Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/419

BACH. The Bachs held annual family and musical reunions. According to a description given by Bach's son, Karl Philipp Emanuel, to J. N. Forkel, one of Bach's biographers, these meetings opened with a chorale, which was followed by secular songs, until, at a convenient pause, some one of those present started a catch, in which each joined in proper turn with some humorous phrase, as likely as not hitting at a harmless family or individual failing; thus making a merry ending to the musical exercises of the reunion. The Bachs were a clan of working musicians; and quite as much as the violin lessons received from his father, the musical atmosphere of the Bach household and family traditions must have made their impression on Johann Sebastian. It was the homely life of people in humble circumstances, but it was permeated with music. To think in music was, from childhood, spontaneous &mdash; second nature with him. This, together with the scrupulous revision to which in his later years he subjected his earlier works, accounts for the sustained excellence of his vast production.

The Bach clan being so united, it is surprising that Bach's brother at Ohrdruf was moved more to jealousy than admiration by Sebastian's rapid progress. Johann Christoph taught him the clavichord, but kept from him a book containing works by Froberger, Buxtehude, Pachelbel, and others, which the boy coveted. Not to be thwarted, however, he copied the book stealthily and laboriously on moonlit nights, only to be deprived of his copy when it was discovered. The anecdote is wholly in keeping with Bach's devotion to his art. At school, besides his general education, he was trained with the other boys for the church choir, and moreover sang at weddings and funerals. In April, 1700, Bach went to Lüneburg. where he was accepted at the school of Saint Michæl's for the choir of the church. His general education continued at the school; he took his commons at the refectory, and received musical training of much value for his future work, including high services with orchestra, choral singing, organ, and experience with a wider range of music. His fine treble voice, together with his knowledge of violin and clavichord, secured him immediate admittance to the advance matin choir. There was keen musical rivalry between the schools of Saint Michæl's and Saint John's; and when in winter the choirs went through the town streets to sing, separate routes had to be marked out for each, to avoid quarrelsome meetings. As the organ became in time Bach's instrument par excellence, and as he is regarded as its greatest master in composition and as one of its greatest masters in playing, it ia interesting to note that his serious study of it began in Lüneburg under George Boehm, a pupil of Reinken and a composer of distinction, who was organist at Saint John's Church; which shows that while the musical rivalry between Saint Michæl's and Saint John's was keen, it was also generous. The seriousness with which Bach went about the study of the organ is attested by the fact that he made several journeys to Hamburg to hear Reinken play and profit by his suggestions. Nearly twenty years later, when shortly before Reinken's death, Bach played in Saint Katherine's Church, Hamburg, an improvised elaboration of the chorale By the Waters of Babylon, the &lsquo;father of North German

exclaimed: &ldquo;I thought this art was dead, but now I see it lives on in you!&rdquo;

Bach's eagerness to leave nothing undone that would aid his progress in his art was again shown a few years later, when he walked 150 miles from Arnstadt to Lübeck for a brief course of study with the famous organist Buxtehude. Bach had left Lüneburg in 1703, and for a few months was a member of the band of Prince Johann Ernest at Weimar. Chancing to visit Arnstadt, where his granduncle, Heinrich, had been organist, and where an organ lately had been installed in a new church, he played on the instrument. Although the trial is not believed to have been official, he was, at 18 years of age (August, 1703), engaged for a position similar to that which his granduncle had filled with honor. Bach went to Lübeck in 1705, and remained with Buxtehude three months, deliberately extending his month's leave from his Arnstadt duties for this purpose. Whatever the personal consequences might be, he was determined to derive the greatest possible artistic profit from his contact with the justly famous organist. The result was a great advance in organ technique, especially in new insight into the resources and use of the pedal, in which Buxtehude was a master. Naturally, the authorities were displeased at this unceremonious extension of his leave from one month to three; although, with characteristically Bachian honesty of purpose, he pleaded as an excuse his desire &ldquo;to perfect himself in certain matters touching his art.&rdquo; Further, however, he was rebuked &ldquo;for that he hath heretofore made sundry perplexing variations and imported various strange harmonies, in such wise that the congregation was thereby confounded.&rdquo; He had returned to Arnstadt in February, 1706. In June, 1707, he accepted the position of organist of Saint Blasius's Church, at Mühlhausen with the same salary as at Arnstadt, and &ldquo;the accustomed dues of corn, wood and fish.&rdquo; In October he married his cousin, Maria Barbara, whose father, John Michael Bach, had been organist at Gehren. June, 1708, he resigned from Mühlhausen to become organist in the Ducal Chapel at Weimar. Conditions at Weimar were such as to quicken Bach's already active musical faculties. The life of the court was decorous, influenced by Duke William Ernest, a man of serious temperament, a patron of arts and letters and wisely active in bringing the music of the Ducal Chapel up to a high standard. He in fact laid the foundation of that culture which made Weimar the centre of German letters in Goethe's time, and gave it a &lsquo;golden period&rsquo; of music when Liszt resided there. In addition to his duties in the chapel, Bach played the violin or accompanied on the harpsichord in the Court Orchestra, wearing a Hungarian uniform, in which it is difficult at the present day to realize the appearance of the great master of the Contrapuntal School, whose perruqued portrait has come down to us. Bach's growing fame as an organist brought him many invitations to try or inspect organs and to play at various courts. For playing a pedal solo on the organ at Cassel with an agility &ldquo;which few could equal with their hands&rdquo; he received from the Hereditary Prince a precious ring which the Prince drew from his own finger.

Bach remained at Weimar nine years. In 1717 he accepted from Prince Leopold of