thuringia ; to industry and capability he added piety. The lists of communicants of Wechmar from 1618 to 1623 give evidence, by their frequent mention of Bachs — male and female, old and young— that their profession of Protestant- ism was to them a living and heartfelt religion. It must, however, be added, that while Wolf Bach, of Rockhausen, was a freeholder in unusually easy circumstances, a harder lot seems to have fallen to his relatives in Wechmar. In the villages and their neighbourhood there were a number of nobles' estates, and all who depended on them as peasants (or as villeins, as we might say), had to bear a no small burden both in service and in kind ; and all the more so because the owners of these estates — the vassals of the Count of Gleichen — had frequently to supply a considerable force of armed men, which, of course, did not benefit those who were left behind. The death of Hans Bach {der Spielmann), in 1626, brings us just to the beginning of the period when Thuringia began to suffer and bleed under the fearful scourge of war. From the year 1623, when the troops first were marched across it, every conceivable horror was wreaked by the wild hordes of war on " Register of the Blasius Foundation, Brunswick, and archives of Wolfen- biittel. Griepenkerl, editor of Bach's instrumental works, attributes the series of admirable organists who have lived at Brunswick to the influence of Stephan Bach, as I am kindly informed by Dr. Schiller. 14 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. this fair spot of German soil, at shorter and shorter intervals^ The villages were plundered and burnt, the fields laid waste, the men killed, the women ill-treated — even the churches were not spared. Then came the fearful plagues of 1626 and 1635. Those who could save their lives out of all this misery fled, for shelter at least, by preference into the towns, or hid them- selves in the forests, or like Nikol and Johann Bach of Mols- dorf, entered the army, no alternative remaining. Thus the Bachs of Wechmar were dispersed ; those who remained died out by degrees, until, at the end of the last century, a man of the name of Ernst Christian Bach returned there, and there ended his days (September 29, 1822) as cantor and schoolmaster.^ Of the three musicians even, the sons of Hans Bach, not one remained long in his native village. The time in which they grew up and lived was a time of terror and bloodshed, a time which deteriorated the gentlest 'and best, and wore out the strongest, and which must have exerted a profound influence on the natures of the three brothers, according to the natural bent and the special destiny of each. II. THE BACHS OF ERFURT. Johann Bach, the eldest of these three sons, was born at Wechmar, November 26, 1604. "Now when his father, Hans Bach," says the genealogy, "travelled to the afore- named places {see p. 7) and often took him with him, once on a time the old town-piper of Suhl, named Hoffmann, persuaded him to give him his son to be taught by him, which also he did ; and he dwelt there five years as his apprentice, and two years as his assistant." After this he seems to have led a roving life in the midst of the ever- increasing turmoil of war. The genealogy states that he went from Suhl to Schweinfurt, where he became Organist. But, in 1628, he already appears in Wechmar as " player " (Spielmam), and again in the year 1634 ; but he can hardly " As I am kindly informed by Dr. Koch. JOHANN BACH OF ERFURT. I5 have been settled there, or he would certainly have esta- blished a household of his own. The way in which he finally did so leads us to infer a sojourn in Suhl, where he probably for a time officiated for old Hoffmann, who died in the thirtieth year of the century. For the esprit de corps which held the guilds together, and prevailed even in music made a young musician choose his bride by preference from among the daughters of the members of his guild, and thus frequently marry into the office held by his father-in-law. Thus Johann Bach, on July 6, 1635, was married to Barbara Hoffmann,^^ " daughter of his dear master," and wedded her in his native village. In the same year he was appointed director of the town-musicians at Erfurt.^ This town, at that time still a free city, could already tell many a tale of the fortunes of war. After the battle of Breitenfeld, in 1631, Gustavus Adolphus had withdrawn thither on September 22, and four days after had left it in the hands of a garrison, who immediately began a pillage and maltreat- ment of the inhabitants, which, though directed against the Catholics only, soon became general. The houses were broken into and robbed even at night ; not a watchman dared show himself in the street, and public insecurity rose to the utmost pitch.^'' Subsequently, indeed, some order was restored, but the heavy taxes and the wild misrule of the s'oldiery demoralised the citizens more and more, and not least, of course, the guild of town-pipers, or more properly town-musicians, whose principal function it was to perform the necessary music at public or private entertainments, and who consequently were the constant witnesses of the aggravated coarseness of manners from which such occur- rences were never free. Shortly before Johann Bach assumed his post, February 27, 1635, it had happened that a citizen, named Hans Rothlander, had t^ken a soldier into his house with him out of the street. He "' Parish register of Wechmar. ^ Raths Musilcant, Stadt Musikant, and Stadt Pfeiffer are synonymous, or nearly so. "' Falcltenstein, Civitatis Erfurtensis Historia Critica Ei Diplomatica. Erfurt, 1740. II., p. 703. B.M. l6 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. " persuaded the town-musicians," as we are told by a manu- script Chronicle of Erfurt, " to play to him to amuse him, because the master was his godfather — a thing forbidden to be done. When they were all tolerably drunk the soldier, who was a cornet from Jena, stretched himself on the bench and fell asleep. Rothlander's wife roused him, intending to dance with him. He started from his sleep, crying out, ' What, is the enemy upon us ? ' snatched up the brass candlestick, and gave the man nearest to him three wounds in the head and a gash in the cheek, thus extinguishing the light. Then he seized his sword, and, stabbing backwards, pierced another through and through ; he clutched a musician from Schmalkalden, who was a superior player, and stuck him through the body so that he died twelve hours after, and was buried in the churchyard of the Kaufmanns-Kirche."^ It is possible that the master of the guild perished in this scene of butchery, and that Bach took his place. In the autumn of this year the Peace of Prague seems to have brought better times to the city ; the Swedish garrison was withdrawn and an universal peace festival was solemnly held. But in the following year the Imperialists, the Elector | of Saxony, and the Swedes already had their eye again on this important centre for military operations. Bach and his people were ordered up into the towers of the citadel, "there to keep watch and ward with due gravity and zeal for the common weal of the city." Casks filled with brushwood and straw were placed on the exposed places, and the guard was enjoined to set them on fire as soon as anything suspicious appeared ; that was to be the signal for the town-pipers to blow with all their might, so that they might wake all folks to seize their weapons.^^ Notwithstanding, the Swedish Gene- ral Banfer took the town in December after a short siege, and the Swedes remained in possession of it till the Treaty of Westphalia, passing their time in skirmishes and surprises in the surrounding country. After their final expulsion in 1650, when the calm so earnestly longed fol- seemed to have been 28 See, too, Hartung, Hauser-Chronik der Stadt Erfurt, 1861, p. 162. '' Falckenstein, p. 716. STATE OF AFFAIRS IN ERFURT, I7 restored, the town-council held a festival of peace and thanks- giving, lasting a week, and it was a worthy task for the guild of musicians to contribute their share. We are told that " the most beautiful concertos and splendid motetts by the most famous composers— Praetorius, Scheid, Schiitz, and Ham- merschmidt — were performed in all the churches." Trumpets and drums rang out from all the watch and church towers, which were decorated with white banners and with branches ; troops of children, with garlands on their heads and carrying palm-branches, went to the house of God with songs of praise. A stage was also erected out of doors and decorated with birch boughs, and there, besides an actus,^ "What is brought by peace and war? " was a performance with all manner of -musical instruments by a considerable assembly, for every one sang in the chorale "of the citizens, now at last re- leased and breathing out thanksgiving, with trumpets and drums and joyful firing of guns between whiles." ^^ But the burden of war had pressed too heavily on the hapless community ; the town was deeply in debt, the richest of its patricians were impoverished, and famine and bitter want, beyond relief, prevailed among the humbler ranks. Worst of all was the utter exhaustion of all intellectual and moral energy. The war itself had for the most part been carried on with a healthy national vigour ; the succeeding period found a degenerate and effete race. Instead of com- bining for determined labour they gave themselves up to thoughtless enjoyment, and, as the disorder of society in- creased, to a more and more reckless expenditure. At the same time the influence of an insubordinate populace rose in a very threatening way. Men of wisdom and insight were ill-used or expelled from the city, so that in the year 1663 a citizen could write that the city was now in such a lament- able plight " as no pen could describe, nor tongue of man express," and prophecy that Erfurt, like Jerusalem of old, could not escape destruction.^^ At last the Elector of Mainz, 8' Or dramatic performance. »> Hundorph, Encomium Erffiirtinum, 1651. ™ Falckenstein, pp. 911, 915. l8 , JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. in consequence of the suggestions of the municipal autho- rities, asserted his superior rights, and was supported by the Emperor. The fanatical obstinacy of the townspeople, who murdered a client of the Elector's and insulted the Empe- ■ror's herald, finally resulted in the forcible overthrow of the city, which, from 1664, lost its independence of the Electo- rate of Mainz. From that time began a gradual restoration of its wealth and well-being, and a re-establishment of order. Johann Bach spent the larger and most important part of his life in Erfurt. The family he founded multiplied rapidly, and during a century they filled the office of town-musicians there so exclusively, that even in the latter half of the eighteenth century these were known by the name of "the Bachs," though, in point of fact, no man of that name existed among them.^* Next to Arnstadt and Eisenach, Erfurt was one of the principal settlements of the extensive family of Bachs, whose remarkable feeling of clanship gave rise to their having certain home-centres, enabling them to work to a common end. In the briefly sketched outline of the history of the city during forty years, we may find also that of the p^ life of the man whose official position brought him constantly j j into contact with the unfettered and excited spirit of the populace. Everything that was astir must have touched him on all sides, and it must have been a doubly difficult task to uphold morality, earnestness of purpose, and dignity ji in the whirlpool of passion amid which he stood — in that void and empty turmoil where shouts of revelry and joy can only have served to stun the ear to the misery they covered. And the case was the same with all the members of his family who stood by his side, filling the same func- tions ; and they too had to sigh in sympathy with others '/ under the general misery and poverty. Nor was the private life of Johann Bach unvisited by misfortune. His first wife gave birth to a dead child, and died herself immediately after. It was not long befoi'e he married a second wife, Hedwig Lammerhirt, one of a family ^ Adlung, Anleitung zu der musikalischen Gelahrtheit. Erfurt, 1758, p. 689. Note/. JOHANN BACH. I9 which we shall presently meet with again. Death visited him repeatedly. In 1639 it snatched a son from his home, probably the first child of the second marriage, and other children followed in 1648 and 1653. Meanwhile, how- ever, he never lost the nature that stamped him as a true Bach. His old teacher and first father-in-law, Hoffmann, the town-musician of Suhl, was dead, leaving a son under age ; a year after the mother followed also, and the child was left an orphan. The brother-in-law came forward immediately, took the young Christoph Hoffmann to his own home, and finding that he took pleasure in music and had a talent for it, he instructed him diligently, and with such success that the youth soon attracted the attention of a wider circle. This, too, is a valuable piece of evidence towards an exact estimate of Bach's own merit and powers. His position, as leader of the musical body of so important a city, of itself points him out as a man of distinguished capacity, and the title of " an illustrious musician " was not denied him even by his con- temporaries. At that time his brother Christoph Bach, the grandfather of Sebastian, was in service at the Court of Weimar. This, if we may venture to piece out and com- bine the fragmentary information we possess, was the occasion for bringing out the gifted pupil at that place. Duke Wilhelm wished to retain him at once for his own band, and offered his teacher one hundred thalers for the instruc- tion he had given him. It speaks well again for Johann Bach and his household that Hoffmann would not consent to this ; he only agreed to appear in Weimar from time to time and to co-operate in musical performances ; but he remained faithful to his brother-in-law for six years as a pupil and for one year more as assistant, and from what we know seems to have trained himself to be an admirable musician.^ When we are told that at Erfurt he made diligent progress in vocal as well as instrumental music, this chiefly refers only to that uncultivated and naturaHstic singing which had to be s* J. L. Winter, Leichenpredigt auf Joh. Christoph Hoffmann (funeral sermon), preached November 21, 1686. Schleusingen, Seb. Gobel. Hoffmann subsequently carried on a business as armourer in his native city, besides his music, as his father had done before him, C 2 20 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. learnt as a part of the mechanical training of the musician, since in the "attendances" {Aufwartungenf^ as they were called, the performance of songs was not unfrequently required .^^ But for this, such readiness in reading the notes and certainty of intonation were amply sufficient, as must follow, almost as a matter of course, on instrumental practice. Johann Bach, as organist, was only connected with church music in a more indirect, though in a no less essential and important way; he was organist it would seem to the church known as the Prediger-Kirche, and there gave evidence of various excellence. The emolument attached to such an office was but small, particularly in his time, and the salary that was fixed was very often never paid. The organist and cantor were for the most part dependent on payments in kind, and often enough these even failed^ From the year 1647, Bach had to demand the annual payment of a measure**' of grain, and in 1669 he was forced to complain to the town-council that in twenty-two years it had but once been handed over to his family.^ He died on May 13, 1673, in the sixty-ninth year of his age.^^ As town- musician and as organist he united in his own person both the branches from which, at a subsequent period, the music of Germany, in the hands of Sebastian Bach, developed its noblest blossoms — instrumental music for secular purposes S5 Aufwartungen, among the town-musicians, meant attendanceatweddingsor other solemnities, in order to make music. Jacohsson, Technolog. Worterbuch, s« This custom is expressly spoken of in the " Lustigen Cotala " {" Der wohlgeplagte, doch nicht verzagte, sondem iederzeit lustige Cotala, oder MusicHS instrumentalis, in einer anmuthigen Geschicht vorgestellet." Frey- berg, 1690. Reprint, 1713.) {The much tormented, still not dispirited, but at all times merry Cotala, set forth in a pleasant history.) The author of this work was, according to Adlung, no less a person than Joh. Kuhnau (Anleitung, p. 196). He says, p. 118: "The first day of the wedding all went with much credit, and I got no ill-praise for my singing, for I had with me the very sweetest songs and airs't as well as the very drollest, which were listened to with extraordinary amusement and pleasure by the most illustrious gentlemen and the most worshipful ladies." 87 Matter, equal to four bushels. 8' Protocol of the Council of Erfurt, June 14, i66g. *' Parish register of the Kaufmanns-Kirche at Erfurt. THE ERFURT BACKS. 21 and religious niusic. Though he took no direct part as cantor in vocal church music, evep this derived its chief power of becoming what it did become under his great descendant, from the development of the art of organ-playing. His brothers and most of his children and successors pre- ferred to cultivate only one or the other of these two branches {i.e., secular and sacred) until Sebastian once more mastered the whole domain of music, though, indeed, the posts he held did not always warrant this combination. Through a long period of calamity Johann Bach was the head of the Bach family of musicians. He lived to see it spread and thrive, and strike deep root beyond Erfurt, in Arnstadt and Eisenach. Henceforth began a constant and busy intercourse between these three towns. Where one prospered he drew others after him, and by intermarriage and other family ties they further confirmed themselves in the feeling of a closely knit and patriarchal community of interests. Johann Bach's eldest surviving son, Johann Christian, born August*" 2, 1640, studied and worked at first under the direction of his father, in the " music-union " of Erfurt, and he then quitted Erfurt for Eisenach, the first of his family who settled in that place. Here he married, within his guild, Anna Margaretha Schmidt, the daughter of the town- musician, August 28, 1665. The town-council of Erfurt were in no hurry to fill up his place — he played the viola — their heads were just then full of other matters. It was not till 1667 that his cousin Ambrosius was appointed. In the following year, however, he was again in Erfurt, where his wife presented him with a son, Johann Jakob,*'- who, as he grew up, rejoined his elder cousin, Ambrosius, the father of Sebastian, at Eisenach, *" Registers of the Kauffmanns-Kirche. These documents have been the chief source of the dates that concern the Erfurt branch of the Bachs, and all that are not noted as derived from other sources are taken from them. However, they give, not the day of birth, but that of baptism ; but, as a rule, the baptism took place within two days after birth, and. I have adopted this as the basis of all my calculations. *' According to the genealogy. .22 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. where Ambrosius had meanwhile become town-musician, and who died there in 1692, aged 24.*^ He is called in the register Hausmanns-Gesell, or musician's assistant, Haus- mann being the term in general use at that time for a musician, a player on any instrument. A second son rose beyond this. Johann Christoph, born in 1673, became Cantor and Organist at Unter-Zimmern, a village north-east of Erfurt, where he married, in 1693, Anna Margaretha Konig, and in 1698 was appointed to the office of Cantor at Gehren, south of Arnstadt, where his name was already most honourably known through the worthy Michael Bach, then lately deceased, one of whose daughters after- wards became the first wife of Sebastian Bach. He was a cultivated man, had studied theology, and wrote a beautiful flowing hand. Nevertheless, he did little credit to his family. His character was quarrelsome, obstinate, and haughty, and he displayed it in a way highly disadvan- tageous to himself, even against his superiors ; this led to his being long under arrest, and even threatened with removal by the Consistory of Arnstadt. Much, however, that was due to him on the part of the authorities had been neglected. He died there in 1727.** Johann Christian be- came director of the town-musicians in Erfurt after his father's death. He soon after lost his first wile, and then married a widow, Anna Dorothea Peter, June 11, 1679, by whom he had a daughter, Anna Sophia, and a son, Johann Christian ; the latter was born in 1682, the year of his father's death.^ " Parish register of Eisenach. 43 Two of his sons lived in Sondershausen, and there kept up their connection with the main branch of the family, and, on the occasion of children being born, called upon their cousins of Erfurt and Miihlhausen to act as godfathers [vide the baptismal register of Trinity Church, March 15, 1719). The elder, Johann Samuel, born 1694, was in 1720 a schoolmaster at Gundersleben, and died there n that year. The second, Johann Christian, born i6g6, also died young, according to the genealogy. A son, Johann Giinther, born 1703, was a good tenor-player, and in 1735 was teacher in the congregation of the Kauffmanns- Kirche at Erfurt. These dates of birth are from the pedigree belonging to Fraulein Emmert, of Schweinfurt. ** According to the genealogy. JOHANN jEGIDIUS BACH. 23 The place now vacant was filled by Johann Aegidius, the second surviving son of Johann Bach, born February g, 1645. He had already taken his place in the musical guild of the city, under the direction of his father, for in the autumn of 167 1 he had been appointed viola-player in the place of his cousin Ambrosius. He brought home a bride, June g, 1674, from Arnstadt, where, at that time, his uncle Heinrich was held in high esteem as organist : of him we shall soon speak more fully. But his wife, Susanna Schmidt, was wife's sister to his brother Johann Christian, and her father must meanwhile have moved from Eisenach to Arnstadt.*^ There is something very patriarchal in this incident of the younger brother marrying the sister of the elder brother's wife, and thus walking in this respect in all confi- dence in the path he had tried; and similar cases will come before us again. On this occasion Aegidius figures as town-musician and organist ; he subsequently filled the office of Organist in the Church of St. Michael, and in this double capacity trod exactly in his father's footsteps. He died at an advanced age in 1717,*^ after marrying for the second time, August 24, 1684, Juditha Katharina Syring. Of his nine children, whose names could be given — five sons and four daughters — only the former have any interest for us; of these it would seem only two lived to manhood, Johann Bernhard and Johann Christoph.*'' The former, bom November 23, 1676, filled the office of Organist to the Kauffmanns-Kirche at Erfurt, and was called from thence to fill the same post at Magdeburg. This promotion from out of the family circle, of itself indicates some special ability, which is confirmed by the fact that, in 1703, he was accepted as the successor of Johann Christoph Bach, a man of great mark, who will presently attract our particular attention, and who, next to Sebastian Bach, was the greatest musician of the family. Besides his labours as organist, he '^ In the register of Eisenach he is called Christoph, in that of Arnstadt Christian Schmidt. But there is no doubt of their identity. « According to the genealogy. *' The others were Johann Christoph, born April 2, 1675, who must have died in infancy ; Johann Caspar, June 7, 1678 ; and Johann Georg, January 6, 1680. 24 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. also acted as private musician (Kammer-Musicus) in the band of Duke Johann Wilhelm of Sax-Eisenach, just as his cousin, Sebastian Bach, must have done at the same tinie, for a while, in Weimar.*^ Here, as w^as frequently the custom with organists under the same circumstances, he must have been cembalist.*'' That his merits were duly valued in Eisenach is proved by the fact that his annual revenue of sixty thalers — which, though modest enough, was not exces- sively small for the circumstances of the place and time — was in 1723 raised to a hundred thalers, and so in fact almost doubled. He was still receiving this sum in 1741, and seems to have had it continued to him undiminished till his death, June 11, 1749,^" although the band was broken up in 1741, in consequence of the ruling family of Eisenach having become extinct. Johann Bernhard Bach was not merely a skilled performer; he was also an esteemed composer. Four Suites for orchestra remain by him, a few small pieces for the clavier, and a short series of chorale arrangements.^^ Judging from these he must, as a composer for the organ, rank with the most able, though not the most original, of his time ; for he follows closely in the path of Johann Pachelbel, of whom I shall have occasion to say more in a later chapter. An arrangement of the^ chorale " Du Friedefiirst, Herr Jesu Christ" — "LordJesu Christ, Thou Prince of Peace " — in five partitas, is set in the mode of chorale-variations, then in universal use ; but <8 According to Walther, who would have received the information from Bernhard Bach himself. *9 This is expressly stated, for instance, of Vogler, Court Organist in Weimar, and a former pupil of Sehastian Bach's, in a document Pro Memoria Ernst Bach, November 21, 1755 (State archives of Weimar). 5° The date of his death is from Adlung, p. 689. " I am acquainted with eight. They are scattered among the collections which the diligent Organist and Lexicographer of Weimar, Johann Gottfried Walther, made with his own hand. The Royal Library at Berlin contains three volumes of such collected arrangements ; a fourth is in the Royal Library at Konigsberg (15,839; catalogue by J. Miiller, No. 499, p. 71). The fifth, and most complete of all, comprising 365 pages in oblong folio, is in the possession of Herr Frankenberger, Musical Director at Sondershausen, who kindly per- mitted me to make unlimited use of it. The orchestral Suites are all in the Royal Library, Berlin. WORKS OF JOH. BERNHARD BACH. 25 it includes several elegant passages. The cantus firmus is treated contrapuntally ; between the separate lines of the chorale, and at the beginning of the whole, short figures are introduced, built upon the subjects of the next succeeding line. The least satisfactory are those in two parts (" Wir glauben all," "Jesus, Jesus, nichts als Jesus," " Helft mir Gott's Giite preisen ").^^ The counterpoint moves too much in crude intervals, which are not pleasing. Among the last four (" Wir glauben all," twice over, " Christ lag in Todes- banden," " Vom Himmel hoch ") the melody occurs in the bass, and here especially reminds us of Pachelbel in the treatment of the counterpoint ; still it does not proceed with- out some harshness here and there. The most successful is certainly the "Christmas Hymn" (Weihnachtslied), where the chorale, which is given to the tenor and cleverly treated throughout, is accompanied by a flowing and jubilant upper part. A friend of his son praises his works by saying, " They may not be difficult, but they are elegant." ^* There is also another piece of his of the same kind, where a different instru- ment was introduced, to which the cantus firmus was given — a method frequently adopted at that time, but which pro- duced nothing of a superior order.^* But his special talent for that species of composition is exhibited in the Suites for orchestra, or, as they were then generally called, from their opening piece, the " Ouverturen " (overtures). The MSS. in which they are contained have, at any rate for the most part, come down to us with perfect certainty from the possession of Sebastian Bach. He copied the greater portion of the orchestral parts of three of them with his own hand at Leipzig, and at the time of his own greatest powers — a sufficient indi- cation of the value he attached to these compositions. In the " overtures," the introductory portions of these instru- M It has not been thought necessary to give the English of German words set to music, excepting when the critical analysis of the work has rendered it neces- sary. The musician can only find the pieces under the indication of the German words, whether in English or in foreign collections. '' Adlung, op. cit. »* E. L. Gerber, Neues historisch-biographisches Lexicon der Tonkiinstler. Leipzig, 1812. Part I., col. 202. Adlung, op. cit., p. 687. 26 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. mental Suites, Bernhard Bach displays so much force and fire that they are in no way behind the best operatic over- tures of that time— for instance, Handel's Overture to Rha- damisto, or Lotti's to Ascanio— while in spirit and variety they excel them; and in these qualities he is surpassed only by Sebastian Bach himself. The best by far of the Suites is that in G minor, for solo violin, accompanied by first and second violin, viola, and basso continuo. The fugal theme of the overture — ^^ agrees in a remarkable way, and almost exactly, with the opening of Sebastian Bach's Sonata for the flute in B minor f^ it is carried on through 14a bars with a most inge- nious interweaving of the solo violin. In the succeeding Air a lovely independent melody is given to the violin, and it must be allowed that the closing Rondeau has both sense =ep:5= =^=^,h^ _._ j_j? j2m-P—m- -p r= J-J — ^U-^ — 1 — F— — F — F- -f— f — r-f - r J r-^r- ■ '&b '■^ — L — 1 * 1 — ^ — \ — 1 — \—J — — J—f — \ — y-f — r=f ^^^ ^ and character. Besides a Loure and a Passepied, this Suite includes an exquisite Fantasia, worthy indeed of Sebastian Bach, written in the flowing and skilful style which is possible only to the highest development of art.^^ « B.-G., IX., p. 3. p., Series III., Vol. VI., Son. i. »5 App. B. II, HEINRICH bach's DESCENDANTS. 27 Of Johann Bernhard's younger brother, bom August 15, 1685, it need only be said that the direction of the "Eaths- musik " fell into his hands after the death of Aegidius Bach, and that he still held that office in 1735." We may pass quickly over the two last sons of old Johann Bach. The third, Johann Jakob, born April 26, 1650, Appears not to have been a musician, and only figures once (November 5, 1686) in the parish register. The last, Johann Nikolaus, born 1653,^^ was, on the contrary, town- musician, and a very good player on the viol di gamba. He married Sabina Katharina Burgolt, November 29, 1681, and when, a year later, August 31, 1682, she bore him a son, he selected his father's foster son, Johann Christoph Hoffmann, of Suhl, to be the child's godfather.^^ IJe died of the plague in the same year,^" and we have now done with the last offshoot of the lineage of Johann Bach, so far as they play any part in the history of art. HI. HEINRICH BACH AND HIS SONS. Heinrich Bach, Johann's youngest brother, stood in the most intimate connection with him, and we will next turn to him and his descendants ; the middle brother, Christoph, will presently lead us in a direct line to Sebastian Bach himself. Of all Hans Bach's children Heinrich is the one who inherited, besides his musical gifts, his father's character, and his gay and innocently jovial nature. It may, therefore, readily be imagined that he was a particular favourite with the old man, who had him care- " The genealogy mentions three sons of his : Joh. Friedrich, Joh. Aegidius (both schoolmasters), and Wilhelm Hieronymus. According to the Kittel and Korabinsky pedigrees, the eldest was born in 1703 (?). 58 According to the genealogy, '" This son was also named Johann Nikolaus ; he became a surgeon, and lived in Eastern Prussia. In the same neighbourhood, at Insterburg and Marien- werder, some of the descendants of Johann Ernst Bach, of Eisenach, also settled. 60 According to the genealogy. 28 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. fully brought up, so far as circumstances permitted, and, as we are specially informed, in a pious way.^^ His first teacher in instrumental music was, naturally, his father; and the lad was a diligent scholar in violin-playing. But already he was more attracted by the mighty tones of the organ, which, however, he could certainly not have heard in the church of his native village, since it was not till 1652^^ that Wechmar owned a small organ. When Sunday came round, the boy would not unfrequently run off to the neighbouring villages — Wandersleben, Mtihlberg, per- haps even to Gotha— to satiate his ear with the sublime harmonies. He craved opportunities for further culture, and his eldest brother, Johann, was selected to provide for this. Where and when he obtained it cannot be ascertained ; but, remembering what we have learnt concerning Johann's earlier place of residence, we are guided to Schweinfurt and Suhl; and the dates suit very well, too, since Heinrich was born September 16, 1615, and the years of his musical apprenticeship must, therefore, have fallen about 1627- 1632. In Schweinfurt the brothers suffered severely from the war ; the results of the Edict of Restitution drove them out of the town, and thus they may both have moved to Suhl about the year 1629. When the elder subsequently settled in Erfurt, in 1635, Heinrich went with him and played in the Raths-Guild until, in 1641, he at last was appointed to the post which was best adapted to his tastes and his capabilities. He became Organist in Arnstadt, and held this office above fifty years, till his death, July. 10, 1692.^ So soon as he was at home in his new office he began to think of establishing a household ; and, as he had all his life long clung to his eldest brother, he now " Joh. Gottfried Olearius, Leichenrede (funeral sermon) auf Heinrich Bach, with the usual supplementary notice of his life, Arnstadt, 1692. The amplest authority as to his life. *2 Bruckner, Kirchen- und Schulenstaat im Herzogthum Gotha. Part IH., Sec. g, p. 8. ^' The account here given is an attempt to reconcile and connect several con- tradictory statements and records. That both the brothers lived for a long time in Suhl is clear from the marriages they made. HEINRICH. BACH. " 29 married the younger sister of Johann's first wife. She was named Eva, and was born in 1616. The marriage took place in the year after his appointment. He chose his two brothers to be godfathers to his first son, Johann Christoph, born December 8, 1642. It required some courage to marry in those times, not only because often enough the husband could defend neither him- self, his wife, nor his child against the insolent violence of an ungoverned soldiery, but also because it was only too often im- possible to foresee where the means of subsistence were to come from. It was not long before the bitterest want knocked at th'e door of Heinrich Bach's humble dwelling. It is true that a salary of fifty-two florins and an allowance for house- rent of five florins^ were assigned to him, but it was long since he had been paid. The petty Government itself, which was also much weakened by the war, had no money, and so could give none to its officials and employes. At this time the com- plaints as to arrears of payment were universal. Bach's predecessor in office, Christoph Klemsee, had once had to claim for several hundred thalers. Besides, the war-taxes had to be paid, and if the lowest class of soldiers once fell upon a man, he was not sure even of the clothes upon his back.^^ Matters must have come to a very bad pass before a man of no pretensions or rank could make up his mind to appear before a Count of Schwarzburg as a petitioner on such grounds. But, in August, 1644, he knew not, as he says, "by the strange visitation of God," where to find bread for himself and his young family, seeing that the salary due to him had not been paid for more than a year, and that all he had previously received he had had — to use his own words — "to sue for almost with tears." ^^ It would be quite 8* That is to say, Meissen giilden = twenty-one gute groscken. That this may not be thought less than a fair salary, it may be mentioned that the Conrector of the school at Arnstadt, even in the latter third of the seventeenth century, received only eighty-one giilden and ten measures of rye. 85 See the graphic picture drawn by Th. Irmisch in Der thiiringische Chronikenschreiber M. Paulus Jovius. Sondershausen, 1870, pp. 30, 31. "" State Archives of Sondershausen. Documents relating to the school at Arnstadt. 1616 to 1680. 30 J'OHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. impossible to conceive how he had lived at all up to this time, unless we suppose that he had owned a small plot of ground, and by cultivating it had kept himself at least from starvation. Some amount of agriculture always was, and still is, carried on by the schoolmasters, cantors, and organists in Thuringia. In addition to this, there were cer- tain payments in kind, which, towards the end of the Thirty Years' War, flowed in all the more abundantly because buyers were lacking as well as money ; two thirds of the population -had perished. The young Count at once issued a strict command that Bach was to be helped out of his extreme need, and that he was to have no further cause of com- plaint; but the keeper of the funds appropriated to such purposes tendered his resignation, saying that during the thirteen years he had held his office he had had to submit to more disagreeables than the meanest servant. It is easy to see how great the danger was, in such circumstances, of falling into a dissolute life ; and Bach's predecessor had set him a bad example in this respect, of a life of im- morality necessitating the sternest interference of the authorities.^' It isj therefore, all the more remarkable that there is not the smallest record or hint of anything that can cast a shade upon Bach's character. His life seems to have been of such innocent simplicity that we may contemplate it with the sincerest pleasure and admiration. Johann Gottfried Olearius, standing by the grave of Hein- rich Bach, praised the exemplary piety of his deceased friend with a full heart, and in words which are far from being a mere form of amiable rhetoric ; and though we may be ready to confirm this verdict, so far as it is still possible to test its justice, its full value will not be plainly evident to a superficial consideration. The value of such sentiments differs with the times. There may be conditions under which it seems to be no particular merit to be called a pious man ; 8' Christoph Klemsee had been educated in Italy, and in the year 1613 had published (Weidner, Jena) a volume of Italian Madrigals for five voices, as I learn from a communication by Georg Beckers, of Lancy. (Monatshefte fiir Musikgeschichte, IV.) PIETISM AND MUSIC. 3I but there are times, too, when piety is the only safeguard for -the highest ideal of human blessings, and the sole guarantee for a sound core of human nature. The German nation was living through such a period during the last years of the Thirty Years' War and those which immediately followed on it. The mass of the people vegetated in dull indifference, or gave themselves up to a life of coarse and immoral enjoy- ment ; the few superior souls who had not lost all courage to live, when a fearful fate had crushed all the real joys of life around them, fixed their gaze above and beyond the common desolation, on what they hoped in as eternal and imperishable, and found comfort and refreshment in the thought that all the deeds and sufferings of men rest in the hand of God. Thus they fostered in silence the germ from which Germany, at its resurrection, was destined to derive new vigour; and we may here observe how culture proceeds from religion. The first step to freedom was made in the province of religious thought by Spener and his followers, and the first work in which history was scientifically treated grew out of Pietism. Within scarcely a century music was developed by religion — since on the ground of pure feeling there were no external obstacles to be overcome — to a height which afforded an unerring evidence of the indestructible spirit of the German nation, and proved, as no other phenomenon ever has done, the immeasurable depth of its foundations. And as the bias towards instrumental music, with its transcendental ideals, is universal and seated in the depths of our very being, it is quite intelligible why, at that precise time, it was the art of organ music which first soared up on mighty wings, and why all that Germany was then able to produce in the direc- tion of vocal music could only lean on and grow from that. And those men who, during their whole lives, stood in inti- mate connection with religion, or who were in the service of the Church — which amounts to the same thing, so far ag concerns the men whose history specially interests us — we may regard as enjoying particular advantages. The man who, filling such a position, cherished in his soul that pre- cious ideal in all humble and faithful piety, we must, if for that reason only, designate as a foster-father of culture. 33 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. Heinrich Bach was so happy as to have preserved in- effaceable impressions from his childhood, vi^hen his own predisposition for church music had been strengthened by a pious education ; and we learn from the words of the funeral sermon how full of vitality these impressions still remained even in his later years, for the preacher can have had no other source of information than the narratives of the old man himself. We can, therefore, well understand his horror when he was once summoned before the Consistory, because, at some small festivity which he had given to the carpenters after the finishing of some building, he was said to have laughed and mocked at the "Paternoster." He swore emphatically, and by God Himself, that he had heard and known nothing of it; and, in fact, nothing could have been farther from him than such blasphemy. It is, too, a simple but touching trait in his character that he never omitted to follow a body to the gi'ave, if it were in any way possible, however poor and mean the social position of the deceased.^ His nature was friendly and helpful to such a degree that in all the town there was no one who could speak of him but as ," dear and good." From the great fame he attained as a musical authority he had to examine the candidates for places as organist throughout the Count's little dominions, and to pronounce his judgment on them. When, in the year 1681, a new organist was to be appointed to Rockhausen, and the candidate had performed before him, he pronounced that, so far as his organ-playing was concerned, he was good enough for the salary. Too good- natured to hinder the musician — who was probably bad enough — from obtaining the place, he still could not forbear from reflecting ironically on the smallness of the pay. From his own experience he could sing a song of lamentation over the. payments of the Government of Schwarzburg-Arnstadt. It has already been said that he inherited his father's c"heerful temper, and it was so conspicuous a feature in his character that a century later Philipp Emanuel Bach was «8 Olearius, op. cit., p. 45. HEINRICH bach's FAMILY. 33 able to speak of his "lively humour." ^^ Many disasters befell him in the course of his long life, particularly during the time of war ; later again, in family matters ; and finally, in his own health. But he always held his head above water, looked at the best side of everything, and preserved his cheerfulness through all misfortunes. However, fate rewarded this admirable and amiable nature with blessings such as must, above all others, have brought happiness into the life of a man of his disposition. During a married life of more than thirty-seven years, six children grew up around him, of whom three were sons full of talent, nay of genius, whose musical education must have been a joy to him. The eldest son, in all ways the most dis- tinguished, has been already mentioned (Johann Christoph); a second, Johannes Matthaus (January 3, 1645), did not survive his second year. Then followed Johann Michael (August 9, 1648), and Johann Giinther (July 17, 1653). The two last were soon accomplished organists, and could, when necessary, fill their father's place. When Johann Christoph, the eldest, was called to Eisenach, and when, in 1668, Maria Katharina, the eldest daughter, born March 17, 1651, had married Christoph Herthum, Organist at Ebe- leben, near Sondershausen, the father would often go to visit his absent children, and Michael and Giinther had meanwhile to perform the duties of organist. This arrange- ment, however, which certainly cannot have involved the slightest inconvenience, seemed too arbitrary to Count Ludwig Gunther; and in the year 1670, when the choir music on Sundays, which had to some extent deteriorated, was to be improved and raised to a higher level by the appointment of a special hour for practice every Sunday, under the direction of the Cantor Heindorff, while Bach was to play the accompaniment, the Count, in giving him notice, took the opportunity of forbidding him this independence. In the year 1672 we meet with a modest petition from the artist. He had heard that his predecessor had had a few mea- sures of corn granted to him in addition to his salary; his " Postscript to the genealogy. 34 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. own perquisites were very small ; he still felt sound in health, it was true, but old age was approaching; hence he prayed for a similar favour. He had served for thirty-one years before he even thought of claiming what had been freely given to his unworthy predecessor; and, now that he was a man fifty-seven years of age, it was, of course, granted to him also. Then he worked on bravely in his post, and when occasionally it was too hard for him he was helped by his youngest son, but, with the consent of the Count, Michael had meanwhile gone from home. Ten years later he was an old man, his faithful wife was dead (May 21, 1679), his limbs were feeble, and his fingers stiff. He now petitioned (November 9, 1682) that his son might be appointed his permanent deputy, for " without vain boasting, he had so learnt his art that it might be hoped he would serve God and his church with it, in such wise as that their gracious lordships, high and low, nay, and the whole community, might approve." This was granted, and Gunther, happy in his appointment, three weeks later was married to Anna Margaretha, daughter of Biirgermeister Krul, of Arnstadt, deceased. But, before one year, death snatched away the stay of his old father and the husband of the young wife (April 8, 1683); Bach had to sit alone again on the organ-bench, and his home was solitary indeed. However, his son-in-law, Herthum, had meanwhile come to settle in Arnstadt, and he combined with his office of "clerk of the kitchen" the duty of serving the organ at the castle chapel, while Bach, as heretofore, officiated in the Franciscan Church of the Holy Virgin. From the year 1683 Herthum took the old man to live with him entirely in his house, which was situated in the Leng- witz quarter of the town;™ he performed his duties for him, at first in part and then entirely, and he and his children endeavoured to cheer and soothe his last days. For a time Sebastian Bach's eldest brother, who had come from " We know this from a list preserved in the Town Hall of Arnstadt. It would seem to have been the house numbered 308, which for a long period was the organists' residence. the organists' residence HEINRICH bach's WORKS. 35 Erfurt, assisted him in this. Ten years more slipped away, and the old man, now seventy-seven years of age, addressed his last petition to Count Anton Gunther. He had been organist for more than fifty years, and was now awaiting a happy death from God ; he had never before preferred any petition (of this kind) to the Count; it would be a joy and a consolation to him if only, before his end, his son-in-law was made secure of succeeding to him in his office. He was already blind, and his name stands at the foot of the docu- ment, traced with a trembling hand. But his mind was still clear and active, and his grandson had to read the Bible aloud to him. This, his last petition,'^ was presented on January 14, 1692, and granted immediately, and on July 10 he died. Of all his children only Christoph and Michael survived ; his two daughters had preceded their father, but he was followed to the grave by twenty-eight grandchildren and even great-grandchildren, and the whole city mourned for him. It will not have escaped the notice of the attentive reader that, in his petition in 1682, Bach desires that his art may be placed at the service not of the Court only, but of the whole community, of rich and poor alike. His proper instrument was the organ, and, though he is here and there called also " town-musician," we learn from his own statements in writing, as well as from all other sources of information at our disposal, that the only meaning of this was that it gave him the right to perform with the guild of town- musicians, and so opened to him a means of earning some- thing. As a member of the Count's band he also had some duties at court, and may, perhaps, have filled the seat at the Cembalo. It is not now possible to acquire a more accurate knowledge of the kind and degree of his accomplishments as a performer, for very little of his composition has come down to us, and the general admiration of his contemporaries finds expression only in generalities. At any rate, he was certainly one of the most distinguished organists of his " This document, as well as the two previously mentioned, is to be found among the archives of Sondershausen. D 2 36 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. time. Still he owes his fame, on good authority, to his pro- ductiveness as a composer. When Olearius, in his funeral sermon on Heinrich Bach, mentions Chorales, Motetts, Concertos, Fugues, and Preludes, he includes nearly all the forms of musical art employed at that time in church music. In these Bach poured out his fresh, childlike, and mirthful spirit; that happy temper which Philipp Emanuel could praise in his compositions. One of his favourite works was a composition for church use, founded on the text from the Psalms, Repleatur os meum laude tua, to which Olearius referred as he stood by his coffin. When the preacher says that Bach, in his compositions, "of which the purpose is never certainly discovered till the end, nevertheless fore- saw and prepared it from the first," he must be under- stood to mean generally that the artist was able to work up his composition on a settled plan towards a definite end. Still we may also trace here a reference to a richer development of the details and resources of the art, and of the expression of the words; elements which had been trans- planted to Germany from Italy, particularly by Heinrich Schutz, and left the stamp of their preponderating influence on the Protestant church music of the whole of the seven- teenth century. On the other hand, in a piece for the organ founded on the chorale "Christ lag in Todesbanden,"'^ which has been preserved, Bach seems perfectly familiar with the character and requirements of the old school. Although worked out for the organ alone, this treatment of a chorale follows throughout the strict laws of vocal progression, and it consciously brings into prominence the most conspicuous features of the Doric mode — intentionally even, in the last bar but one. It must here be mentioned that our master had had unusual opportunities for studying " First mentioned by A. G. Ritter, Orgelfreund, Vol. VI., No. 14, from a MS. derived from Suhl, and now in my possession. The piece here, it is true, has only the initials " H. B.," which may just as well stand for Heinrich Buttstedt as for Heinrich Bach. In fact, the piece occurs again in a MS. collection of chorales by J. G. Walther, in the Royal Library at Berlin, under Buttstedt's name. St 11 it seems to me to have a certain old-fashioned character, but little in accordance with that composer's style. JOH. CHRISTOPH BACH AND JOH. MICHAEL BACH. ^ the old church compositions in Arnstadt, for the church library there possessed, in a series of folios, compositions by Orlando Lasso, Philippus de Monte, Alardus Nuceus, and Franciscus Guerrerus, Liber sekctarum of L. Senfls from the year 1520, and others. These treasures had partly found their way thither by the gift of Count Giinther der Streitbare, and they still exist there. On the other hand, there are no doubt to be found in the choir library of Arnstadt com- positions of various kinds by Andreas Hammerschmidt, which show traces of much use — an evidence that at the same time full justice was done to the then modern tendency. Heinrich Bach, in the humility of his heart, probably never thought of publishing his compositions, so we ni'ust confine ourselves almost entirely to guesses as to his artistic method; these, however, derive confirmation from a glance at that of his sons, whose principal — perhaps sole — teacher he was, and whose works have been preserved by a happier fate. We have only to do with Job. Christoph and Joh. Michael, for of Joh. Giinther nothing is known but what has already been told. The two brothers resembled each other in character, though not, indeed, in talent. Michael is described by a contemporary witness as of a quiet and reserved nature, and his elder brother, though he remained unknown, alike to his contemporaries and to posterity,- in spite of his noble genius and great artistic skill, entirely disdained to assert his pre-eminence — nay, was, perhaps, not fully aware of it himself. What we can relate of the out- ward circumstances of his life is wonderfully little. It is highly improbable that he should have sought foreign cen- tres of culture with a view to his own education ; he could hardly have attempted it with his own small means, and the times were not favourable to obtaining any assistance from the Counts of Schwarzburg. Indeed, at the age of twenty- three we already find him established in an official position ; and, finally, his inclinations certainly did not tempt him to distant journeys. The whole family of the Bachs were full of a native and pithy originality, and hardly one of the illustrious musicians it produced, including Sebastian and his generation, ever visited Italy for the development of his 38 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. talent, or benefited by the instruction of a foreign master. They strove assiduously and diligently to make themselves con- stantly acquainted with every new^ development and tendency of their art, but they assimilated it and were not absorbed by it. If among the elder relatives of Johann Christoph Bach there had been a teacher at all commensurate with his talents, his education would assuredly have fallen into his hands ; but at that time his father was undoubtedly the most distinguished of the family, both as organist and com- poser, and it was to him that his son first owed his knowledge and direction. He was appointed to be Organist to the church at Eisenach'^ in 1665, and he remained at that post till the end of his life of more than sixty years. Among the churches where he had to perform the Services, the most important was that of St. George, of which, however, the organ must have been dilapidated, or have become useless on other grounds, for it had to be replaced four years after Bach's death by a new one, with four manuals reaching to the e'", pedals up to the e', and fifty-eight stops.''* Whether, or when, he was also Court Organist cannot be determined with certainty ; at any rate, this office was filled from 1677 to 1678 by Johann Pachelbel. Bach married on the Third Sunday after Trinity, 1667, Maria Elisabeth Wfedemann, whose father was town-clerk of Arnstadt. Seven children were bom of this marriage, among whom four were sons : Johann Nikolaus (October 10, 1669), Joh. Christoph (August 27, 1674), Joh. Friedrich, and Joh. Michael.'^ From the year 1696 he was allowed to live free of rent in the Prince's Mint, where seven living rooms on the ground floor and stabling for two horses were placed at r' In a funeral sermon on Dorothea Maria Bach, which I shall refer toagain, in the year 1679, he is spoken of as "the well-appointed Organist of all the churches here in Eisenach." '* Adlung, Musica mechanica organoedi. Berlin, 1768. Vol. I., pp. 214 ais. " O^ these four sons named in the genealogy, only the second is to be 'found in the Eisenach register. The date of birth of the eldest is from Walther, as also that of the father's death. The daughters were Marie Sophie (March' 24, 1674, most likely 1671), Christine Dorothea (September 20, 1678), Anna Elisa- beth (June 4, 1689). MICHAEL, ORGANIST AT ERFURT. 39 his disposal — a tolerably handsome lodging for his position and for the time he lived in.™ He died March 31, 1703. His successor in office was Bernhard Bach, of Erfurt, as has already been mentioned.'''' The early life of his younger brother, Michael, was passed, we may be sure, exactly like that of the elder ; he enjoyed the advantage of his father's teaching, and, when he was qualified, assisted him in his duties. In 1673 the place of Organist at Gehren, near Arnstadt, became vacant. Johann Effler, who had been intrusted with it till then — and who must have been highly efficient, for great efforts were made to keep him — withdrew in order to take the place of Organist to the Prediger-Kirche at Erfurt, vacated by the death of Johann Bach. Michael passed his examination as organist on October 5, and so satisfied the minister and the town- commissioners that they expressed their special thanks to His Highness the Count for providing the community and the church with a quiet, modest, and experienced artist. At the same time he was made parish-clerk, and received for that office a yearly stipend of ten giilden. His whole income he himself states in 1686 at seventy-two gulden, with eighteen cords of wood, five measures of corn, nine measures of barley, with leave to brew three and a half barrels of beer, and a few other trifles in kind, a piece of pasture land, and free residence. The house in which he dwelt is still standing, and is the deacon's residence.''^ Besides fulfilling his duties and his occupations as a composer, he found spare time in which to '" The bond relating to this, signed by Bach, sealed and dated April 27, i6g6, as well as the only legal document to be found about it, are in the State archives of Weimar. The octagonal seal has the letters "J. C. B." interlaced. The Bach family never possessed a common seal. From the time of his resi- dence at Weimar, Sebastian used a stamp with a rose and crown on it. Stephan Bach, of Brunswick, had a stork, or crane, looking to the left ; Johann Elias Bach, of Schweinfurt, a shield with a dove over it, and on the field a post-horn. " Walther, in the manuscript appendix to the Lexicon, mentions that a solemn service was performed in his honour on the verse of Paul Gerhardt. " The head, the feet, and the hands rejoice that labour is ended." Gerber, who was in possession of Walther's copy, repeats the statement. " In the middle of the last century a large portion of Gehren was destroyed by fire. All the municipal buildings which were burnt down were registered by authority; the " City Record Office" was not among the number. 40 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. devote himself to constructing instruments ; in this he was the precursor and perhaps the instructor of his nephew Nikolaus. We find him in November, 1686, engaged in constructing several clavichords for privy-councillor Went- zing, of Arnstadt,™ and a violin of his making was, at the beginning of this century, in the possession of the geometri- cian Schneider, of Gehren ; it was given by him to Albert Methfessel, who, himself a Thuringian, at that time was residing at Rudolstadt.*" As his brother Christoph had married the elder daughter of the town-clerk Wedemann, it was perfectly natural, from the Bach point of view, that Michael should choose Katha- rina, the younger. She gave him her hand on the third day of Christmastide, 1675, and in the course of eighteen years of married life brought him five daughters, the youngest of whom became the first wife of Sebastian Bach, and one son named Gottfried, born March 20, i6go, for whom his father selected his first cousin, the town-musician Job. Christoph Bach, of Arnstadt, to be godfather. But the boy died in the following year, and the father, too, was snatched away in the flower of his manhood by an early death, in May, 1694. IV. JOH. CHRISTOPH BACH AND JOH. MICHAEL BACH. The devastating war seriously disturbed the Germans in their prosecution of the new musical tendency, which first made its appearance in about 1600, as an introduction from Italy, and which soon found eager adherents and talented artists to develop it in Germany. Those artists, indeed, the roots of whose vitality reached back into the antecedent period, continued to labour during the war ; nay, even displayed their utmost pov^er in the worst times, hardly pressed from outside but untouched in their inmost " The deeds relating to this are in the archives at Sondershausen. 8» I have this on verbal but quite trustworthy testimony. What became of this violin after Methfessel's death, in i86q, I do not know. RESULTS OF THE WAR. 4I soul. Even those who were born within the first decade of these years of misfortune could derive their mental nourish- ment from a national vigour which, though severely tested, was not yet overtaxed ; but during the last fifteen years of the war, and even for some time after, the German nation was sunk in profound exhaustion. It had come apparently to a deadlock, both physical and mental ; and during the whole period from about 1650 to 1675, in which the young saplings of that period might have been expected to bear some fruits, we find throughout the domain of music none but old musi- cians in any way productive ; no new or fresh growth. It is not until after this that we are first impressed with the feel- ing that the art is gradually reviving and going forward again, seeking and feeling its way. Johann Christoph and Johann Michael were born in years falling precisely within this period of depression. But it is most astonishing and profoundly significant, and character- istic of their race, that the common signs of the times were hardly stamped on them at all. They both exhibit a depth and freshness of resource which make them appear as an unique phenomenon in their way. That such a complete insensibility to the influences of the calamities of war, of its outrages, and of the universal degeneracy, should be possible to them, necessarily leads us to infer their descent from a race of the greatest health and vigour, a family of the soundest morality. These influences must also have un- failingly supported them as they grew up amid the life of those days, when every ideal and principle had vanished ; must have hedged them in with shelter, and have so edu- cated them that when they were sent forth independently into the world, any fall from their high moral and artistic standard was no longer possible. Their portion was a reserved and contemplative spirit, which kept their ear open to the deepest stirrings of an unspotted nature, and their eye fixed on the pure images of an unsullied imagination, and which left its mark on their musical creations, as it did, later, on those of Sebastian Bach. Just as Heinrich Bach fostered, in the simple piety of his childlike soul, a spark of that mysterious power which was destined to raise up the crushed 42 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. nation to new life, so we may say of these two men, that that spirit, which in them took the form of art when all around lay dead and void, was the better self of the German nation. It is this fact which foreshadows the history of their works, and which is the real reason why, subsequently, their compositions were so soon neglected, and those of the greater of the two forgotten the quickest. While the develop- ment of art in Germany stood still for a generation, other nations, and notably Italy, had progressed rapidly, and reached the summit by so much earlier. The newly invigo- rated Germans saw, before them and above them, a blos- soming field of art, which they aspired, with true German instinct, to make their own and to cultivate for their own profit. They had lost all direct sympathy with what lay behind them ; thus they hurried forward after new ideals. How strange and tragical are the destinies of the world's history ! In order that the utmost heights of art at that period might be climbed by two German musicians, their nation had to lie for a time in a deathlike torpor while other nations outsoared it, only to place all they had attained at the disposal of those artists; but they, who held their ground in the midst of the general decay, who cherished and hid the precious essence of German national feeling in a pure vessel — the wheel rolled over them and erased all trace of them ; nay, and soon no one even asked where they had been. But they shall not be forgotten for ever ! It is not only as being ancestors of Sebastian Bach that they have a^ signi- ficance for us ; their personal merit as artists is considerable enough for them to deserve that we should assign them a place of honour in the history of art. Neglect has indeed suffered the greater portion of their works to perish, and this is especially to be regretted in the case of Michael Bach, whose strength must have lain principally in instrumental music ; of all their compositions in this kind only a few fragments still exist, while those vocal compositions in which, according to the declaration of the generation which succeeded him, Job. Christoph had put forth all his powers, have been preserved in rather greater number. Still, irrespec- THE ORIGIN OF ORATORIO. 43 tiVe of this disproportion of their surviving works, we may un- hesitatingly attribute the greater talent, from a general point of view, to the latter. His works are of an importance and completeness which must appear strange indeed to any one who has made himself familiar with the uncertain, groping style of the art of that period, if he has not fully realised the peculiar position held by this master in his own time. An unresting industry and great technical skill must, in him, have been allied to a deep, strong sentiment for music — to a nature which dwelt in solitude, and independently carried out the ideals of older artists, undisturbed by the apprecia- tion or the indifference of the world, and which would rather deserve to be regarded as the precursor of Handel than of Sebastian Bach, if a certain vein of fervent tender- ness did not betray his relationship with the latter. Heinrich Schiitz, in the third part of his " Symphoniae sacrae," and Andreas Hammerschmidt, more particularly in the two parts of his " Musikalischen Gesprache uber die Evangelia" (Musical Discourses on the Gospel),*^ created a form which was destined to be of the greatest impor- tance in the development of the art of that time, and finally to culminate chiefly in the Handel Oratorio, although this derived something, too, from the church music of Sebastian Bach. This musical-poetic treatment of isolated ''biblical incidents arose~parEIy from the impetus towards dramatic forms of art then developing in Italy, with a certain leaning towards the type of the sacred concerto, as it was called. The mode in which the Bible text was treated was ^ sometimes dramatic, so that the speeches of different per- Asons were distributed to different voices, sometimes choral, narrative, or devotional. Hammerschmidt, for instance, loved to introduce verses of Protestant hymns. They wished to make the incident dealt with as vivid as possible by the means afforded by music — by expressive declamation and a characteristic use of the instruments, but, above all, by a constant effort after forms of composition such as had some musical analogy with the events treated, both as to " About the middle of the seventeenth century. 44 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. general structure and in details of treatment— all combining to excite the fancy to reproduce a vivid picture. Since it is not the character of the oratorio to be actually dramatic, but only to embody, as it were, in a musical form the feelings to which an event would give rise, we find that it was already cast by Schutz and Hammerschmidt in the form which was brought to perfection by Handel ; and the fact that nearly a century had yet to elapse before this glorious cul- mination, is owing to the debilitation already mentioned as having fallen on the German nation in the second half of the seventeenth century. While at this very time, in Italy, very important oratorios could be created — as, for instance, the Santa Francesca Romana, of Allessandri — the above-men- tioned German masters, as it would seem, found very few men of talent able to follow with success in the path they had opened, and those who could, it is very certain, worked, at the time, for themselves alone. We possess only one work of _this kind even by Johann Chrisloph Bach7 buTtHis^tands up so far above the worlcs"oniis predeieessors and the surroundings of his time that, of itself, it suffices to raise the composer to a high rank as an artist. It is a tone- picture founded on the mystical strife between the Arch- angel Michael and the Devil : Revelation, xii. 7-12 — " And there was war in heaven : Michael and his angels fought against the dragon ; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not ; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world : he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a voice saying in heaven. Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ : for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their tes- timony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them." In order to meet the requirements of this bold and grandiose description, Bach summoned to his aid means of ES ERHOB SICH EIN STREIT. 45 effect which must be considered remarkable, and not merely for the time when he wrote. Two choirs of five parts each, two violins, four violas, bassoon, four trumpets, drums, dtJuble-bass, and organ were introduced. Solo voices, of course, there are not, but occasionally the bass part leads in the chorus. The introduction is a sonata for the instru- ments without trumpets or drums, which leads by a broadly conceived succession of chords in common time into an imitative and more rapid movement in 3-4 time — after a mode then much in favour, and which reminds us of the French^QMUezl'^i'e. Then all the instruments are silent ; the two bass parts of the first choir, supported by the organ alone, then begin m canon the following strain, which is declamatory rather than melodic : — £s er - hob sich ein Streitt es er - hob sich ein 1^ ^=^^ Streit 1^ im Him - mel, im Him - mel. =1= ^E=^ hob ^^=£E i= im Him mel, im Him - mel, E^ From the seventeenth bar the drums join in with dull low crotchet beats on the tonic and dominant. Four bars later a trumpet sounds as it were a distant battle-call ; a second answers it, then a third. The turmoil increases ; it is as if we saw the armed cohorts gathering from all the quarters of heaven. The fourth trumpet sounds ; and now the two choirs attack each other, as it were, like hostile armies. The whole body of the instruments, with the organ, rushes and roars above them. From the hottest of the fray the trumpet rings out in tuniultuous passages of semiquavers, challenging 46 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. and retiring in a bewildering and unresting double canon. We can fancy we see the immeasurable vault of heaven filling with the tumult of battle. A column of sound grows up, occupying the whole extent of harmonic pitch from CC to c'", and, except only a quite short passage at the beginning, remains for not less than sixty bars on the common chord of C. The contending choirs advance and recede in merely rhythmical ebb and flow ; on neither side will the harmonic unity give way. But at last the warlike turmoil subsides, and the choirs come forth triumphantly on the dominant, with the words, " And prevailed not." A vigorous and care- fully constructed fugato for the first choir follows, " Neither was their place found any more." According to the custom then in use, and to which Sebastian Bach himself remained faithful, the vioHns, by rising independently above the soprano, extend the structure to seven parts. A motive for the bass — continues the description, supported by broad instrumental harmonies, and soon commands the whole body of the choir once more, graphically representing in a gradual descent the overthrow of Satan from Heaven. Then follows a symphony of victory for all the instruments in a rigid march-rhythm, and following that comes a new and glorious burst in the choirs. Und ich ho-re- te ei-ne gro - sse Stim-me, die sprach im Him - mel : 6 6 5 Violins and Trumpets. " ES ERHOB SICH EIN STREIT." 47 The master has given to the words " a great voice " all the magnificence of the utmost means afforded by the decla- matory style, a style which must above all else give free scope to the musical capabilities of the text itself before it can venture on any dramatic consideration. The composi- tion extends after this through several numbers, among which the passage "And they loved not their lives unto the death " is particularly striking for its fervent sentiment and charac- teristic stamp ; and it closes with a joyful song of triumph for the choirs alternately. It is also distinguished as a work of the genuine oratorio character by the great repose which 48 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. un - sers prevails throughout the modulations and harmonies, notwith- standing the picturesque variety and vigour of the scenes it depicts;, it is no unfettered torrent of feeling that finds utterance, but the sentiment that flows round and about a fixed subject. Inasmuch as most of the composers of sacred music at the end of the seventeenth century display this harmonic simplicity, even in their purely lyrical choral subjects, they must be regarded, in these, as the precursors of Handel, while Sebastian Bach acquired his style of choral treatment in a different way, by means, namely, of instru- mental music. A greater variety of modulation might not, indeed, have proved a disadvantage to the work under con- sideration. Though the fertile adaptations of the common ES ERHOB SICH EIN STREIT.' 49 Got nes Chris chord of C major with the allied harmonies serve the descriptive purpose, and though a few startling deviations stand out all the more strongly — as, for instance, the grand change from C major to the common chord of B flat major, on the words "And deceiveth the whole world" — "Die ganze Welt verfukret" — still the ear craves a flow of harmony of a deeper and more penetrating character, particularly at the close, and especially a more vigorous use of the sub-dominant. But, indeed, the whole scheme of the work would not have been what it is, had not Bach worked on a very distinct and clearly indicated model by Hammerschmidt. This com- poser, in his work " Andern Theil geistlicher Gesprache iiber die Evangelia" (Second part of "Discourses on the Gospel,'" E 50 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. Dresden, 1656, No.XXVL), had set the same text for a choir in six parts, with trumpets, cornets, and organ, and the idea of making the battle rage round the long held common chord of C major owes its invention really to him ; even in the musical presentment of the Fall from Heaven, and in the resounding C major of the close, the originality was in the older master. But the power of invention and the genius with which Bach clothed the image thus presented to him, and transformed the meagre cartoon into a grand fresco, show that he so far transcended his by no means contemptible pre- decessor, that we could hardly realise it without the circum- stance of this imitation. We must not enter on the details of a comparison which would be highly interesting ; still I may remind the reader how an analogy here suggests itself between Joh. Christoph Bach and Handel, who in the same way did not hesitate to work out in the most direct manner such compositions as took his fancy .®^ It was impossible that so important a composition should fail to make an impression on many sincere artistic natures, in spite of the small amount of intelligent sympathy which was shown for Joh. Christoph Bach, alike by his contemporaries and by posterity. Georg Philipp Telemann evidently became acquainted with it when, from 1708 to 1711, he was Concert- meister and Capellmeister®^ at Eisenach. He himself attempted a similar flight, which at any rate dates from that time, for the festival of St. Michael ; but his talents were ill-adapted to the sublime, and even in this work he dwells in the region of commonplace, or forces to caricature the spasmodic treatment of the voices which characterises his earlier work, and which is objectionable aHke in the separate parts and in the ensemble of the chorus. But the master met with due admiration from the next generation of his own family. Sebastian Bach who, as an artist, was in many ways greatly indebted to his uncle, held this choral work in high esteem, «2 He made extensive use of a " Magnificat" by Dionigi Erba for " Israel in Egypt." See Chrysander, Handel, Vol. I., pp. 168-177. B.M. A list of these plagiarisms may be found in the Dictionary of Music and Musicians — ^Art. " Israel in Egypt." 83 For explanation of these words see Translators' postscript. MICHAEL bach's CANTATA. 5 1 and even had it publicly performed in Leipzig. Indeed, the stimulus is clearly unmistakable which prompted him to work out a tone-picture of the same poetical subject, which forms the beginning of one of his greatest cantatas.^ But the all-pervading difference of conception is conspicuous even in this. Sebastian stands supreme on the ground of pure music, and though the uncle's work must retire into the background before the creative genius which speaks in every note of the nephew's work, still it may hold its place by its declamatory character. The text, " Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft," &c., which in Job. Christoph's work forms a part of the whole, Sebastian has used as the subject of a double chorus,*' which, of course, admits of no comparison with the work of the older master, and which is, indeed, incomparable as its creator was. Philipp Emanuel Bach, Sebastian's son, also honoured the " great and impressive composer," as he designates Job. Christoph.*^ It is from him that we learn that at a perfprm- ance of this composition by Sebastian Bach at Leipzig, every one was astonished at the effect.®'' This astonishment would certainly be no less at the present day. We-.passes&_no work- of this class by Michael Bach ; still, a composition of his with an instrumental accompaniment has been preserved which is purely lyric in style, and hence inay"h¥ properly called a sacred. cantataJ®. It is founded on a hymn in two verses, " Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ " — "Ah, stay with us, Lord J,esu Christ," — but no sort of chorale melody is used in the composition ; on the contrary, the composer has worked up the separate lines with special reference to the expression of the words and matter of each. " " Es erhub sich ein Streit," B.-G., II., No. 19. «5 B.-G., X., No. 50. «6 Addenda to the Genealogy. " In a letter to Forkel, dated from Hamburg, September 20, 1775. It is given in Bitter's work, Carl. Ph. Em. Bach, Vol. I., p. 343, where there is also an abridged translation. Ph. Emanuel Bach had preserved the document in his archives of the family ("Alt-Bachische Archive") a collection of the composi- tions of the various musicians of the family, before and after Sebastian. It passed from the collection of G. Polchaus into the Royal Library at Berlin. " In parts, derived from the Bach archives in the Royal Library at Berlin. E 2, 52 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. Without entering on any detailed discussion of the music, it is easy to see how inadequate this method must be in general. For this mode of treatment can only be applicable when it is desired almost exclusively to give expression to a leading sentiment, which flows like a current through the whole and penetrates every separate part. This_£ieceis..talLinmotett- form andi.al£dedama.toxyj, the correct form for such themes hSdnot yet been found, and many a composer was wrecked in seeking it till Sebastian Bach made the thing clear. In other respects the composition is full of interesting details and ingenious ideas ; in these Michael hardly stood behind his brother, though he did so conspicuously in his feeling for grand plastic forms. A choir in four parts, two violins, three violas, bassoon, and organ, are employed, and the key of G minor is chosen. An introductory sonata of fourteen bars, in which slow progressions alternate with rapid figures, has a somewhat incoherent effect. The first Hne of the hymn serves as the basis of a structure of sixteen bars, closing with a fermata ; there is a passionate accent in the cry, " Ach bleib ! ach bleib 1" which predominates as early as in the third bar, rising to E flat major and A flat major, then sinking back to G minor, rising again, and finally ceasing in the relative major. The words " Weil es nun Abend worden ist " — " For now the evening closes in," — are sustained on a descending scale-like passage, which seems to feel its way among the voices, wandering in intermittent tones, not without some harshness in the harmonies — Weil es nun A - bend. J- J weil es nun A - bend, weil es nun well es nun A - bend, weil weil es nun A - bend, and six bars later it closes with another fermata on the dominant of G minor. The soprano now enters with the words " Dein gottlich Wort das helle Licht"— "The clearest light Thy word ACH BLEIB BEI UNS. 53 divine," — set to an agitated subject rising by degrees; above it, two violins have an imitative passage, the first violin rising to the previously unheard-of height of g'" and a'", evidently to figure forth the idea of clear, pure light ; the whole choir concludes in a striking manner, " Lass ja bei uns ausloschen nicht" — " May it in us for ever shine," — and carries on the same motive for a time with the instruments, returning at the end to G major. The second verse is treated in an analogous manner. The alto sings the first line alone in chromatic passages, which already, at that time, was a favourite way of expressing pain and sorrow. ver-(leih) ^1 Sop. in die-ser letz- ten be-triib-ten Zeit, in die-serletzten be-trubtenZeitver-(leih) 6 , 6 Tenor. , | e b 5 1| I?. 11. g l> 5 After two subjects, each closing with a fermata, a freely treated fugato immediately follows, with this pregnant theme : — fa^ 1^ ■^^. % dass wir dein Wort u. Sa-cra-ment rein be - halt - en bis an un - serEnd. The two upper stringed instruments take part in this in an independent and skilful way, while in other parts of the cantata, where the violins have to hold their own above the voices, they generally behave in a very awkward manner, and try to avoid a faulty progression of the parts by wonderful Jeaps and intervals — a defect to be ascribed less to Michael Bach himself than to the imperfect technique of his time. A frequent use of the major sixth imparts to this fugato a stamp reminding us of the Doric mode, which suits it very well. Ii;^_the_treatment of the motett, Michael Bach betrays a similar uncertainty, but "t"Kis~lIEewise must be set down to the account of his time. The essential stamp and character of the motett are : 54 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. That it is in several parts, that it admits .of no. ohhligato instruments, and that its subjects are set to a textof the Bible or to a verse of a hymn. ^ Hence it follows that the period of its fullest blooin fell within the first great period of art, reaching to about the. year i6oo,_ when music was' essentially polyphonic, vocal and sacred. Under the suc- ceeding period of the transformation of the polyphonic system into the harmonic, and the swift and comprehensive extension of instrumental music which was inseparable from that change — under the endeavour after some more passionate musical expression that should follow the words more exactly, and the introduction of solo voices, the motett gradually became the neutral ground where the most dissimilar ten- dencies thought they might tread unhindered. I am here speaking more particularly of Germany, where the impulse communicated by the Protestant Church gave birth to a far greater abundance of forms than in Italy, Heinridh ^chiitz, in other respects an important repre- sentative of tlae new school, had," in iiis"MusicaUa ad Chorum Sacrum, endeavoured to reconcile its requirements with the principles of th'e'olH'Ccoiiiipare No. IV.,""~Verleih uns— Eriedeir-gnadigHch," and No. VII., " Viel werden kommen von Morgen und Abend"). But it was inevitable that the intrinsically polyphonic^ character_§.ho'il.