Such are Bach’s most important vocal compositions. 170 In minor forms of the art, morceaux for social entertainments and the like, he wrote little,171 though he was of a most sociable disposition. For instance, he is said never to have composed a song.172 And why should he? They produce themselves so spontaneously that there is little call for genius to aid their gestation.
Johann Sebastian Bach. From the picture discovered by Professor Fritz Volbach
CHAPTER VII. BACH AS A TEACHER
It not infrequently happens that talented composers and players are incapable of imparting their skill to others. Either they have never troubled to probe the mechanism of their own facility, or, through the excellence of their instructors, have taken the short cut to proficiency and allowed their teacher and not their own judgment to decide how a thing should be done. Such people are useless to instruct beginners. True, they may succeed in teaching the rudiments of technique, assuming that they have been properly taught themselves. But they are certainly unqualified to teach in the full sense of the word. There is, in fact, only one way to become a good teacher, and that is to have gone through the discipline of self-instruction, a path along which the beginner may go astray a thousand times before attaining to perfection. For it is just this stumbling effort that reveals the dimensions of the art. The man who has adventured it learns the obstacles that obstruct his path, and how to surmount them. To be sure, it is a lengthy method. But if a man has patience to persevere he will reap a sure reward after an alluring pilgrimage. No musician ever founded a school of his own who has not followed such a course, and to his experience his teaching has owed its distinctive character.
This is so with Bach, who, only gradually discovering his full stature, was thirty years old before unremitting application raised him above the difficulties of his art. But he reaped his reward. Self-discipline set him on the fairest and most alluring path that it has ever been given to a musician to tread.
To teach well a man needs to have a full mind. He must have discovered how to meet and have overcome the obstacles in his own path before he can be successful in teaching others how to avoid them. Bach united both qualities. Hence, as a teacher he was the most instructive, clear, and definite that has ever been. In every branch of his art he produced a band of pupils who followed in his footsteps, without, however, equalling his achievement.
First of all let me show how he taught the Clavier.173 To begin with, his pupils were made to acquire the special touch of which I have already spoken.174 To that end for months together he made them practise nothing but simple exercises for the fingers of both hands, at the same time emphasising the need for clearness and distinctness. He kept them at these exercises for from six to twelve months, unless he found his pupils losing heart, in which case he so far met them as to write short studies which incorporated a particular exercise. Of this kind are the Six Little Preludes for Beginners,175 and the Fifteen Two-part Inventions,176 both of which Bach wrote during the lesson for a particular pupil and afterwards improved into beautiful and expressive compositions. Besides this finger practice, either in regular exercises or in pieces composed for the purpose, Bach introduced his pupils to the use of the various ornaments in both hands.
Not until this stage was reached did Bach allow his pupils to practise his own larger works, so admirably calculated, as he knew, to develop their powers. In order to lessen their difficulty, it was his excellent habit to play over to them the pieces they were to study, with the remark, “That’s how it ought to sound.”177 It would be difficult to exaggerate the helpfulness of this method. The pupil’s interest was roused by hearing the piece properly played. But that was not the sole result. Without the help thus given the pupil could only hope to overcome the difficulties of the piece after considerable effort, and would find it much less easy to realise a proper rendering of it. As it was, he received at once an ideal to aim at and was taught how to surmount the difficulties the piece presented. Many a young performer, still imperfect after a year’s practice, probably would master his music in a month if he once had it played over to him.
Bach’s method of teaching composition was equally sure and effective.178 He did not begin with the dry details of counterpoint, as was the custom of other teachers in his day. Still less did he burden his pupils with the physical properties of sound, which he held to be matter for the theorist and instrument-maker rather than the composer. He started them off at once on four-part harmony over a figured Bass, making his pupils write each part on a separate stave in order to impress on them the need for accurate harmonic progression. Then he passed to Hymn tunes, setting the Bass himself and making his pupils write the Tenor and Alto parts. In time he let them write the Bass also. He insisted on correct harmony and on each part having a real melodic line. Every musician knows what models Bach has left us in this form. The inner parts of his four-part Hymn-tunes are so smooth and melodious that often they might be taken for the melody. He made his pupils aim at similar tunefulness, and until they showed a high standard of merit did not permit them to write compositions of their own. Meanwhile he aimed at cultivating their feeling for pure harmony and for the order and connection of ideas and parts by familiarising them with the compositions of others. Until they had acquired facility in those qualities he neither permitted them nor held them competent to put pen to paper.
Bach required his pupils in composition to work out their musical ideas mentally. If any of them lacked this faculty he admonished him not to compose and discountenanced even his sons from attempting to write until they had first given evidence of genuine musical gifts. Having completed their elementary study of harmony, Bach took his pupils on to the theory of Fugue, beginning with two-part writing. In these and other exercises he insisted on the pupil composing away from the Clavier.179 Those who did otherwise he ridiculed as “Harpsichord Knights.” In the second place he required rigorous attention to each part and its relation to the concurrent parts, permitting none, not even an inner one, to break off before it had finished what it had to say. He insisted upon a correct relation between each note and its predecessor. If he came upon one whose derivation or destination was not perfectly clear he struck it out as faulty. It is, indeed, a meticulous exactitude in each individual part that makes Bach’s harmony really multiple melody. Confused part-writing, where a note that belongs to the Tenor is given to the Alto, or vice versa, or the haphazard addition of extraneous parts to a chord which suddenly shows an increase of notes as if fallen from the sky, to vanish as suddenly as they came, are faults found neither in his own nor his pupils’ writing. He regarded his musical parts as so many persons engaged in conversation. If there are three, each of them on occasion may be silent and listen to the others until it finds something relevant to say itself. But if, at an interesting point of the conversation, an interloping voice intervened, Bach regarded it as an intruder and let his pupils understand that it could not be admitted.
Notwithstanding his strictness on this point, Bach allowed his pupils considerable licence in other respects. In their use of certain intervals, as in their treatment of harmony and melody, he let them experiment within the limits of their ability, taking care to discountenance ugliness and to insist on their giving appropriate expression to the character of the composition. Beauty of expression, he postulated, was only attainable on a foundation of pure and accurate harmony. Having experimented in every form himself, he liked to see his pupils equally adventurous. Earlier teachers of composition, for instance, Berardi,180 Buononcini,181 and Fux,182 did not allow such liberty. They were afraid to trust their pupils to encounter difficulties, and short-sightedly prevented them from learning how to overcome them. Bach’s system was wiser, for it took his pupils farther, since he did not limit their attention, as his predecessors did, to the harmonic structure, but extended it to the qualities that constitute good writing, namely, consistency of expression, variety of style, rhythm, and melody. Those who would acquaint themselves with Bach’s method of te
aching composition will find it fully set forth in Kirnberger’s Correct Art of Composition.183
As long as his pupils were under his instruction Bach did not allow them to study any but his own works and the classics. The critical sense, which permits a man to distinguish good from bad, develops later than the aesthetic faculty and may be blunted and even destroyed by frequent contact with bad music. The best way to instruct youth is to accustom it early to consort with the best models. Time brings experience and an instructed judgment to confirm the pupil’s early attraction to works of true art.
Under this admirable method of teaching all Bach’s pupils became distinguished musicians, some more so than others, according as they came early or late under his influence, and had opportunity and encouragement to perfect and apply the instruction they received from him. His two eldest sons, Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emmanuel, were his most distinguished pupils, not because he gave them better instruction than the rest, but because from their earliest youth they were brought up amid good music at home. Even before they began their lessons they knew what was good. On the other hand, others, before they became Bach’s pupils, either had heard no good music or their taste had been already vitiated by contact with bad. It at least attests the excellence of Bach’s method that even his pupils thus handicapped took high rank in their profession and distinguished themselves in one or other of its branches.184
Bach’s first pupil was JOHANN CASPAR VOGLER, who received instruction from him in his early days at Amstadt and Weimar and, on Bach’s testimony, was an exceedingly able player. He became organist, and later burgomaster, at Weimar, retaining his professional position. Some Choral Preludes by him for a two-manualed Organ with pedals were engraved about 1737.185
Other pupils of Bach who became famous were:
1. HOMILIUS, of Dresden. He was not only an excellent organist but a distinguished composer of church music as well.186
2. TRANSCHEL, of Dresden. He was a fine musician and performer on the Clavier. There exist in MS. six Polonaises by him which perhaps are superior to those of any composer but Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.187
3. GOLDBERG, of Königsberg. He was a very finished player on the Clavier, but without any marked talent for composition.188
4. KREBS, Organist at Altenburg. He was not only a player of the first rank, but also a prolific composer for the Organ, Clavier, and of church music. He was fortunate in having Bach’s instruction for nine years.189
5. ALTNIKOL, Organist at Naumburg. He was Bach’s son-in-law and is said to have been a very competent player and composer.190
6. AGRICOLA, Court Composer at Berlin.191 He is less known as a composer than as a theorist. He translated Tosi’s192 II canto figurato from Italian into German and provided the work with an instructive commentary.
7. MÜTHEL, of Riga. He was a good Clavier player and wrote for that instrument. His Sonatas and a Duet for two Claviers attest his ability as a composer.193
8. KIRNBERGER,194 Court Musician at Berlin to the Princess Amalia of Prussia.195 He was one of the most distinguished of Bach’s pupils, full of genuine enthusiasm for his art and eager to assure its interests. Besides his exposition of Bach’s system of teaching composition, we are indebted to him for the first logical treatise on harmony, in which he sets forth his master’s teaching and practice. The first work is entitled Kunst des reinen Satzes, and the second, Wahre Grundsätze zum Gebrauch der Harmonie.196 He served the interests of his art also by other writings and compositions, and was an excellent teacher. The Princess Amalia was his pupil.
9. KITTEL, Organist at Erfurt. He is a sound, though not a finished, player, and is distinguished as a composer by several Organ Trios, so excellent that Bach himself might have written them. He is the sole survivor (1802) of Bach’s pupils.197
10. VOIGT, of Anspach,198 and an organist named SCHUBART199 were mentioned to me by Carl Philipp Emmanuel as having been Bach’s pupils. He knew nothing about them except that they entered his father’s house after he left it.200
I have said already that Bach’s sons were his most distinguished pupils. The eldest, WILHELM FRIEDEMANN BACH, came nearest to his father in the originality of his genius. His melodies have quite a different character from those of other composers. They are exceedingly clever, elegant, and spontaneous. When performed with delicacy, as he played them, they cannot fail to charm every hearer. It is greatly to be regretted that he preferred to follow his fancy in extemporisation and to expend his genius on fugitive thoughts rather than to work them out on paper. The number of his compositions therefore is small, but all are beautiful.
CARL PHILIPP EMMANUEL BACH, who comes next, went out into the world sufficiently early to discover that it is a good thing for a composer to have a large public behind him. Hence, in the clearness and easy intelligibility of his compositions, he approaches the popular style, though he scrupulously avoids the commonplace.201 Both he and his elder brother admitted that they were driven to adopt a style of their own by the wish to avoid comparison with their incomparable father.
JOHANN CHRISTOPH FRIEDRICH BACH, Concertmeister at the Court of Bückeburg, imitated Carl Philipp’s style, but was not his equal. According to Wilhelm Friedemann, he was the best player among the brothers, and the most effective performer of their father’s Clavier compositions.
JOHANN CHRISTIAN BACH, called “Bach of Milan,” and afterwards “Bach of London,” was the youngest son of Bach’s second marriage and of too tender an age when his father died ever to have had lessons from him. Hence, perhaps, the absence of Bach’s style in his music. He was, in fact, a popular composer universally admired in his day.202
CHAPTER VIII. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS
Distinguished as a player, composer, and teacher, Bach was also an indulgent father, a good friend, and a loyal citizen. His paternal devotion is shown by his care for his children’s education, and he was equally assiduous in the performance of his civil and social duties. His acquaintance was agreeable to everybody. Every lover of music, whatever his nationality, was sure of a friendly reception at his house, and his sociability and reputation caused him to be seldom without visitors.
As an artist Bach was exceptionally modest. Notwithstanding his pre-eminence in his profession, a superiority of which he could not but be conscious, and in spite of the admiration and respect daily shown him, he never gave himself airs. If he was asked the secret of his mastership he would answer, “I was made to work; if you are equally industrious you will be equally successful,”203 a remark which made no allowance for his own exceptional genius. His opinion of other composers and their work was invariably fair and generous. Naturally, much of their work struck him as somewhat trivial, viewed from his own altitude. But he never uttered a harsh criticism, unless it were to a pupil, to whom he held himself bound to say what he thought. Still less did he presume on his acknowledged superiority to indulge in braggadocio, as often happens with performers brought into touch with those whom they regard as their inferiors. Herein Bach’s modesty went so far that he never spoke voluntarily of his frustrated contest with Marchand, though the latter was the challenger.204 Many absurd stories are told of Bach; for instance that, dressed up as a village schoolmaster, he liked to enter a church and ask the organist to let him play a Choral, in order to enjoy the astonishment excited by his playing, or to hear the Organist declare, “This must be Bach or the Devil.”205 He always ridiculed such stories, and indeed had too much respect for his art to make it cloak his vanity.
At musical parties where Quartet or other instrumental music was performed, Bach liked to play the Viola, an instrument which put him, as it were, in the middle of the harmony in a position from which he could hear and enjoy it on both sides. On those occasions he would sometimes join in a Trio or other piece on the Harpsichord. If he was in the mood and the composer was agreeable, he would, as has been told already, extemporise a new Trio from the Continuo part, or, adding a new part, convert the Trio into a Quartet. But these were the o
nly occasions on which he was ready to display his great powers before others. One Hurlebusch, of Brunswick,206 a conceited and arrogant Clavier player, once visited Bach at Leipzig, not to hear him play, but to play to him. Bach received him politely and listened patiently to his very indifferent performance. On taking leave Hurlebusch made Bach’s eldest sons a present of his published Sonatas, exhorting them to study them diligently. Bach, knowing the kind of music his sons were wont to play, smiled at Hurlebusch’s naïveté but did not permit him to suspect his amusement.207
Bach was fond of listening to the music of other composers. If he and one of his elder sons happened to be in church when a Fugue was played, directly the subject had been stated he always pointed out how it ought to be developed. If the composer knew his business and fulfilled Bach’s anticipations, he was pleased and nudged his son to draw his attention to the fact. Is this not evidence of his impartial interest in other people’s compositions?
Delphi Masterworks of Johann Sebastian Bach Page 23
