Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work

by Johann Nikolaus Forkel

CHAPTER IX. BACH'S COMPOSITIONS

To have produced so many great works in all forms of musical expression Bach necessarily must have been a prolific writer. For if a composer be the greatest genius in the world, unless he constantly exercises his art he cannot hope to produce real masterpieces. Superlative excellence is the fruit of indefatigable application. Yet in Bach's case we should be wrong to acclaim as masterpieces all the products of his great activity just because masterpieces at length were the fruit of it. Already in his early compositions we find undeniable evidence of genius. But they are blemished by faults, passages poor in quality, extravagant, insipid, that are hardly worth preserving, though of interest to the student who wishes to trace from its source the development of Bach's genius.

It is not difficult to distinguish with exactitude those of Bach's early compositions which are of the first excellence; for he has been at pains to give us the clue. As he did not publish his first work until he was about forty years [pg 115] old [223] we are justified in assuming the merit of what, at so mature an age, he thought worthy to put into print, and in concluding generally that all his engraved works are of first-rate merit.[224]

With respect to his unpublished compositions, and they are by far the most numerous, we must in order to distinguish their merit rely partly on a critical examination of their texts, partly on Bach's own judgment. Like all great composers, he was continually working on his compositions with a view to making them still more finished. Indeed, he actually attempted to improve some of them that were already perfect. Any that were susceptible of improvement he improved, even those already engraved. Such is the origin of the variant readings of his works found in older and more recent texts. By constantly retouching his compositions Bach aimed at making them indisputable masterpieces. In this category I place most of what he wrote before the year 1725, as I show in detail in the following catalogue. A great [pg 116] many compositions subsequent to 1725, which for reasons easily understood are still in MS., bear too evidently the stamp of perfection to leave us in doubt whether to class them as early essays or as the finished work of an accomplished master.

The following are those of Bach's works which have been engraved:

	1. Clavierübung, or “Exercises for the Clavier, consisting of Preludes, Allemandes, Courantes, Sarabandes, Gigues, Minuets, etc., for the Diversion of Amateurs. Opus I. Published by the Composer, 1731.” This was Bach's first published work and contains six Suites. The first of them came out in 1726;[225] the others followed in successive years until all were engraved together in 1731.[226] The work was much noticed at the time. Such compositions for the Clavier had not been seen or heard before, and the man who could play them was sure of a success. Our young players to-day would profit by the study of them, so brilliant, agreeable, expressive, and original are they. In the new edition[227] they are entitled, “Exercises for the Clavier.”
	2. Clavierübung, or “Exercises for the Clavier, Part II., consisting of a Concerto in the Italian style and an Overture in the French manner[228] for a Clavier with two manuals. Published by Christopher Weigel, Junior, in Nürnberg.”[229]
	3. Clavierübung, or “Exercises for the Clavier, Part III., consisting of various Organ Preludes to the Catechism and other Hymns, composed for the diversion of amateurs and particularly of competent judges of such works. Published by the Composer.” Besides the Preludes and Fugues for the Organ, all of which are masterly, the book contains four Duetti for the Clavier,[230] models of their kind.
	4. Sechs Choräle, or “Six Choral Melodies of different kinds, for an Organ with two manuals and pedal. Zella, in the Thuringian Forest. Published by Johann G. Schübler.”[231] They are full of dignity and religious feeling. In some of them, too, we have instances of Bach's original management [pg 118] of the stops.[232] Thus, in the second Choral, Wo soll ich fliehen hin, he gives to the first manual an 8 foot, to the second a 16 foot, and to the pedal a 4 foot stop. The pedal has the cantus firmus.[233]
	5. Clavierübung, or “Exercises for the Clavier, consisting of an Aria with several Variations, for a Clavier with two manuals. Published by Balthasar Schmidt at Nürnberg.”[234] This admirable work consists of thirty Variations, some in canon, in a variety of movements and at all intervals from the unison to the ninth, with easy flowing melody. It includes a regular fourpart Fugue,[235] several extremely brillant Variations for two Claviers,[236] and concludes with a Quodlibet, as it is called, which alone would render its composer immortal, though it is not the best thing in the volume.[237] The Variations are models of what such compositions ought to be, though no one has been so rash as to attempt to follow Bach's footsteps. [pg 119] We owe them to Count Kaiserling, formerly Russian Ambassador at the Saxon Electoral Court, who frequently visited Leipzig with Goldberg, already mentioned[238] among Bach's pupils. The Count was a great invalid and suffered from insomnia. Goldberg lived in the Ambassador's house, and slept in an adjoining room, to be ready to play to him when he was wakeful. One day the Count asked Bach to write for Goldberg some Clavier music of a soothing and cheerful character, that would relieve the tedium of sleepless nights. Bach thought a set of Variations most likely to fulfil the Count's needs, though, on account of the recurrence of the same basic harmony throughout, it was a form to which he had hitherto paid little attention. Like all his compositions at this period, however, the Variations are a masterpiece, and are the only example he has left us of this form.[239] The Count always called them “my Variations” and was never weary of hearing them. For long afterwards, when he could not sleep, he would say, “Play me one of my [pg 120] Variations, Goldberg.” Perhaps Bach was never so well rewarded for any composition as for this. The Count gave him a golden goblet containing one hundred louis d'ors, though, as a work of art, Bach would not have been overpaid had the present been a thousand times as large. It may be observed, that in the engraved copy of the Variations there are serious mistakes, which the composer has corrected in his own copy.[240]
	6. Einige kanonische Verdäderungen, “Canonic Variations on the Christmas Hymn ‘Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her,’ for an Organ with two manuals and pedal. Published at Nürnberg by Balthasar Schmidt.” The work contains five canonic variations of the utmost ingenuity.[241]
	7. Musikalisches Opfer, or “A Musical Offering,” dedicated to Frederick II., King of Prussia. The theme received by Bach from the King[242] is treated first as a three-part Fugue under the acrostic title “Ricercare” (Regis iussu cantio et reliqua canonica arte resoluta). There follows a six-part “Ricercare” and Thematis regii elaborationes canonicae [pg 121] of various kinds.[243] The work includes a Trio for Flute, Violin, and Clavier upon the same subject.[244]
	8. Die Kunst der Fuge, or “The Art of Fugue.” This work, unique of its kind, did not appear till about 1752, after Bach's death, though the greater part of it had been engraved by his sons during his lifetime.[245] Marpurg,[246] the leading German musical critic of that day, contributed a preface to this edition which contains many just observations on the value and utility of such treatises.[247] But, being too good for the general public, the work found only a small circulation among those who discerned its merit and eagerly bought copies. [pg 122] The plates were never used again and eventually were sold[248] by Bach's heirs at the price of old copper. Written by a man of Bach's transcendent genius, and commended as a masterpiece by a critic so highly regarded as Marpurg, a work of this kind, if published in any other country than Germany, would have passed through at least ten editions by now, if only at the bidding of patriotism. But in Germany not a sufficient number of copies was sold to pay for the plates used in engraving the work! The work consists of fugal Variations planned on the most elaborate scale.[249] The composer's intention was to show in what a variety of ways the same theme can be treated fugally. The Variations (here called “Contrapunctus”)[250] are complete Fugues upon the same theme. The last Fugue of all has three subjects, in the third of which the composer signs his name, B A C H.[251] [pg 123] Bach was prevented from finishing it by the disorder of his eyes, and as an operation brought no relief the movement was never completed. It is said that Bach intended to introduce four themes into it and to bring it to an impressive conclusion by inverting them all. All the Fugues in the work are equally smooth and melodious. To make up for the unfinished Fugue Bach concluded the work with a Choral Prelude upon the tune “Wenn wir in höchsten Nöthen sein,” which he dictated to his son-in-law, Altnikol, a few days before his death.[252] Of the extraordinary skill it displays I do not speak, save to remark that even in his last illness it proclaims Bach's skill undiminished. The pious resignation and devotion that characterise it move me deeply whenever I play it. Nor should I find it easy to say which I had rather had been omitted, the Choral Prelude, or the conclusion of the unfinished Fugue.
	9. Lastly, after Bach's death, his four-part Chorals were collected by his son, Carl Philipp Emmanuel, and were published by Birnstiel (Berlin and Leipzig), Part I. in 1765, Part II. in 1769.[253] Each Part contains one hundred Chorals, [pg 124] mostly taken from the composer's church Cantatas. More recently Kirnberger edited, in four volumes, a collection of Bach's Chorals. They are published by Breitkopf.[254] Bach's works, still in MS., consist of compositions for the Clavier, Organ, with and without other instruments, Strings, and the voice. I will enumerate them in that order.