Baeh is the fountain-head of German music. It is due to Finn that German music is poly phonic; that its ideals have been lofty; that its masters have shown an intellectual grasp of their art which has given a certain sameness to their method of expressing their emotions: and that they have aimed at the sublime and profound rather than at the superficially, though imme diately, effective. In all the qualities which go to make up a serious, self-sacrificing, and deeply conscientious devotion of genius to art for art's sake, Bach set an example which has been as a guiding star to his successors. No man was bet ter qualified than the Leipzig cantor to lay broad and deep the foundations of a great school. To Inni German music owes the richness of harmony, the skillful leading of parts, which, without in terfering with melodic beauty, are among its characteristics. Gathering up all the threads of the Contrapuntal School. developing all its forms until he obtained complete mastery of them and carried them to a point beyond which they could not be advanced farther. Bach forms in himself the sum and substance, the very climax, of his school and epoch. The great masters who came after him inherited the technique of his school complete, and applying it to new forms brought their own schools to perfection. Wagner has voiced his adndration for Bach. Even Chopin, the most romantic of composers, was a close stu dent of Bach. Brahms's knowledge of Bach is too obvious to need more than mention; so that Bach's influence is seen to extend to the com poser whose music con-stitutes the very latest inspired utterance in established musical forms. Nor have the great masters of German music, besides Wagner, been slow in expressing their admiration of the Altniristcr. _Mozart gave ut terance to his high opinion of Bach's music; Beethoven eagerly embraced the opportunity to subscribe to a fund for the support of one of Hades daughters. The movement which led to a more general public appreciation of Bach was started by Alendelssohn with a performance of the Saint Matthew Passion in Berlin hi 1829: and Schumann was prominent in founding the Bach Gesellschaft for the collection and publi cation of the master's works. The erection of the Bach 1\-lonument in Leipzig in 1842 was due largely to Mendelssohn's efforts.
Bach is regarded by organists as the greatest composer for their instrument. In the Lutheran Church, while the congregation sustained the melody of a chorale, the organist was supposed to vary the harmonies. Bach's skill at this was prodigious. Ile collected no less than 240 cho rales for use in his household; 138 have come down to us in print, besides those found in his church cantatas and other large works. His fame as an organ composer rests chiefly, how ever, upon his preludes, toccatas, fantasias, and fugues. Among these organ compositions should be mentioned the Fantasia and Fugue in C minor ('Giant'), probably played by Bach in 1720 in Hamburg in Reinken's presence; the I) minor Toccata and Fugue (Doris) ; the E minor Fugue which is built upon chromatic in tervals; and the E Fiat or Saint Jun Fugue; besides the Passaraglia in C minor. No less an authority than Guilman has expressed the opin ion that there has been no progress in organ composition since Bach, because Baeh's achieve ments in that branch are the highest possible, and as modern to-day, both in the technical equipment they demand of the player and in the effect they produce, as when they were co:n oosed. Bach's most generally known works prob
ably are the I) minor Toccata and Fugue, ar ranged by Tansig; the Chromatic Fantasia and Flow: (I) minor) for pianoforte, and the Well I con per& Clavichord ( Mob item nerirtes : the two former because are found in the repertory of every great pianist, the last (-18 preludes and fugues through all the major and minor keys), because some acquain tance with it is considered indispensable to a pianist's education. Beethoven mastered it at the age of II. This famous work, composed partly in 1722, partly about 1740, did not see publication until 1799, nearly 50 years after Baeh's death, when if was brought out in Lon don. A rt of Fuquc, begun the year before Ilach's death, consists •of 15 fugues and 4 canons upon a theme in D minor. Besides a fairly long list of other works for pianofortes, including the charming french Suites and Eng lish Suites and the pretty Inventions, showing with how light a touch Mull could handle the smaller forms of his school of composition, in composing dumber music and for the or•hestr.i. It is notable that while organ-playing usually ruins the pianoforte touch, Bach appears to have been equally proficient on organ and clavichord.
Bach's greatest, fame among musicians rests on the religious works composed during the Leip zig period of his career. It is noteworthy that these were composted for the Protestant Chnrch, the Church of Saint Thomas being Lutheran; and that, in consequence, their majesty is en hanced by an august severity in keeping with the simpler forms of Protestant worship. Bach has been compared with Milton. and not inaptly, except that the composer could unbend, as witness his Coffer and Peasant's cantatas and his ditty upon his tobacco pipe, The Edifying Reflections of a Tobacco Smoker, which he e(»n posed as a bit. of pleasantry for his wife. Of church c•antatas he is to have com posed nearly 300, a complete cycle for 5 chur•h years. Of thecae cantatas some 200 are ex tant. All except about. :30 date from the Leip zig period. lie greatly developed this form of church music by freer treatment of the instru mental as well as by his mastery of vocal composition. The chorales are especially rich and beautiful. Of the two Passions it has been well said that the Saint John. Passion is the perfection of church music; the Saint Matthew 'reaches the goal of all sacred art' (Poole). The latter, composed in 1729, so much overshadows the former that it, is always meant when Mach's Passion .Nlusie' is spoken of; and it is a question whether the majority of inusi clans consider this Passion (composed at inter vals during 1733-38) or the Ii minor Al ass the greatest of lach's works. 13acli also composed an Ascension tiratorio (usually glassed with Ids cantatas), and Easter and a Christmas (Maori°, the latter in li divisions for performance re spectively on Christmas and the two days follow ing, New Year's. the first Sunday of the year, and Epiphany. Alozart, while on a visit to Leip zig in 1789, hearing one of Bach's motets. ex claimed, "Here is a new thing from which I may learn!"