Bach required his pupils in composition to work out their musical ideas mentally. If any of them lacked this faculty he admonished him not to compose and discountenanced even his sons from attempting to write until they had first given evidence of genuine musical gifts. Having completed their elementary study of harmony, Bach took his pupils on to the theory of Fugue, beginning with two-part writing. In these and other exercises he insisted on the pupil composing away from the Clavier.[179] Those who did otherwise he ridiculed as “Harpsichord Knights.” In the second place he required rigorous attention to each part and its relation to the concurrent parts, permitting none, not even an inner one, to break off before it had finished what it had to say. He insisted upon a correct relation between each note and its predecessor. If he came upon one whose derivation or destination was not perfectly clear he struck it out as faulty. It is, indeed, a meticulous exactitude in each individual part that makes [pg 98] Bach's harmony really multiple melody. Confused part-writing, where a note that belongs to the Tenor is given to the Alto, or vice versa, or the haphazard addition of extraneous parts to a chord which suddenly shows an increase of notes as if fallen from the sky, to vanish as suddenly as they came, are faults found neither in his own nor his pupils' writing. He regarded his musical parts as so many persons engaged in conversation. If there are three, each of them on occasion may be silent and listen to the others until it finds something relevant to say itself. But if, at an interesting point of the conversation, an interloping voice intervened, Bach regarded it as an intruder and let his pupils understand that it could not be admitted.
Notwithstanding his strictness on this point, Bach allowed his pupils considerable licence in other respects. In their use of certain intervals, as in their treatment of harmony and melody, he let them experiment within the limits of their ability, taking care to discountenance ugliness and to insist on their giving appropriate expression to the character of the composition. Beauty of expression, he postulated, was only attainable on a foundation of pure and accurate harmony. Having experimented in every form himself, he liked to see his pupils equally adventurous. Earlier teachers of composition, for instance, Berardi,[180] [pg 99] Buononcini,[181] and Fux,[182] did not allow such liberty. They were afraid to trust their pupils to encounter difficulties, and short-sightedly prevented them from learning how to overcome them. Bach's system was wiser, for it took his pupils farther, since he did not limit their attention, as his predecessors did, to the harmonic structure, but extended it to the qualities that constitute good writing, namely, consistency of expression, variety of style, rhythm, and melody. Those who would acquaint themselves with Bach's method of teaching composition will find it fully set forth in Kirnberger's Correct Art of Composition.[183]
As long as his pupils were under his instruction Bach did not allow them to study any but his own works and the classics. The critical sense, which permits a man to distinguish good from bad, develops later than the aesthetic faculty and may be blunted and even destroyed by frequent contact with bad music. The best way to instruct youth is to accustom it early to consort with the best models. Time brings experience and an instructed judgment to confirm the pupil's early attraction to works of true art.
Under this admirable method of teaching all Bach's pupils became distinguished musicians, some more so than others, according as they came early or late under his influence, and had opportunity and encouragement to perfect and apply the instruction they received from him. His two eldest sons, Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emmanuel, were his most distinguished pupils, not because he gave them better instruction than the rest, but because from their earliest youth they were brought up amid good music at home. Even before they began their lessons they knew what was good. On the other hand, others, before they became Bach's pupils, either had heard no good music or their taste had been already vitiated by contact with bad. It at least attests the excellence of Bach's method that even his pupils thus handicapped took high rank in their profession and distinguished themselves in one or other of its branches.[184]
Bach's first pupil was JOHANN CASPAR VOGLER, who received instruction from him in his early days at Amstadt and Weimar and, on Bach's testimony, was an exceedingly able player. He became organist, and later burgomaster, at Weimar, retaining his professional position. Some Choral [pg 101] Preludes by him for a two-manualed Organ with pedals were engraved about 1737.[185]
Other pupils of Bach who became famous were:
| 1. HOMILIUS, of Dresden. He was not only an excellent organist but a distinguished composer of church music as well.[186] | |
|---|---|
| 2. TRANSCHEL, of Dresden. He was a fine musician and performer on the Clavier. There exist in MS. six Polonaises by him which perhaps are superior to those of any composer but Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.[187] | |
| 3. GOLDBERG, of Königsberg. He was a very finished player on the Clavier, but without any marked talent for composition.[188] | |
| 4. KREBS, Organist at Altenburg. He was not only a player of the first rank, but also a prolific composer for the Organ, Clavier, and of church music. He was fortunate in having Bach's instruction for nine years.[189] | |
| 5. ALTNIKOL, Organist at Naumburg. He was Bach's son-in-law and is said to have been a very competent player and composer.[190] | |
| 6. AGRICOLA, Court Composer at Berlin.[191] He is less known as a composer than as a theorist. He translated Tosi's[192] II canto figurato from Italian into German and provided the work with an instructive commentary. | |
| 7. MÜTHEL, of Riga. He was a good Clavier player and wrote for that instrument. His Sonatas and a Duet for two Claviers attest his ability as a composer.[193] | |
| 8. KIRNBERGER,[194] Court Musician at Berlin to the Princess Amalia of Prussia.[195] He was one of the most distinguished of Bach's pupils, full of genuine enthusiasm for his art and eager to assure its interests. Besides his exposition of Bach's system of teaching composition, we are indebted to him for the first logical treatise on harmony, in which he sets forth his master's teaching and [pg 103] practice. The first work is entitled Kunst des reinen Satzes, and the second, Wahre Grundsätze zum Gebrauch der Harmonie.[196] He served the interests of his art also by other writings and compositions, and was an excellent teacher. The Princess Amalia was his pupil. | |
| 9. KITTEL, Organist at Erfurt. He is a sound, though not a finished, player, and is distinguished as a composer by several Organ Trios, so excellent that Bach himself might have written them. He is the sole survivor (1802) of Bach's pupils.[197] | |
| 10. VOIGT, of Anspach,[198] and an organist named SCHUBART[199] were mentioned to me by Carl Philipp Emmanuel as having been Bach's pupils. He knew nothing about them except that they entered his father's house after he left it.[200] |
I have said already that Bach's sons were his most distinguished pupils. The eldest, WILHELM FRIEDEMANN BACH, came nearest to his father in the originality of his genius. His melodies have quite a different character from those of other composers. They are exceedingly clever, elegant, and spontaneous. When performed with delicacy, as he played them, they cannot fail to charm every hearer. It is greatly to be regretted that he preferred to follow his fancy in extemporisation and to expend his genius on fugitive thoughts rather than to work them out on paper. The number of his compositions therefore is small, but all are beautiful.
CARL PHILIPP EMMANUEL BACH, who comes next, went out into the world sufficiently early to discover that it is a good thing for a composer to have a large public behind him. Hence, in the clearness and easy intelligibility of his compositions, he approaches the popular style, though he scrupulously avoids the commonplace.[201] Both he and his elder brother admitted that they were [pg 105] driven to adopt a style of their own by the wish to avoid comparison with their incomparable father.
JOHANN CHRISTOPH FRIEDRICH BACH, Concertmeister at the Court of Bückeburg, imitated Carl Philipp's style, but was not his equal. According to Wilhelm Friedemann, he was the best player among the brothers, and the most effective performer of their father's Clavier compositions.