[33]Symphony (with sound) is a large musical work for full orchestra, in the form of the sonata, with much fuller development of the single parts and richer development of true color in particular instruments.
[34]The title which Bach gave to this work is as follows:
“The Well Tempered Clavier, or Preludes and Fugues in all the Tones and Semi-tones, both with the major third or ‘Ut, Re, Mi’ and with the minor third or ‘Re, Mi, Fa.’ For the Use and Practice of Young Musicians who desire to learn, as well as for those who are already skilled in this study by way of amusement. Made and composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, Chapelmaster to the Grand Duke of Anhalt-Cöthen and Director of his Chamber Music. In the year 1722.”
The first part of the “Well Tempered Clavier,” or “Clavichord,” as it is usually called, was written in 1722, probably during some of his journeys with Prince Leopold. The second part was finished in Leipsic about 1740.
[35]June 25, 1722.
[36]The “Alumni” were charity children, who were provided with food and lodging in the schoolhouse and a small allowance of money in consideration of their singing in church and at funerals.
[37]There were two organs in St. Thomas’s Church, a large and a small one. When Bach’s great Passion music was given there, both were used.
[38]Anna Magdalena was the youngest daughter of the court-trumpeter, Johann Casper Wülkens. She was at this time twenty-one years of age. They were married December 3, 1721.
[39]Wilhelm Friedemann was an accomplished musician, but in his later years he was addicted to drinking, which in time reduced him and his family to poverty, and eventually killed him.
[40]Bach had eight children, five sons and three daughters, by the first wife. The eldest daughter, Caroline Dorothea, born in 1708, survived her father. The eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, was born in 1710. Carl Philipp Emanuel, the most famous of the sons, was born in 1714. By the second wife he had thirteen children, seven of whom were sons. Only two of them survived their father—Johann Christoph Friedrich, born in 1732, died in 1795, and Johann Christian, born in 1735, died in 1782.