Bach—Father of Many Children and Writer of Fugues

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 37, 22 March 1935, Page 8

Bach—Father of Many Children and Writer of Fugues

Famous Composer's Anniversary Celebrated

(Written by

Bolton

Woods

HE name Bach is also the every?day German word for brook, and many puns have been made on it. Beethoven is credited with the saying that so great a man should be called "ocean," not "brook"; it was he, too, it is geherally believed, who first spoke of Bach’s music ag his "Bible." Bach certainly had a real and Jasting influence on all the great composers who followed him. All looked up to him, and took, as it were, their cue from his seriousness and his calm dignity ; Mozart by chance heard some of his compositions, and came away "deeply impressed and wondering." The first time he heard one of Bach’s hymns he said: "Thank God! I have learnt something absolutely new." Schumann said: "Only from one might all composers find ever-new creative nower-from

John Sebastian Bach." Mendelssohn, Brahms and Wagner all reverenced Bach as their godfather in music. And that position is in nowise changed today. In spite of modern developments, "old Bach" remains the "musician for musicians," juspt as Spenser remains the poet for poets. Of him, more than any of the other great composers, it might be said that he is "not for an age but for all time." Of Bach’s ancestors not much is known, but the great man once said of . old Veit Bach, Thuringian miller and lutenist, and founder of the family: "He delighted above all things in his lute, which he would actually take with him-into the mill and play when it was grinding; a pretty blend the pair of them must have made! But he learnt to keep time, and that apparently is how music began in our family." Born at Hisenach, Germany, on March 21, 1685, just a, month after Handel, and in the same year as Domenico Scarlatti. we celebrate this week the two

hundred and fiftieth anniversary’ of his birth. He was destined to become the ancestor as he was the descendant. of many musicians. Music was in the Bach blood. Little Sebastian’s father died when he was only ten years old. and he then came under the care of his elder brother, Johu Christian, who had a small organ post near Hisenach. This brother, 2 hard and stern specimen, gave the boy lessons in music until he began to realise that the boy would soon outstrip himself, and then, with a jealousy most coitemptible in a brother, he began to put all the obstacles in his way that he could invent. There was one particular volume of music in this brother’s collection that Sebastian eagerly desired to get hold of for the purpose of study. But the book was kept under lock and key, and it was a long time before he could lay hands on it. Then, at nights, whenever there was enough moonlight for the purpose, the 14-year-old genius, managed by degrees to copy out its contents. The task took him six months, and when the elder brother finally discovered what the youngster had been up to, he took the copy away from him. This moonlight labour doubtless impaired Bach’s sight, and paved the way to the blindness of his ol dage. Bach had a lovely soprano voice as a boy, and froni the small amounts he earned as a choir boy, he saved enough to go to Hamburg occasionally to hear the Reinken, the leading organist of the day. When Bach was 35 and growing famous he went for the last time to hear Reinken, who was then 97, but still at his post in the organ loft. The loung man gave the veteran a two-hour recital, and Reinken was so overcome that he shed tears of joy while he tenderly: embraced Bach, and proclaimed him his suc-

cessors. Bach filled organ appointments in various parts of German, and as a solist he lad no superior. His gifts of extemporisation were truly phenomenal, and it was Wiitten of him that "with his two feet he could perform on tie pedals passages which would be enough to provoke many \ skilled clavier player with ten fingers." Bach married twice, and was as far from being 8 believer in birth-control as Handel was a believer in girthcontrol. He was the proud father of 20-or was it 22 children? Like Handel he was a fairly good trencherman. On one occasion, in company with two other musicians, he visited Halle to inspect and report on a new organ. Ata banquet given by the college the menu contained beef a la mode, pike with anchovy sauce, smoked ham, peas, potatoes, "usages and spinach, roast mutton, boiled pumpkin, fritters,

candied lemonpeel, preserved cherries, asparagus, lettuce, radishes, butter and roast veal, This is the order in which the menu igs given, but it is doubtful whether the company returned to roast veal at the end. The silence concerning liquors must not delude anybody into thinking that none were provided. Far from it. Dr. Terry, Bach’s biographer (but unfortunately not jis dietitian), tells us that it was little wonder a big blot fell on the word "Bach," as the writer signed a receipt for six thalers-his fee! For the last 27 years of his life he was organist and cantor to the school of St. Thomas in Leipzig. His failure as a disciplinarian is well known anid easy to understand. It was partly due to his erratic temper, but even more to the unhappy conditions under which he held office. Those Leipzig boys were no doubt a handful, and repressive measures were quite elaborate, as is evidenced by the system of fines whicil Bach levied on them for misdemeanours.

Here are a few examples :- : (1) For losing the key, or leaving it in the door-dd. (2) For failing to shut the door when the last 10 leave the room-23d. (8) For being sick (4) For swearing, .loud, or improper speech-#d. (5) For impertinent language in Latin or German-ii. (6) For not getting up in the morning, and misP@z prayers-4d, (7) Yor not tidying up the cubicle before 10 in summe’ and 12 in winter-#d. So Bach ended his days in the modest position that yielded him a beggarly 5/- a week, the official salary as cantor being £13 a year. Toward the end he became blind. and then most unexpectedly his sight was restored to him. which threw him into such a frenzy of joy that an apopletic seizure followed, and he suddenly expired on July: 28, 1750. Usually genial and kindly, his temper flared up on occasion. He was the most modest of men, and a man of simple faith in God. For years he wrote a new cantata every week for performance in church on the Sunday. His total output of musical compositions is material enough for a special and lengthy book alone. His contribution to the art of music is beyond computation, and music owes aS much to Bach as religion does to its Founder. This brief character sketch may well conclude with a hymn parody, reprinted from’ "My 70 Years’ Musical Memories," by Samuel Midgley, Father of: Music in ti}e North of England. Mr. Midgley numbered among his frien{ls the late Bbenezer Prout, whose centenary fel] this year, ou Marchi. At the conferences of the (Continued on page -.)

(Continued from Page 8.). | Incorporated ‘Society of Musicians Prout used to keep the members enraptured with his clever adaptation of © humorous words to the themes from. Bach’s "48 Preludes and Fugues." Two examples may quite easily be’ tried out by pianists. To the No. 3 in C sharp, "Oh, isn’t it a jolly thing to kiss a pretty girl?’ and to the third theme of the C-sharp minor, Book 1: "Broad beans and bacon, with half a pint of stout, make an uncommonly good dinner for a man who hasn’t anything to eut." Prout’s admiration for Bach led him at times to somewhat eccentric expressions. The following parody proves that a world authority on harmony and counterpoint need not necessarily be a dry-as-dust curmudgeon: Bach moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; He writes a clever Fugue in A, Which takes us all by storm. Deep in unfathomable mines Of never-failing skill, He treasures up such dark designs, They nearly make us ill. Ye fearful students courage tale, The fugues ye so much dread Are, full of beautics when yo uonce Can get them in your head. Judge not old Bach by musty rules, But let him go -his pace; Behin dhis triple counterpoint He hides a smiling face. Let your acquaintance ripen fast Ag over him you pore; At first he'll have a biter taste, : But soon yowll long for more. Some ‘duffers' will be sure to err, And scan his work in vain; But Prout is Bach’s interpreter, An: dhe will make it plain. In conclusion, let us be thankful that Bath was aboye-all a perfectly normal man, with no affectations or ‘preten-" sions; who did his’ duty asa plain citizen. "Doggedness was the keynote’ of this. undoubted genius. Somebody. once inquired.of him, late in life, as to the secret, of his mastery. "I worked hard," he’ replied; "if you are as. in--dustrious as I was, you will be no less successful." : pte