monteverde in his day dared to introduce the unprepared seventh of the dominant triad; but, in boldness he was not alone. in fact, the development of polyphony from the wholly unembellished and quite faulty chord progressions of early medi?val music, has been but a series of innovations at first condemned, then suffered, and then adopted. the earliest polyphonic writers founded their music wholly on the ecclesiastical scales derived from the greek modes, and approved by ambrose and gregory. with the single exception of the ionic scale, identical with our scale of c major, these scales were defective chiefly in one essential, to wit: in place of the modern sharped seventh, they contained the flatted seventh. this error precluded the possibility of the characterizing major third of the dominant chord in both the major and the minor. then again, the sounding of the flatted seventh, which in modern tonality indicates modulation to the subdominant key, suggested to the old contrapuntists a triad now deemed wholly foreign to the tonic. the resulting vagueness found remedy where one should least expect it, for, in their melodies, the popular writers of both song and dance were led instinctively to sharp the seventh, and otherwise reconstruct the six defective ecclesiastical scales.
the increasing use of accidentals in contrapuntal and sacred music, gradually evolved the chromatic scale, and led to the founding of a major and a minor scale on each of its twelve semitones. these twenty-four were now the basis of that grand and satisfying instrumental polyphony which bach was to build in his ?well-tempered clavichord.?
as late as the time of carissimi, and for some years thereafter, polyphonic writers had not wholly cast off the spell of ambrose and gregory, for, whilst the seventh was now by universal usage sharped in the cadence, otherwhere still lingered a tendency to revert to the flatted seventh of the ecclesiastical scales.
at this juncture, the further development of polyphony, and, in fact, the further development of all great music, found in bach that peculiar genius which it wholly needed. he became the masterly unifier of the harmonic and the polyphonic systems. with a correct idea of key relationship, he grouped the family of chords around the tonic and the dominant after the manner of to-day. at the same time, his unparalleled use of anticipations, suspensions and passing notes, produced an effect wonderfully rich in the stately sweep of his measures. thus he prepared the way for the classical music of beethoven, who, turning from strict polyphony to a style wherein his endowed emotional nature found wider and freer scope, became in turn an innovator in that he gave greater variety to the harmonic tissue by means of bold and before-unattempted modulations. beethoven in turn prepared the way for wagner who essayed to enlarge the number of related keys, besides carrying the art of modulation to before-unknown lengths, even to the limit of good taste: also by an exhaustive use of anticipations, suspensions, and passing notes, this latest master revealed the fullest development of the bachian polyphony.
how little of true foresight comes to the eyes of the sage! how incommensurable that foresight with his great and far looking back! how much of riddle his prophesying touches not and his dying leaves unsolved! bach knew nothing of the classicism of beethoven, who, in turn, knew nothing of the romanticism of schumann and chopin; and what knew these of the latest art-interblendings of richard wagner and richard strauss? can there be other musical riddles worth the solving? if so, what are they; and who their solver? for answer, ask the average musician of to-morrow; but not the authorities of to-day.
the career of bach, the composer, covered a period of about forty-five years, in fact, a period longer by thirteen years than the entire life of schubert; a period longer by nine years than the life of mozart; longer by six years than the life of mendelssohn; and longer by five years than the lives of chopin and von weber. and yet handel and haydn exceeded by something like ten years, and verdi by nearly twenty years, the extended term of bach's productivity.
notwithstanding the fatal catastrophe which terminated the promise of the poet shelley; notwithstanding the hard conditions which cramped and well-nigh thwarted the divinely-endowed mozart, misplaced as a bird of paradise caged in an arctic clime, it can with truth be said that however short the earthly years allotted to men of genius, they, in most instances, have, as by divine ordering, given to the world their best.
when we have known the genius through his works, those heart-resemblances, those mind-born counterparts of his inner self, we would contact the outer man, and discover in facial and bodily expression some token of that which flesh has clothed. denied this, we turn to sculptured or painted likeness of such as johann sebastian bach.
in vain we search his pictured face for hint of the vacillating or the superficial. every feature and every lineament is indicative of massive, self-centered power dependent only as man is dependent, being but mortal. in that face is much of clinging to the mind's self-imposed task; something too of downright obstinacy, as also in the sturdy form which, like post or pillar, would say, ?i stand! turn and resist me not!?
behold him the progenitor of many children after the flesh, and many, many sprung from his teeming and tireless brain! behold him, the musical athlete, challenging virtuosity to trial of skill and endurance, while he himself rejoices like the swift and strong runner sure of his lead in the race!
behold him deferential, but not obsequious, the admired and sought of a monarch and the chief comer to the palace of potsdam! behold him, unflattered by the attentions of royalty and court, wending back to liepsic, and his humble cantorship with its meagre stipend! behold his reverent return to the old lutheran church of saint thomas and the well-remembered organ where with praiseful notes he often had sought and found a greater than frederic, or any earthly potentate!
between the death of bach and the present time, more than one hundred and fifty years have intervened. years indeed memorable; years of unparalleled activity and change in the musical world; years of greater enrichment of its repertory than were all preceding them. those one hundred and fifty years have given us the perfected beauties of italian, french and german opera. they have produced for us haydn and his great contemporaries and near successors. from them is that priceless heritage, the mendelssohn oratorios. they have brought to our charmed ears the lyric songs of schubert and schumann, and the unique and wholly adapted tone-poetry of chopin, composer par excellence for that instrument of which the clavichord was the humble precursor. those years have enlarged the orchestra by introducing many new and telling instruments, also they have developed its technique and otherwise elevated it to the virtuoso demands of our most modern composers. nevertheless, the music of bach is nothing belittled by the vast sum total of subsequent achievement, nor grows it useless like a garment cast aside because no longer of fashionable cut and color. and yet that music was underestimated and much neglected in bach's lifetime, and, afterwards for a long period, almost forgotten, until, through the efforts of mendelssohn and franz and the bach society, it was rescued from the possibility of a fate like that of many an ancient writing for which the regretful world has vainly sought.
bach was the famed virtuoso of an era when far less than modern skill was necessary for the manipulation of the organ and the clavichord, and yet his works are to-day surprisingly well adapted to the technical needs of the advanced student. those for clavichord are musically adequate in the programmes of the modern concert hall, whilst the ?preludes and fugues,? and also the toccatas, are the delight and ambition of good organists throughout the world.
the man johann sebastian bach; how much might be said of him, the kind husband and father, the good and respected citizen, the devout follower of luther, the foremost among contemporary virtuosi, the faithful music-master in the school, the conscientious precentor in the church, the unobtrusive genius touched not by the infirmities of noble minds. surely much more might be said in way of encomium than here undertaken.
the composer, johann sebastian bach; how much more might be said of his works than in these meagre pages; how much more in way of analysis; but such is not our object.
as for praise, in the performance of those works we are heart to heart with the living bach, the immortal one, the deathless part of whom speaks from every full and satisfying measure their meed of praise, wherefore the musical world, even the modern musical world, listens and approves.
but to what shall we liken his works? with what shall they be compared? surely with the mighty, the steadfast, the undecaying! they are comparable with those man-builded mountains of stone resting forever upon the floor of the nile valley. yes, they are in very truth the pyramids of music, and bach with cyclopean hand has quarried them, block by block from the enduring substance of the cliffs, and he has fitted each to other with that accuracy of judgment, precision of workmanship, and grandeur of conception, which characterized the architect-builders of old egypt; those whose models were the indestructible upbuildings of god, even the ancient and everlasting hills.
