part ii

, p. 181.]

[Footnote 129: _Musica Sacra_, vol. i, p. 5.]

Aside from these chorales, which are separate, and a few others equally isolated, of which we shall speak in their proper place, the greater part of the Bach chorales have been brought together in various collections, although some have been published separately.

I

In chronological order, the first of these collections is the _Orgelbüchlein_.[130]

[Footnote 130: _Orgelbüchlein Worinne einem anfahenden Organisten Anleitung gegeben wird, auff allerhand Arth einen Choral durchzuführen, anbey auch sich im Pedal Studio zu habilitiren, indem in solchen darinne befindlichen Choralen das Pedal gantz obligat tractiret wird. Dem Höchsten Gott allein zu ehren, Dem Nechsten, draus sich zu belehren. Autore Joanne Sebast. Bach p.t. Capellae Magistro S.P.R. Anhaltini-Cotheniensis._

The chorales of the _Orgelbüchlein_ are published in the fifth volume of the Peters, and in the twenty-fifth year of the _Bach-Gesellschaft_ edition. W. Rust, in the latter volume, has preserved the order adopted by Bach in the succession of these chorales, which is according to the church year.]

Because this collection was made at Cöthen, it must not be supposed that the chorales which it comprises were composed only during the period of Bach's service to Prince Leopold of Anhalt; Bach rather made a practical arrangement of them, whereby they might serve as a useful work for his pupils.

It comprises forty-five chorales, of which a goodly portion undoubtedly belong to the years in Weimar--perhaps to a still earlier period.

These chorales are generally written after the models furnished by Pachelbel; but where Pachelbel is merely calmly devout, or placidly harmonious, Bach, with a more exalted piety and distinctly more poetic, lends to them whatever of mystic character he could derive from the text of the hymns; in addition, he imbues them with all the picturesqueness suggested by the sense of the words.

And what variety in the choice of means to be employed! Sometimes there are progressions which fairly chill us, simply the result of a note purposely prolonged, or a succession of chords strikingly disjointed, which seem to clash with incompatible harmonies, as at the close of _Alle Menschen müssen sterben_; or a false relation seems fraught with fatality, as well as with complete desolation, as in _O Mensch, bewein' dein' Sünde gross_. At other times will be found motives whose symbolic character is not the result of chance; for example, all the irreparability of the primeval fall of man[131] is symbolized by diminished sevenths, pitching obliquely downwards, as if in a veritable vertigo; or the gliding of scales in opposite directions depicts the balancing of a flying object hovering in space--skimming over the earth, and already out of range, while, in the repetitions, the flapping of wings emphasizes the rhythm.

[Footnote 131: _Durch Adam's Fall ist ganz verderbt._ Buxtehude employed fifths to symbolize this descent.]

Certain rhythms also assist Bach in his task; to express the fulness of joy in the chorale _In Dir ist Freude_, Bach constructed his prelude upon a _chaconne_ movement, a _carillon_ theme, repeated unceasingly by the bass; the sole subject perceptible, of which the other parts are but an indistinct reflection; even the melody of the chorale is lost sight of in the vibrations of the bass, but, nevertheless, it presents itself in the voices, which repeat it in fragments, sometimes with elaboration, like the hum of a great people celebrating a festival, who emerge in vast throngs from the church whence the final reverberations of the organ still voice its rhythm,[132] and who betake themselves, thenceforth busy with their pleasures, to the sunny square now invaded by the sound of the bells ringing their full peals.

[Footnote 132: Organists often played the _sortie_ (postlude) in the form of a _chaconne_, with full organ (see Mattheson: "_Der vollkommene Capellmeister_," and Becker, "_Rathgeber für Organisten_"). The prelude to the chorale "_Heut' triumphiret Gottes Sohn_" is conceived in the same manner.]

Certain chorales are expressive enough to pass as paraphrases; Bach did not err in judgment, and reserved for them a discreet accompaniment, which is sustained very softly, asserting itself only to provide for the melody a "breathing space," as it were, after which it may reappear with increased breadth.

This is exemplified in _Herzlich thut mich verlangen_, a favorite chorale with Bach, with its gloomily suspensive ending, expressive of desire or of doubt in its employment of the Phrygian mode, which supports the harmonies, delicately ambiguous in the irresolution of a petition.

This mystical fervor, intensified by Bach, was foreign to the conception of the composer of this melody; Hans Leo Hassler, as he wrote it, saw in it nothing of a chorale, still less of a hymn, but designed it simply for the words of a five-part madrigal:[133] _Mein G'müth ist mir verwirret_, a poem dedicated to a certain "Maria," the initial letters of the five verses forming the acrostic of her name.

[Footnote 133: In the collection _Lustgarten neuer teutscher Gesänge, Balletti, Galliarden und Intraden mit 4, 5, 6, 7, und 8 Stimmen. 1601, Nürnberg, bei Kaufmann_.]

Meanwhile, the producers of religious songs soon laid hold of this one; to this secular music was adapted, in 1613, the translation made by Paul Gerhardt of the _Salve caput cruentatum_,[134] written by St. Bernard; it thus became the hymn of Holy Week. During the century, certain publishers (Rhamba-Görlitz) still further distorted its meaning; it was henceforth heard at funerals, expressing the longing to leave the earth, whereas formerly it had served to salute the bloodstained face of the Saviour, while, in the by-ways, amorous lute-players languished to its tones in "courtly diminutions."

[Footnote 134: _O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden._--_Cf._ chorale in St. Matthew Passion.]

But had not Luther said, "Why should the Devil have all the best tunes?"

The canon form inspired Bach to compose some curious arrangements of chorales. He commanded so many artifices, could devise such ingenious counterpoints with which to create interest, to overcome the rigidity of scholastic practices, and in addition could clothe the composition in so rich an "orchestration," that it becomes a pleasure to play something so erudite, so natural does it sound to the ear. This double interest offered to the mind and to the ear is exemplified in a canon upon _Hilf Gott, dass mir gelinge_, where, interlacing itself amid the imitations in the fifth, a sustained movement in triplets runs through the entire compass of the keyboard. In _In Dulci Jubilo_, similar triplets, liquidly intangible, imperceptibly disintegrate the rhythm, soften its somewhat harsh character. This chorale recalls Bach's stay in Cöthen by the unusual compass of its pedal part, which extends upward to _F_ sharp; so, for the same reason, does the chorale _Gottes Sohn ist kommen_, also written in canon.

Of the other chorales in the _Orgelbüchlein_, a small number, it is true, recall chorales by the organists of the North German school; as examples of this style we would cite _Wenn wir in höchsten Nöthen sein_ and _Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten_, both, in the ornamentation of their melodies, characteristic of the Reinkens and Buxtehudes.

Finally, we would call attention, in _Ich ruf' zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ_, to a form of writing truly instrumental, at the same time as analogous to the style of the _Adagio_ (in _A_ minor) of the Toccata in _C_ major, as the repetitions of notes are characteristic of G. Böhm.[135]

[Footnote 135: Compare that chorale with this fragment of a chorale by Böhm, _Vater unser im Himmelreich_:

[Music]]

II

The chorales of the Orgelbüchlein were compiled by Bach for purposes of instruction, as we have seen. It is not known whether it was his intention to publish them, or the eighteen _Choralvorspiele_[136]--sixteen autographs and two copies in Altnikol's hand--the MSS. of which are preserved in Berlin. In any case, these latter would have been rather for personal use than to serve as exercises for his pupils.

[Footnote 136: P. vi, and vii. B.-G. xxv, vol. ii, 3rd part.]

In this collection a form of chorale arrangement is found which we did not encounter in the _Orgelbüchlein_, the _trio_.[137] From a subject taken from a chorale melody, Bach forms a figure, which he develops in three parts in the style of the sonatas for two manuals and pedal; fragments of the _cantus firmus_ recur in these arabesques, sometimes repeated upon one after another of the manual keyboards, as an echo; or perhaps the pedal finally lays hold of them, entirely reconstructing the chorale--a stately cadence. What Bach calls a "Fantasia"[138] is of analogous character; the difference being, that the parts are more numerous, and no longer confined to a strictly continuous design.

[Footnote 137: For example, upon the melodies "_Allein Gott in der Höh' sei Ehr'_" (several versions), "_Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland_" and "_Herr Jesus Christ, dich zu uns wend_."]

[Footnote 138: _Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland._]

A fusion of Pachelbel's style with that of the organists of the North, although modified, furnishes a new type: the melody is figured, it is true, but very discreetly; and the phrases of which it is composed are treated separately, each being preceded by a counterpoint derived from itself. The chorale _An Wasserflüssen Babylons_[139] (_super flumina Babylonis_), for example, is thus written. The _cantus firmus_ is sustained by the tenor, almost without elaboration, supported by rich polyphonic imitations of these various motives.

[Footnote 139: Various arrangements by Bach of this chorale are in existence; we would cite in particular the one which he made with double pedal, upon the same harmonic bass as the one already referred to. It was probably composed for the journey to Hamburg (in 1720), when Bach drew from old Reinken the avowal of an admiration which the latter was not wont to lavish, for his improvisations upon this theme. Reinken had also composed a prelude upon it. It is interesting to compare the profusion of ornaments by which he renders the melody almost unrecognizable, with the elegant design in which Bach clothes it. Reinken thus distorts the beginning:

[Music]

With a Toccata and another _Choralvorspiel_, this arrangement is all that remains to us of Reinken's works.]

In the same style of composition, born of a poetic imagination, is the chorale-prelude _Schmücke dich, O liebe Seele_.

"_Schmücke dich, O liebe Seele!_" Adorn thyself, O dear soul; be full of virtue, to please God; yet, however pure, may thy virtue be natural and effortless! Be full of grace, and may thy virtue be a very beautiful thing; doubtless thou hast never sinned, and thus there is no question of repentance ... that would evoke some feeling of sadness, and no sadness whatsoever can exist here; thou art already very noble, and thou must become still more noble; already very limpid, thou must become still more limpid; although far from the earth, arise now towards the heavens.... Sublime as thou art, thou must become divine. Let thy virtue be a very beautiful thing!

"_Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele!_" Adorn thyself, O dear soul! And Johann Sebastian treats a single line of the very calm and too austere chorale. Its robes of sackcloth being somewhat too severe, he bedecks it with simple and suave ornaments, like lilies which would live on a plain and naked altar. So might a learned and holy priest speak those words which at once charm and sanctify; and his hands do not remain crossed upon his breast, but his gesture mounts upwards towards God, scarcely saddened by a separation which soon will cease ... virtue is a joyful thing!

"_Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele!_" Adorn thyself, O dear soul. And now, suddenly, upon a distant manual, the calm and less severe chorale is heard. Do those voices mount towards God, or do they call from heaven? Is it a prayer which rises, or the dew of a grace which softly falls like the rain? And the suave ornaments of a simple melody thus live like lilies, and breathe no sadness. For virtue is beautiful and joyous.... "Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele!" Adorn thyself, O dear soul!

* * * * *

Bach wrote this chorale on a Sunday, as a pious man conceives in his heart a beautiful and childlike prayer, for the heavens are very pure on that day, and one's soul is wholly sincere.[140]

[Footnote 140: Schumann said of this prelude, by which he himself was influenced in certain compositions (Cologne): "Thou didst play, Felix Meritis (Mendelssohn), a prelude upon one of those figured chorales: '_Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele_,' was the text; the melody seemed interlaced with garlands of gold, and the work breathed forth such happiness that you inspired in me this avowal: 'Were life deprived of all trust, of all faith, this simple chorale would restore all to me.' I fell into a revery; then, almost unconsciously, I found myself in the cemetery, and I felt poignant grief at not being able to cover with flowers the grave of the great Bach."--Letters, vol. i. Mendelssohn had played this chorale at a concert given, in St. Thomas' Church, to further the erection of a monument to the memory of J.S. Bach.

The melody of this chorale is found in choral-books since 1649.]

At the end of this volume are the variations in canon form upon the Christmas hymn _Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her_.[141] The combinations in which Bach involves this chorale melody, already often treated by him, might well dismay a contrapuntist; we wish to note here only that original melodic richness, often touching, under which is concealed such arduous labor leading to inconceivable results. Fatigued in following their intricacy, powerless to unravel the inextricable network, the mind clings to these threads, though still indefinite--music now superhuman in the swishing of invisible wings as they fold, or rustle like silk in their contact;--or gliding, rather, without conjuring up any special sound, but leaving to the fancy the whole halo of harmonies; or like an echo, as if fragments caught here and there repeated the song which spirit-voices pray--the white souls of the pure in heart--these voices in peaceful chords, strangely sustained, or so gently persistent that the saints must hear them, in ecstasies which one feels as in a dream; the song which the stars revealed, murmured to the Child, who was lulled by the incommensurable rhythm of the universal concert emanating from God.[142]

[Footnote 141: Einige kanonische Veränderungen über das Weihnachtslied: _Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her_.]

[Footnote 142: These variations were published separately. Bach had them engraved about 1746 by Balthasar Schmidt in Nuremberg, in order to present them as the work for admission which the "Society for Musical Sciences" founded by Mizler in 1738 imposed upon each of its candidates. Bach was elected in 1747. He must have composed them, however, some years previously. The MS. and the engraved edition present numerous differences of editing.]

III

The Third Part of the _Clavierübung_ contains twenty-one arrangements of chorales.[143] The "Hymns of the Catechism" and the Creed furnish twelve of them, each melody treated twice, with or without pedal. These chorales may be cited as examples of certain well-defined types; it is unnecessary to identify each one of them separately, rather will we leave to the reader the task of such a classification. Some of them, however, are deserving of special mention; the _Vater unser im Himmelreich_ (treated in canon), for its extended proportions, for the fulness of its harmony; the _Aus tiefer Noth_ (_de Profundis_) in six parts, with double pedal, noteworthy in that it appears to have been written for two pedal-keyboards of different intensity, the melody dominating by its power, crying out amidst the symbolical chaos of this gigantic polyphony.

[Footnote 143: P. vi, and vii. B.-G. iii.]

We shall not again touch on that faculty which Bach possessed of translating into music the words of the chorales, whether in their most obscure meaning, or in their most obviously picturesque significance. _Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott_, "A mighty fortress is our God," sings Luther, and Bach emphasizes the suggestion of impregnability by supporting the melody upon the deepest basses of the organ; but this firmness reveals itself only after the repulse of an attack, after the warring of the counterpoints below the ramparts.

It is the same procedure as in the Reformation Cantata _Und wenn die Welt voll Teufel wär'_, "And were the world of devils full," as Luther's song runs; "on a sudden, figures of infernal aspect, issuing from unknown depths, rush to the assault upon the noble melody of the chorale."[144]

[Footnote 144: Cart. _Un maître deux fois centenaire._]

But such agencies partake rather of an instrumental style, interesting in an organ prelude, where they are more in place; in the cantata these counterpoints are entrusted to a bass voice; while putting the singer out of breath, they impress upon the audience a sort of wearisome anxiety; "without doubt," says Hanslick, "Bach obeys a fine symbolic instinct in entrusting the calm and steadfast melody of the chorale to one voice, while the other, in elaborate design, creeps about it; but not everything of symbolic significance must, for that reason, be beautiful in itself."

It is known that the last work of Bach was a chorale-prelude upon the melody of _Wenn wir in höchsten Nöthen sein_, or _Vor deinen Thron trete ich_,[145] which he dictated upon his deathbed to his son-in-law, Altnikol. This composition was added to the plates of _Die Kunst der Fuge_ (the Art of Fugue), unfortunately lost, which Bach had had prepared at the time.

[Footnote 145: P. vii, 58. B.-G. xxv.]

"To replace the unfinished portion of the last fugue, the work has for a supplement a four-part chorale, _Wenn wir in höchsten Nöthen sein_, which Bach dedicated some days before his death to his son-in-law, Altnikol. I will not dwell on the art which he displays here, for the profound science of music had been so mastered by the author that he could exercise it even in illness; but the expression of pious resignation and devotion with which it overflows has touched me deeply every time I have played it; and I cannot say which I would rather do without, this chorale, or the ending of the fugue."[146]

[Footnote 146: Forkel.]

The text of this chorale was, moreover, singularly appropriate to Bach's condition when he composed it, viewed as a lament amid the terrors of death, or as a declaration of readiness to appear before the throne of that God whose aid he invoked at the head of his compositions.[147]

[Footnote 147: At the commencement of his compositions he wrote the initials J.J. (_Jesu Juva_) or S.D.G. (_Soli Deo Gloria_).]

This chorale has been called the "Swan-song."

In completing this study we must mention the chorale-accompaniments which Bach wrote to sustain the singing of the congregation, which are found in a manuscript of Kittel (P. v, Appendix, Nos. 1, 3, 6, 7, and last) and in a copy by Forkel (P. vi, 26).

They are quite different from those which he wrote in 1706, upon his return from Lübeck, and which so scandalized the parish, confusing the congregation by their ornamentation.

REGISTRATION AND ORNAMENTS OF BACH'S ORGAN WORKS

It is well known how important is the _rôle_ played in the execution of organ music by the registration, and the skilful combination of the keyboards.

Bach left but few directions upon this subject; but with their aid, and the assistance of other hints derived from tradition or found in works of that period, and by placing before the reader the specifications of the principal organs which Bach may have had at his disposal during his long career, we will try to form an idea of what Forkel calls "the exquisite art with which he combined the various registers of the organ, and his manner of treating them."[148]

[Footnote 148: _Ueber J.S. Bach's Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke._ Leipzig, 1802.]

And our task is now the more delicate, because we cannot draw our conclusions from expressions which bore, at Bach's time, a significance quite different from that which we ascribe to them to-day. Furthermore, we would not lay down any absolute rules in the matter, which in truth is, above all, subjective, the artistic province of the executant. We shall simply point out what Bach indicated in certain definite instances; and, on the other hand, that which was customary at his time. In fact, in authoritative works of the centuries just past, veritable methods of registration exist; and without reverting to the documentary evidence (valuable, though too concise), inserted _ad hoc_ by Scheidt at the end of his _Tabulatura nova_ (Hamburg, 1624), we often find, at the head of pieces written at the end of the seventeenth, or during the eighteenth century, indications of the registration to be employed; given by composers less discreet than Bach. Among the number are not a few Frenchmen, and those men not to be despised; on the contrary, we shall prove how Bach frequently borrowed from their highly picturesque art of registration. No wonder if he provoked a renewed interest in their original "mélanges."

He copied a suite in _A_ major by Nicolas de Grigny, organist at Rheims, and a suite in _F_ minor by Dieupart,[149] and added to them a table of twenty-nine ornaments, with their interpretation. And he was acquainted with the works of Marchand, Nivers, d'Anglebert, and

## particularly of François Couperin. I doubt whether the intrinsic

value of these compositions, despite their entertaining nature in some cases (for instance, Couperin's descriptive pieces), succeeded in holding his attention for any length of time; Bach could learn nothing from their technique, so often elementary; but he knew how to draw profit from their accessory qualities. Certain combinations of registers seem to us, in fact, to have been directly inspired by the study of their _livres d'orgues_, just as certain ornaments appear to have been borrowed from the "_Agrémens_" of their clavecin pieces.

[Footnote 149: Dieupart, born in France during the last third of the seventeenth century, was a remarkable violinist and clavecinist. He went to England early in the eighteenth century, and, associated with Clayton, introduced Italian opera at Drury Lane. After disasters similar to those which later befell Händel, he renounced the theatre and busied himself no longer with instrumental music. He died in 1740.

Of his compositions are extant: Six suites for the clavecin, divided into Overtures, Allemandes, Courantes, Sarabandes, Gavottes, Minuets, Rondos, and Gigues, composed and arranged for concert performance by a Violin and a Flute, with a Bass Viol and an Archilute. (See Grove's "Dictionary of Music and Musicians.") The prelude of Bach's first English Suite was inspired by a passage in the _A_ major suite of Dieupart.]

I

We have said that one must not invariably interpret, by their present meaning, certain expressions whose significance is no longer the same as when Bach wrote.

First of all, the term _Organo pleno_, sometimes the sole indication given by Bach for preludes, fugues, or fantasies; one is often tempted to interpret it, on modern organs, by calling into requisition the uproar of all the registers combined, to whatever family they may belong.

Let us see what was understood in Bach's time by _organo pleno_, or _volles Werk_. "The _volles Werk_," says Mattheson,[150] "consists of principals, Sordunen (the bourdons of to-day), salicionals, octaves, quints, mixtures, _Scharffen_ (small-scale mixtures of three ranks), of the quintadena, cymbale, nazard,[151] twelfth, sesquialtera,[152] and of super-octaves; with the _Posaunen_ in the pedal, but not upon the manual; for the _Posaunen_ are reeds, which are not drawn upon the manual with full organ, where, on account of the higher pitch, they would be too rasping; in the pedal, on the contrary, through the sonority of their tones, they produce a majestic effect, especially if the mouths of the pipes are covered, as is desirable."

[Footnote 150: _Der Vollkommene Kapellmeister_, Hamburg, 1739, §69, p. 467.]

[Footnote 151: Mattheson says, _à propos_ of this stop: "The French have given to the _Nachsatz_ (thus named on account of its high pitch, in contrast to the _Untersatz_ of thirty-two feet) of the Netherlanders, the designation _Nasard_ or _Nasarde_, 'a vulgar expression, of which use is made in comedy or burlesque,' says Boyer's dictionary."]

[Footnote 152: This register, composed of two ranks of pipes of tin or of composition, is a compound stop. The longer pipe gives the fifth of the octave, the shorter the third of the fifteenth; there is thus the interval of a major sixth between the two ranks.]

In a former work, Mattheson had laid down the following rule for omitting the reeds from the _ensemble_ of the registers:[153] "A reed-stop may not be drawn with the flutes upon the same keyboard, unless it be in the pedal." He makes an exception only in case the organ is not sufficiently powerful to keep a choir from wandering from the pitch and into chaos, when advantage must be taken of all resources.

[Footnote 153: In _Das neu eröffnete Orchester_ (1717). Mattheson was born in Hamburg in 1681; aside from his critical works on music he was an organist of ability; he knew Buxtehude, becoming acquainted with him in 1703. He even expected to succeed him, but renounced his aspirations in this direction upon learning that in accepting the position of the father he would be obliged to marry the daughter, Anna Margaretha, born in 1669, and therefore much too old for him; this was one of the conditions of the place, which also deterred Händel from presenting himself as a candidate.]

The combination indicated above was, moreover, in accordance with general usage;[154] it corresponded to what the French called the _plein-jeu_. Nivers,[155] for instance, wrote: "The _plein-jeu_ is composed of the Prestant, the Bourdon, the Doublette, the Cymbale, and the Fourniture; to those may be added the other sixteen- and eight-foot stops, if any there be; if there be no Prestant, the Flute may be drawn."

[Footnote 154: Certain organists abused this powerful combination; Adlung says, "There are many who, in playing the chorale or music in general, know only the noise of the _plein-jeu_. One may be content to continually wear the same clothes, but an organist who produces the same sounds every day will render himself insupportable by his monotony. In the chorale, in the last verse, one may play a little louder, to remind the minister to prepare for the resumption of his duties; especially in towns where it is no longer customary (as is still the honored usage in some villages) to rap with a _bâton_ for this purpose, as though one by force would arouse him from slumber." _Anleitung zur musikalischen Gelahrtheit_, 1758.]

[Footnote 155: _Premier