Johann Sebastian Bach: The Organist and His Works for the Organ — Story, Setting & Ideas

Bach was a good citizen, an admirable father, as M. Prudhomme would say, a devoted friend; socially affable, and possessed of a rare artistic modesty. Were he asked how he had attained such heights, he would answer: "I was obliged to work; whoever will strive as I did, will succeed as well." He availed himself of every opportunity to become familiar with the works of other composers; Händel he esteemed highly, Couperin interested him; when accorded three weeks' leave that he might hear Buxtehude, Bach so far forgot himself as to allow three months to go by while listening, from a secluded corner of the church, to the justly celebrated organist of St. Mary's in Lübeck.

Bach was a great and good man; never did a more marvellous mechanism perform the functions of a human brain; never has been known a mind that was sounder, better balanced, contained in a more robust body; never were a musician's nerves better controlled.

It required the atrocious harmonizations of Görner to cause Bach one day to turn upon him and hurl his wig at the face of the poor accompanist: "_Sie sind ein Schuster_" (You are a bungler)!

These fits of anger were, however, rare, despite the astonishing vitality of his constitution; for Bach was naturally patient and kind-hearted.

Note him with his pupils; during the first year nothing but exercises--trills, scales, passages in thirds and sixths, practice in changing fingers--work of every description to insure the equability of the hand. He supervised everything, devoting the minutest attention to the clearness and precision of the touch. If one pupil or the other became discouraged, he good-naturedly wrote little pieces containing in a disguised form the difficulties to be surmounted.

When Bach became organist of the New Church in Arnstadt--he was very young, but eighteen years of age--he had studied the compositions and methods of the following celebrated clavecinists of his time:

FROBERGER (1615[?]-1667), a _protégé_ of Emperor Ferdinand III., by whom he had been sent, in early life, to study with Frescobaldi in Rome.

FISCHER, _Capellmeister_ to the Margrave of Baden.

JOHANNES CASPAR KERL, a rival of Froberger, also under the protection of Ferdinand III., and entrusted to the care of Carissimi in Rome.

PACHELBEL (1653-1706), formerly assistant organist of St. Stephen's in Vienna, then successively organist at Eisenach, Erfurt, Stuttgart, and Nuremberg.

BUXTEHUDE (1637-1707), the celebrated organist at Lübeck.

BÖHM, organist of St. John's Church in Lüneburg.

It was through Froberger and Kerl that Bach became acquainted with Frescobaldi's works, and the Italian school; the sonata form was revealed to him by the French "suites" played by the orchestra of the ducal court at Celle, an organization which greatly interested him; but the greatest influence upon his youth was exercised by Buxtehude. It was from him that Bach learned in their integrity the old German traditions.

When, at Hamburg, the aged Reinken heard Bach improvise for more than a half-hour upon the chorale _An Wasserflüssen Babylons_, he cried out, embracing him, "I thought that this art were dead; but I see that in you it still lives."[1]

[Footnote 1: "_Ich dachte, diese Kunst wäre ausgestorben; ich sehe aber, dass sie in Ihnen noch lebt._"]

These traditions he handed down later to his two oldest sons, Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel--two musicians whose merit is universally recognized,--and to a whole galaxy of brilliant pupils:

JOHANNES CASPAR VOGLER, a musician whom Mattheson considered more able than Bach himself. Vogler was organist at Weimar. Some preludes of his are published and written in the form of chorales for two manuals and pedal.

HOMILIUS, of Dresden, a composer of church music.

TRANSCHEL, of Dresden, a distinguished clavecinist.

GOLDBERG, of Königsberg, composer of pieces called "_Bagatelles pour dames_," which no one could play, such was their difficulty. (He frequently found amusement in playing music of every variety from the inverted score.)

KREBS, organist at Altenburg; not only a performer of the first rank, but a prolific composer. For nine years he enjoyed the invaluable supervision of Bach.

ALTNIKOL, organist at Naumburg; Bach's son-in-law.

AGRICOLA, composer to the King of Prussia, known through his theoretical works.