[75] Not, however, by his sons’ hands, as is commonly stated. The Kunst der Fuge is edited by Dr. Rust in the twenty-fifth volume of the Bach-Gesellschaft (first division): its study should be accompanied by Moritz Hauptmann’s musician-like Erläuterungen, published by Peters.
[76] It was published in 1752. The only works that appeared in Bach’s lifetime were the five parts of the Clavier-Uebung containing clavichord and organ compositions, the Musikalische Opfer, and a Canon written for Mizler’s Musical Society.
[77] The chorale was added in the first edition of the Kunst der Fuge, and its place there, though musically irrelevant, is surely justified by a fine sentiment. Forkel touchingly says, “The expression of pious resignation, and devotion in it, have always affected me whenever I have played it; so that I can hardly say which I would rather miss—this chorale, or the end of the last fugue,” p. 91. The rigour of criticism has of course relegated the piece to the category of organ-works (vii. 58).
[78] Forkel, p. 78.
[79] Forkel, p. 28.
[80] See Spitta, vol. i. 713; ii. 124f.: and compare W. S. Rockstro’s article, Orchestration, in Mr. Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
[81] A second edition appeared in London in 1878. There are few more amusing examples of ardent hero-worship than this collection contains. Bach is first “our Demi-God,” “our grand Hero,” “our Sacred Musician,” “our Apollo,” “this marvellous Man.” At length Wesley’s rhetoric fails, and his idol becomes “The Man (which expression I prefer to any epithet of great, or wonderful, &c., which are not only common, but weak, as is every other epithet applied to one whom none can sufficiently praise),” p. 36.
[82] Curiously enough, Johann Adam Hiller, a respectable musician and a successor of Bach at the Thomasschule, admired Bach’s counterpoint and part-writing, but found his melodies "odd" (sonderbar).
[83] The detailed arguments in favour of this arrangement will be found in Spitta, vol. i. pp. 225-230; 339-350; 369-372; 438-461; 480-507; 525-565; 790 f.; 797-801; 803-814; vol. ii. 181-306; 545-569; 774-790; 791-810; 830-838: with which compare the various prefaces in the edition of the Bach-Gesellschaft, vols. i.-xxviii.
[84] An incomplete work discovered by Dr. Spitta in the chantry at Langula near Muehlhausen: vol. i. pp. 339 f.