Disputes
Spitta gives accounts of further disputes. On one occasion a prefect having punished some small boys at Bach’s special order, the rector ordered him to be publicly flogged, whereupon the prefect immediately left the school rather than suffer such indignity. A boy happening to pitch a hymn at St Nicholas too low for the congregation to sing, Bach was summoned before the Council and told to see that it did not happen again. The rector threatened to confiscate the boys’ money if they obeyed the cantor and accused Bach of being accessible to bribery. In
A Successor Chosen
Visit to Frederick the Great
There is little more to relate. Bach from time to time made his journeys to various towns, and paid visits to Erfurt, where his cousin, Joh. Christoph, and Adlung were settled. As he advanced in years he gave up these journeys. The last he made was to the Court of Frederick the Great at Potsdam in 1747. His son Emanuel had been capellmeister to Frederick since 1740; and the king had frequently, and always with more insistence, thrown out hints that he would like to hear the great artist. Bach being much occupied, and disinclined for travelling, did not accede to the king’s wishes until they amounted to a positive command. Then, taking Friedemann with him, he started for Potsdam, which he reached early in May. The story of the meeting with Frederick is variously told. We will tell it in Friedemann’s own words: “When Frederick II. had just prepared his flute, in the presence of the whole orchestra, for the evening’s concert, the list of strangers who had arrived was brought him. Holding his flute in his hand he glanced through the list. Then he turned round with excitement to the assembled musicians, and, laying down his flute, said, ‘Gentlemen, old Bach is come.’ Bach, who was at his son’s house, was immediately invited to the castle. He had not even time allowed him to take off his travelling clothes and put on his black Court-dress. He appeared, with many apologies for the state of his dress, before the great prince, who received him with marked attention, and threw a deprecating look towards the Court gentlemen, who were laughing at the discomposure and numerous compliments of the old man. The flute concerto was given up for this evening; and the king led his famous visitor into all the rooms of the castle, and begged him to try the Silbermann pianos, which he (the king) thought very highly of, and of which he possessed seven.[51] The musicians accompanied the king and Bach from one room to another; and after the latter had tried all the pianos, he begged the king to give him a fugue subject, that he could at once extemporise upon. Frederick thereupon wrote out the subject (afterwards used in the musical offering), and Bach developed this in the most learned and interesting manner, to the great astonishment of the king, who, on his side, asked to hear a fugue in six parts. But, since every subject is not adapted for so full a working out, Bach chose one for himself, and astounded those present by his performance.
‘Only One Bach’
A newspaper account of the visit to Frederick varies in several details from the above; but as the account of the son, who was with Bach, and perhaps an eye-witness, is the more trustworthy, we have not thought it necessary to trouble our reader with the second account.[53]
Last Illness
In the following year the enormous strain he had all his life put upon himself began to take its effect. Although of unusual strength, the work had worn out his body. First his eyes, which had been used day and night from the time he copied his brother’s book by moonlight, began to give way. The weakness gradually increased, and pains began to trouble him, yet he could not believe that he was near his end. Friends persuaded him to undergo an operation at the hands of an eminent English oculist, who was then in Leipsic. But the result of two operations was that he lost his sight altogether, and his health was so broken down by them that he never again left his house, while he was in constant pain till his death.
Death