Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/499

Rh before been associated with other preludes. The A♭ Fugue first stood in F, it was shorter by more than one half and it had another prelude. Other instances of a similar kind may be adduced.

Three or four original MSS. are existing of the first part of the work: not one (complete) exists of the second. Still, notwithstanding the many revisions Bach made of the first part, there is perhaps, as Carl von Bruyck says ('Technische und ästhetische Analysen,' p. 68), on the whole a richer and broader display of contrapuntal art in the fugues of the second part.

The two oldest printed editions appeared in 1800–1801. One was issued by Simrock of Bonn and Paris, the other by Kühnel (now Peters) of Leipzig. The former was dedicated to the Paris Conservatoire de Musique, the matter being supplied by Schwencke. In it the second part is placed first: many of the older readings are given, and it has the long versions of the preludes which most editions since have copied. The latter was revised by Forkel, and it is to that he refers in his well-known treatise. The first English edition was that edited by S. Wesley and C. Horn, and published in 1811–12. The most complete critical edition is that of the Bach Gesellschaft (vol. xiv. 1865), by Franz Kroll, with an appendix of various readings.

Editors have not been slow to make alterations in the text of Bach. One of the most glaring of these is the bar introduced by Schwencke in the middle of the first prelude. Yet this bar has been retained by Czerny, by Wesley and Horn, and by many others. It is even used by Gounod in his 'Meditation.' As an editorial curiosity it is worth preserving:—

Of the First Part two autographs are known; one formerly belonging to Nägeli, and now in the Town Library of Zürich, another in the possession of Professor Wagener of Marburg. See Spitta's Bach (Novello) ii. 665. Of the Second Part no autograph is known to exist.

Since the above was in type I have discovered that for years past there have remained in comparative obscurity original autographs of nearly all the Preludes and Fugues of the Second Part. They were bought at Clementi's sale by the late Mr. Emett. During one of Mendelssohn's visits to England (June 1842) Mr. Emett showed them to him, and he at once recognised them as being in Bach's handwriting. Later on, in or about 1855, Sterndale Bennett saw them, and he too pronounced them to be in the handwriting of Bach. Since then they have so far lapsed out of sight that they are not mentioned even by Dr. Spitta. That they are authentic there can, I think, be no doubt. Because, first, Clementi knew or believed them to be so: see the 'Second Part of Clementi's Introduction to the Art of Playing on the Pianoforte, op. 43,' where, at p. 120, there is a 'Fuga by J. S. Bach from an original MS. of the author.' It is the one in C, and was evidently printed from No. 1 of this set. Secondly, Mendelssohn and Bennett witnessed to the writing. Thirdly, their internal evidence points to their being the work of a composer, not of a copyist. Upon this conclusion I have thought it worth while to make a bar by bar examination of them. For the most part they agree with Kroll's text, and, for convenience, taking his edition (including the marginal readings) as a standard, they compare with it as follows:—

I. Prelude:—In bars 1, 2, 6, 9, 17, 21, 23, where the groups of demisemiquavers occur, the MS. stands as at (a).

The latter half of bar 3 stands as at (b). At bar 14 five bars are erased and rewritten differently; the substitution accords with our text.

Fugue:—the first bar of the subject is grouped throughout (c); bar 24, the under stave is in the alto clef for four bars; bar 66 the middle part is a minim D; bar 67, the motion of semiquavers is arrested by (d).

Both Prelude and Fugue have the upper stave in the G clef. The other numbers (with the exception of No. 17, which is also in that clef) have it in the soprano clef.

II. Like Kroll's text throughout.

III. Prelude:—ten sharps in the signature, some of the notes being marked both in the upper and lower octave of the staves. Fugue:—signature like Prelude; bars 16, 19, 20, 26, 27,