Adapting the words of the Gospel,
may it not be truly said that among them that are born of women, there hath not
arisen (in the world of music) a greater than John Sebastian Bach? And just as the genius of Shakespeare is no
less manifest in the lovely lyrics of “The Tempest” than in the soliloquies of Hamlet or the passion-cries of King Lear, so is the genius of Bach not
less apparent in his simpler inventions than in the Chromatic Fantasia or the “Mass in B minor.” Whatever the great master of music touched,
indeed, he stamped and adorned with the unmistakable marks of a new beauty for
the world.
Zoya Shuhatovich performing Bach's Chromatic Fantasia:
Married
twice, he was the father of no fewer than twenty children—eleven sons and nine
daughters. He had thus many
opportunities for becoming convinced that music, more than any other practical
art, must have its beginning in early childhood. This, doubtless, was a tradition with the
Bach family; for it is written that there were at least fifty of the name who
were richly endowed with musical talent.
In the Sebastian household, we may be sure, music was as the light of
the sun and the breathing of the air. To
the education of his ever-growing flock, we owe the little preludes, the
two-part and three-part inventions “whereby admirers of the clavichord are shown
a plain method of learning to play clean.”
We owe, too, the little fugues, the fughettas, and many another passage
that afterwards appeared in the “Well Tempered Clavichord”—possibly in some
giant fugue.
It is
very evident that the great Bach instinctively felt the importance of
developing musical intelligence simultaneously with digital technic. He knew better than to stupefy the beginner with
meaningless mechanical exercises only.
Hence the beauty and melodiousness of his smaller compositions, not less
remarkable in their way than his mountainous fugues and torrential choruses.
These
lighter pieces, however, much polished as they were in the process of
continuous juvenile instruction (the claviers of the Bach household were never
silent), have suffered much with the fading of tradition as to how they should
be played. It is not known that Bach
marked or indicated the tempi of his
compositions, but relied rather, it would appear, upon their manifest spirit
and purport for a correct interpretation, or upon a swiftly established
tradition. It was not until late in life
that he began to print, and much that has come down to us was printed a century
or more after his death. He was most
sparing in his written instructions, evidently deeming them unnecessary.
To
Clementi and Czerny, famous for their technical virtuosity, must be attributed
chiefly the vogue for pianistic speed, that has pervaded later years. Following them, the numerous editors of
Bach’s Preludes and Inventions have shown a preference for Allegro, Allegretto, or Con Moto rather than for Grave, Andante or Largo. Czerny, for instance,
edited the “Well-Tempered Clavichord,” but in a manner which awoke the serious
displeasure of Anton Rubinstein, who wrote, “I have never been able to reconcile
myself either to the indications of tempo or to the shading in the preludes or
the fugues”—the reference being to Czerny’s edition.
The
craze for speed did not exist in Bach’s day.
It is a modern fad. It takes a
master now to use the courage necessary to play a simple piece of music
slowly. Because it is simple, the
multitude of performers toss it off with as much haste as possible, much as the
average organist of to-day seems to think it below his dignity to play his
hymns with slow expressiveness. Similarly, Bach’s simpler pieces suffer from
being played and edited to be played, almost always, with indecorous speed.
I have
always been grateful to the late Henry T. Finck for having drawn my attention
years ago to the beauty of the little preludes. It was his habit, he told me, to play them
every Sunday morning and pointed out to me, in particular, the poignancy and
beauty of the inner voices and the balanced perfection of No. 4.
My own
copy of the Preludes was marked Allegro, and the editor had prefaced it
with the remark, “This piece should sound like a jubilant organ prelude.” I was speedily convinced that my editor was
wrong and that Henry T. Finck was right in advising a slow and expressive
interpretation, in which full accentuation should be given to the middle
voices, with a certain solemnity for the whole number, rather than any echo of
jubilation. No. 5 in the same set was
marked Lento and had made me happier
with its undulating harmonies and charming quasi fantasia.
Even
the “Six Preludes for Beginners” could have been written only by a master. The first, in “C” played Moderato, can be played fifty times without weariness, so perfect
is its form and so cheerful its content.
The passing dissonances for the left hand are delightful, while the
alternations of the more rapid passages between the hands give it no little
technical value.
The
second, which at first sight appears to be merely a succession of diatonic
eighth-notes, speedily reveals (like No. 1 of the “Well-Tempered” in which Gounod
discovered a delicious melody) hidden harmonies on the swaying summits of which
are heard snatches of delightful strains that one cannot but accentuate for
one’s increased pleasure. In addition to
the essential wealth of the music, notwithstanding its simplicity, its
technical value in slowly extending (the only proper way) the juvenile or even
senile fingers can hardly be over-estimated.
We give a few measures for a ready recognition.
Ex. 1.
And
then, what an exquisite morceau is
No. 4 in D Major, from which we must also quote a few measures.
Ex. 2.
The
pianist who finds himself, for whatever temporary reason, unequal to the task
of mastering the polyphony of Bach’s more intricate fugues or concertos may
thus have at hand stores of exquisite music, every measure of which reveals the
master’s touch while making no insuperable demands upon technic.
Every
pianist would do well to keep by him, for the sake of their double value as
music and as technical material, a selection of these minor gems. Such a selection would include, in addition
to those which we have referred, the Two-part Inventions in “C,” “C Minor” and
“F”: the first with its brief phrases
which join at length into closely knit harmony; the third with a vivacity
replete with the very joy of life.
Such a
selection would include also from the Three-part Inventions those in “D major,”
in “E major,” and “F minor.” The first
of these begins with the orthodox triple repetition of a shorter phrase
followed by an extended run of jubilant tone.
Thirds and sixths abound with the charming effect of sunshine after rain. The one in E major, with harmonies well
dispersed, is of sheer beauty in its contrapuntal structure. How charming is the effect produced by the
long pause on the third inversion of the dominant resolved upon the first
inversion of the tonic! And who can
play, unmoved by its pathos and emotion, the F Minor Invention?
No one
who delights in the playing of fugues upon the piano (and their numbers
steadily increase by the reason of the separate clearness of the voices as
compared with the too common confusion of the organ) should neglect the “Six
Little Fugues and Fuguettas”—usually published in one set. Each one is charming. The first three are without preludes; and for
any student who has grown weary of scale-practicing and yet cannot
conscientiously neglect his daily duty to his ten fingers, nothing more
refreshing to the spirit of music within him, and at the same time more
valuable as digital exercise, can be imagined or has been written. And then how ripplingly sweet is the prelude
to No. 3! How mighty and grandiose are
the preludes of the fourth and fifth! One
feels when he has mastered these that he is on the way to playing the Toccatas in F and D Minor, even when
arranged by Ferruccio Busoni or Karl Tausig.
The "delicious melody" Gounod discovered in Bach's "Well-Tempered" No. 1? Ave Maria. Enjoy Kimi Skota with Andre Rieu and his orchestra in their performance of Ave Maria:
THE ETUDE MUSIC MAGAZINE – November 1930
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