Page:Pratt - The history of music (1907).djvu/264

 than its parts, having an organic unity to which all details contribute. All music of this sort is intensely intellectual rather than sensuous, but Bach's works never lack an obvious overruling sentiment that lifts them out of the merely learned level into that of living art. But the means chosen demand mental maturity and experience in both performer and listener. Hence his works are not fully appreciated except by those of advanced culture.

Yet Bach's works are almost incredibly varied. He was not only a prince of polyphonists, but far ahead of his times in the grasp of melodic invention, of every device of form, and of the application of rhythmic and metric energy. He had begun to foresee the sonata-form, with all its symphonic possibilities. The marvelous ductility of melodic material in his hands presages the plastic part-writing of the later 19th century. With the latent artistic capacity of dance-forms he was perfectly familiar. Technically, he was thoroughly radical regarding modulation and technique. He threw aside the conventional notions as to 'proper keys,' and demanded the new systems of tuning and of key-relation so as to open for use the whole range of tonal possibility. Instead of writing down to players and singers or making technique an end in itself, he imperiously called for a new method of keyboard fingering and for a vocalization that is extreme in its difficulty, simply because technique for him was subordinated to conception and construction.

The grandest quality of his larger works cannot be described in words. It lay in the mental view of the tonal material and its handling with reference to the embodiment of ideas and sentiments. Like all artists of the highest class, he had an intuitive sense of the relation of formal structure to the expression of the mind and soul in universal terms. His music, therefore, is a true rescript not only of his own personality, but of ideal personality. Its significance has proved too great to be exhausted by later generations. Hence it is natural to class him with creators like Michelangelo, Shakespeare and Goethe.

Very few of his works were published during his life. Most of them remained in MS. for more than a century after his death, while many are known to be lost. The recent authoritative edition (1851-96) numbers over fifty large volumes, presenting many hundreds of distinct compositions, from brief chorales to gigantic choral or orchestral works.