Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/352

BAC compositions of others of a less severe character than his own, and, accordingly, used to make frequent pleasure-trips to Dresden, with his eldest son, for the sake of hearing the operas of Hasse, then constantly given there. He had lost his first wife, and married a second, by whom he had thirteen children, making a family of twenty in all, eleven sons and nine daughters. In 1736 he received the further appointment of kapell-meister to the court of Dresden, under Augustus III., king of Poland, and elector of Saxony, who had, like his father, abjured the Lutheran faith, in favour of that of the church of Rome, and this office gave Bach occasion to write his Masses and other pieces for the Roman service. He had now attained the summit of his greatness; his simple and homely nature found its chief pleasure in his family circle, in witnessing the successes of his elder sons, whom he had taught to emulate himself, and in training his younger children to follow in their course. He had some quarrels with the master of his school, which were not, however, of a nature to disturb his comfort; at least, they did not interrupt his artistic pursuits. He was unaffectedly pious, without any of the polemical scruples that induced his ancestor to leave Hungary, since he wrote indifferently for the Lutheran church and for that of Rome, although a zealous member of the former. He never sought applause, and his self-satisfaction being the goal of his endeavour, he disregarded the honour that everywhere awaited him, and thus he lived, composing, and playing, and teaching; advancing his art in all. He always had a great wish to know Handel, the only one of his contemporaries whom posterity ranks with him; and in 1719, while residing at Köthen, on hearing that the famous Saxon was visiting his native town of Halle, he went there in hopes to meet him, but found that he had departed on that very day. While Bach was at Leipzig, Handel again visited Halle, when Bach, being prevented by illness from leaving home, sent his eldest son to invite him to come there, but equally in vain. Frederick the Great, famous for his love of music as renowned for his battles, often inquired of Bach's second son, Emmanuel (who had an engagement in his court), after his father, in consequence of which Bach was persuaded in 1747 to visit Potsdam, where the Prussian monarch was staying. The king was surrounded by his musicians, the usual evening concert was about to commence, and Frederick, with his flute in his hand, was ready to play the solo which was to be the first piece, when, according to custom, an officer presented to him the list of the arrivals in the town, on which he saw the name of the master. "Gentlemen," cried the king, "old Bach is come," and so broke up the meeting; the presence of the great musician engrossing all his attention. A messenger summoned Bach to the palace, without allowing him time to change his travelling dress, and the king received him with the most eager welcome. In the palace were several pianofortes, then a newly-invented instrument, made by Silbermann, and Bach must play upon them all; the king was delighted with his guest, and wrote him a subject for a fugue on which the master extemporized to the amazement of the many musicians and courtiers who gathered to hear him. Bach afterwards wrote a very elaborate work upon this theme, which he dedicated to his royal admirer. The following day he went to Berlin to try the principal organs in that city, and to see the opera-house and concert-room, where he astonished those who accompanied him by the deep acoustical knowledge he displayed in his remarks on these buildings. He returned to Leipzig to quit it no more. His sight had been injured at a very early age, probably by the moonlight transcription of his brother's forbidden volume; and it now failed him so greatly that he was persuaded to let an English oculist operate upon him; the experiment was unsuccessful, and a second attempt reduced the sufferer to total blindness. It is supposed that this course of treatment, and the violent medicines that accompanied it, induced the illness which prostrated him for six months, and ended with his death. Ten days before this took place, his sight suddenly returned, but after a few hours he became delirious; then he had an apoplectic fit; and then he breathed his last.

He was, perhaps, the most severely conscientious artist that ever devoted himself to music; he deemed that to compromise his art would be to compromise himself, and that to lend himself to anything which did not, to the utmost of his power, tend to exalt it, was in the last degree unworthy of him and of music. He was the greatest contrapuntist that has been, and is especially remarkable for the strict integrity of his part-writing, the complexity of which, we must own, often prevents the broad and massive effect that greatly distinguishes the music of Handel from his; his very extensive employment of passing notes induces many harshnesses which will not bear analysis; and his principle of making each part in his score an independent melody, is often carried out at the cost of the euphony, and the clearness of the whole. These peculiarities were the result of his never-ending study; his wonderful power of expression evinced in his free movements, in his great choral works, particularly in his famous "Passions-Musik," is the manifestation of his transcendent genius. As he despised popular applause, so his music is little open to popular appreciation, and it is, and always will be, much more interesting and much more satisfactory to those who participate in its performance, than to any passive listener; his music is beyond that of any other composer, difficult of comprehension, but its measureless beauties will ever repay the pains of the student who unravels them. His principles of playing are detailed in his son, C. P. Emmanuel's "Ver-such über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen," and his system of composition in his pupil Kirnberger's "Kunst des reinen Satzes." A list of all his known works is given in Dr. Forkell's Life, and in M. Fètis's Biographie. A monument to Bach was erected at Leipzig in 1841, at the instigation of Mendelssohn, who contributed largely towards its expenses, and gave some public performances of the master's music, to further the fund. The Bach Society in London was founded in 1849, by Dr. W. Sterndale Bennett for the study of the master's works. A complete edition of his instrumental compositions is now in course of publication by Peters of Leipzig, of which at present eight volumes for the organ, and twenty-three for the pianoforte, have appeared; and one of his still more numerous vocal works is being issued by the Bach Gesellschaft, which was instituted at the centenary of his death, to produce this publication by annual subscription. Both of these series contain works that have never before been printed.—G. A. M.  , a musician, the eldest son of the great Sebastian, was born at Weimar in 1710, and died at Berlin in 1784. His father taught him the organ and the clavichord, and the principles of composition, and thought very highly of his ability; he learnt the violin of the elder Graun. His father's appointment at Leipzig, when he was thirteen years old, gave him the opportunity to study jurisprudence and mathematics in that university, in which he attained considerable proficiency; he was for many years his father's constant associate, accompanying him wherever he went. In 1733 he was appointed organist of St. Sophia's church in Dresden, but held the office only a short time, and then returned to Leipzig. In 1747 he was engaged as organist at St. Mary's church in Halle, and in consequence of his long residence of twenty years in that city, he is often called Bach of Halle. His brother, C. P. Emmanuel, used to speak of him as the only artist worthy to succeed their illustrious father; and other contemporaries describe him as the greatest player, the greatest master of fugue, and the greatest extemporist of his day. His strangely uncouth temper, however, his moroseness, his constant fits of abstraction, and his addiction to drinking, rendered him a disagreeable acquaintance, and incapacitated him for his duties: thus, he had no friends, and even his talent failed to render him popular. When he left Halle, probably because his eccentricities could no longer be tolerated, he went successively to Leipzig, Brunswick, and Göttingen, and finally settled at Berlin, where he died in extreme poverty. He was too idle to write, and, therefore, he has left but few proofs of his power: a list of these, including music for the festival of Advent and for that of Whitsuntide, and some elaborate organ fugues, is given in M. Fètis's Biographie.—G. A. M.  , a musician, the second son of the immortal Sebastian, was born at Weimar on the 14th of March, 1714; died at Hamburg on the 14th September, 1788. His father's settlement at Leipzig when he was nine years old, gave him opportunity for the study of jurisprudence in that university, which he afterwards continued at Frankfort-on-the-Oder. He learned music from his father, and attained such eminence as a player, that Clementi professed to have derived from him that beautiful manner of singing upon the pianoforte, for which himself was especially famous, and which may be regarded as the distinguishing merit of all the disciples of his style; and such distinction as a composer, that Haydn ascribed to him the principles of construction upon which he based his own greatness; and that Mozart used to speak of his productions as the standard at 