Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/353

BAC which he aimed in his own. This high esteem in which he was held, however, is mainly to be attributed to the little knowledge that then existed of his father's playing and compositions; and the illustrious authorities quoted above, extolled in his reflection what they knew not in the great original. The qualities most valuable to the art, which the habitual privacy of the father's life concealed from the world, the son, whose courtly manners, personal amiability, and general intelligence rendered him the universal favourite of society, made public, and thus the art and the world have the advantage of them. The highest eulogium that can be passed upon his playing is to say, that it was an imitation of his father's; the general character of his music is immeasurably below that of the same great model: it has the merit of expression, but presents little other token of genius, while its technical correctness has all the appearance of laborious production. At Frankfort he established an academy of music, for which he wrote many compositions. He left this town in 1738 to settle in Berlin, where, two years later, he was appointed chamber musician to Frederick the Great; his chief duty being to accompany the king's flute performances upon the pianoforte. From his long residence in the Prussian capital he is often called Bach of Berlin, as, from his subsequent settlement for twenty-one years at Hamburg, he is also sometimes called Bach of Hamburg. He went to this latter place to succeed Telemann as kapell-meister in 1767, when, so great a favourite was he at court, that he had the utmost difficulty to leave Berlin; and when he protested against his detention that he was not a Prussian subject, his wife, whom he had married there, and his children who had been born there, were for some time refused the permission without which they could not quit their native country. When, at last, he departed, the Princess Anna Amalia gave him the honorary title of her kapell-meister. The recollection of these difficulties made him for ever afterwards refuse to quit the free city of Hamburg for any of the appointments which were offered him at different German courts. He was the conservator of the famous "Archives" of the Bachs, which passed at his death into the hands of M. Pœlchau of Berlin. His two sons—one an advocate, and the other a painter, who died at Rome—were the first members of the Bach family that were not musicians. His most important works are the oratorio of "Die Israeliten in Der Wüste," and a setting of Klopstock's "Morgengesang am Schöpfungsfeste;" besides which, and several other vocal compositions, he wrote very extensively for his instrument. A list of his published and unpublished music is to be found in M. Fètis's Biographie and Dr. Schilling's Lexicon. His life, as narrated by himself, is given in Burney's Musical Tour.  , a musician, the ninth son of the famous Sebastian, was born at Leipzig in 1732, and died at Bückeburg in 1796. He studied jurisprudence in the university of his native city, being designed for the profession of an advocate; but his talent for music, which could not but be developed in his father's household, soon became conspicuous, and the count of Schaumburg appreciating this, and entertaining a strong personal regard for him, engaged him as his kapell-meister, and he lived at Bückeburg in fulfilment of the office: whence he is often distinguished by the addition of the name of this town to his, own. From the time of his appointment till his death, he had the custom, which nothing induced him to break, of devoting certain hours in every morning to composition. He never quitted Bückeburg save for a few months, when he visited his brother Christian in London. His numerous compositions are remarkable rather for their purity than vigour. A list of these is given in M. Fètis's Biographie. His son, born at Bückeburg in 1754, and his grandson (son of the last named), born at Berlin in 1786, were both reputed composers of instrumental music.—G. A. M.  , a musician, the eleventh and youngest son of the pre-eminent Sebastian, was born at Leipzig in 1735, and died in London in January, 1782. As his father died when he was but fifteen years old, he had less of the incalculable advantage of this great man's instruction, than either of his brothers: he completed his musical studies under his distinguished brother, C. P. Emmanuel, whose position at the court of Berlin enabled him to give the young orphan not only a home, but an introduction to the best society. Christian's talent soon attracted attention, his excellent harpsichord-playing was admired, and his compositions were successful. The gallantly, not to say sensuality of his disposition, made him ever passionately devoted to the society of women, and this brought him into connection with the Italian singers of the Berlin opera, by whose persuasion, when he was nineteen, he went to Milan. He had been but a year in the Lombard capital, when, by the interest of the empress, he was appointed organist of the Duomo. Here he wrote several operas, in which the severe school of his education gave way to the lighter Neapolitan style, and he won general favour. From his residence in this city, he is sometimes called Bach of Milan, but he is better known as Bach of London, from his longer settlement there. In 1762 (not in 1759, as stated by M. Fètis and Dr. Schilling), Signora Matei, directress of the Italian opera in London, engaged him to come to England, and, save for an occasional trip, he never quitted this country. His opera, "Orione ossia Diana vendicata," was produced in February, 1763, with decided success; in this work the richness of the instrumentation exceeded anything that had been heard, and in it the clarionet was employed for the first time in England. Bach at once became a general favourite. He was engaged by the queen as chamber musician, organist, and composer. He wrote constantly for the opera; he gave concerts in conjunction with Abel, the player on the viol da gamba; and he produced countless instrumental works, all of which were extremely popular. His playing had fallen into neglect while he was in Italy, and now, though he purposed to resume his practice, he never regained his execution. Probably from this reason, he never wrote any difficulties for his instrument, and, as his music was as easy to understand as it was to play, it was as much admired by all the ladies as he was himself. His brother Emmanuel often reproved him, by letter, as a renegade from the classical style of his father; and when those around him admonished him of the difference between his music and that of his accomplished and conscientious mentor, he used to reply—"Emmanuel lives to compose, but I compose to live." It was his love of pleasure and his gaiety of character that induced the prevalent lightness of his music, rather than his want of ability to write in a more earnest style, as is proved by some motets he wrote for Germany, some Masses he wrote for Rome and Naples, and even some pieces he wrote for the English church, all of which severe critics warmly praise. In 1767, Cecilia Grassi was engaged in London as prima donna at the opera, and she had not been long in this country when Bach married her. Though this may have reformed him of his gallantries, it did not cure him of another unfortunate propensity; for his habit of drinking became so strong that he now rarely wrote save under spirituous excitement. Such a course of life could not endure, and thus he died at a much earlier age than his brothers, leaving debts to the amount of four thousand pounds, a brilliant popularity which did not long survive him, and a widow, who received from the queen fifty pounds to carry her to her native country, and a pension of eighty pounds a year as a tribute to his memory. M. Fètis gives a list of the greater part of his works.—G. A. M.  * BACH,, Baron, Austrian minister, born 4th January, 1813, at Loosdorf in Austria Proper, is the son of a solicitor. He studied law, and took his degree at the Vienna university. Having obtained a subordinate place under the crown-solicitor, he travelled in Europe and in the East, and at the death of his father succeeded him in his law business, getting soon an extensive practice. Young, successful, and ambitious, he entered on a political career under unusual circumstances. Prince Metternich's long administration, with its obstructive policy, which viewed with distrust even the development of literature and the construction of railroads, had in the course of time created a general feeling of opposition among the educated classes of Vienna, which found its centre in the Juridisch-politische Verein, a club founded by Dr. Bach and his friends, who used there socially to assemble, and to discuss the questions of the day from the legal point of view, and succeeded by their strict adherence to the letter of the law in preventing its dissolution by the police. The sudden outburst of the Paris revolution in February, 1848, had taken Prince Metternich by surprise, and as his prestige broke down, by the fact that he was unable to prevent or to suppress (March 13th) a noisy street demonstration in favour of constitutional government and the freedom of the press, he was dismissed from his high post by the imperial family, and found it safe to seek an asylum in England. The system of government was altered by this event, which was countenanced by Bach's club, but the members of the administration remained the same as before. Prince Metternich's 