[12]The Silbermanns were a distinguished family of piano and organ makers whose instruments were highly prized in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The most famous of this name was Gottfried (1683-1753), who lived at Freiburg. He built forty-two organs and introduced the present piano, then known as “hammer-clavier,” into Germany. Bartolomeo Cristofori, who died in Florence in 1731, undoubtedly invented this instrument and gave it its present name, piano-forte, but Silbermann greatly improved it.
[13]Certain scholars in the institution, known as “matin scholars,” received free instruction as compensation for their singing in the choir.
[14]An introduction to a chorale or fugue, and sometimes, as organists frequently improvise on a chorale, a free fantasie. A fugue is generally preceded by a prelude which stands in the same key.
[15]Reinken was born in 1623 and died in 1722. At this time he must have been about seventy-seven years of age.
[16]Clavicembalo was the name of the usual form of the piano in the sixteenth century. It was the successor of the clavichord and the predecessor of the hammer-clavier. It had various forms and names. In Germany it was called klavier and sometimes monocordo, and in England spinet or virginal, according to its size or shape. Cembalist is the equivalent of our word “pianist.”
[17]In its general sense, counterpoint is the art of combining melodies. It is divided into two classes—plain and double.
[18]Spitta, in his Life of Bach, says: “In former times Bach’s grandfather had had an appointment at the court of Duke Wilhelm IV at Weimar. This, however, can hardly have been the cause of his grandson’s being invited to the same town. Other ties must have existed of which we know nothing, but which of course would easily have been formed at Eisenach or Arnstadt.” Bitter, in his Life, says Bach probably owed the appointment to his numerous relatives in the Saxon state.
[19]This organ was in use until 1863, when a fine new one took its place as a memorial to Bach.
[20]Antonio Vivaldi, a distinguished violinist and composer, was born at Venice and died as director of the Conservatorio della Pietà in that city in 1743. His works are very highly esteemed.
[21]Johann Pachelbel, a distinguished organist and one of the foremost promoters of the organ style before Bach, was born at Nuremberg in 1653 and died there in 1706 as organist of St. Sebastian’s Church.