Part 4 (2/2)

The effect is obviously one of great concentration and dra clial coe synificent example of the climactic effect produced by a Stretto, witness the last part of Bach's Fugue in G h there is considerable coreat concentration on the part of the listener, we should avoid thinking of the foratory sense, but rather as a reaterBach, the supre, as too austere, too involved, for the delight and edification of every-day mortals Bach means brook, and the na strea the leading tendencies of modern music In these days when stress is laid on the romantic element in music, on warm emotional appeal, it is well to consider the quality so prevalent in Bach of spiritual vitality

Exactly because the romantic element represents the human side of music, it is subject to the whie and decay Bach carries us into the realeless in their power to exalt Schuion owes to its founder”; and it is true that a knowledge of Bach is the beginning of musical wisdom

By some, Bach is considered dry or too reserved for cos Others carelessly assert that he has nocan be further from the truth than these two misconceptions

Bach surely is not dry, because his work abounds in such vitality of rhythraphy, ”No co the spontaneity, freshness, and winsoavottes, bourrees, passepieds and gigues in the suites; while ues are inspired with a force of rhyth swept into space out of the range of coe of a lack of ner Instead of there being no melody, it is _all_ melody, so that the partially musical, who lack the power of sustained attention, are drowned in the flood ofclaim, in fact, may be made for Bach as a _popular_ composer in the best sense of the term Many of his colossal works, to be sure, are heard but seldohly trained executive ability But if the average lish Suites, with the Preludes and Fugues of the _Well-tempered Clavichord_, with soination and mental machinery a food which, once enjoyed, becoreatest of qualities in art as in human relationshi+ps--it wears well and _lasts_

We all know that books which reveal everything at a first reading are soon thrown aside, and that people whose depth of character and sweetness of disposition we discern but slowly, often beco friends Music which is too easily heard is identical with that which is ireat work of art is our longing to know it better Its next attribute is its power to arouse and hold our steady affection These observations may be applied literally to Bach'sits appeal but continually unfolding new beauties Furtherreat character even more than the artistic skill hich the personality is revealed In this respect Bach in music is quite on a par with Shakespeare in literature and Michael Angelo in plastic art

Withand inexplicable a discrepancy between their deeds as hts for which they see to cos true as a man whatever demands are made upon him; whose music is free from morbidity or carnal blemish, as pure as the winter wind, as ele as the stars In Bach let us always reard in which his work is held could never have come merely from profound skill in workmanshi+p, but is due chiefly to the manly sincerity and emotional depth which are found therein The revival of his works, for which the world owes to Mendelssohn such a debt, has been the single strongest factor in the develop the 19th century; and their influence[42] is by notributes paid to him by such modern composers as Franck, d'Indy and Debussy[43]

[Footnote 41: Beethoven, co on the name, majestically said: ”He is no brook; he is the open sea!”]

[Footnote 42: For a very suggestive article on this point by Philip Greeley Clapp see the Musical Quarterly for April, 1916]

[Footnote 43: Sonificance may be found in Chapter III of _The Appreciation of Music_ by Surette and Mason]

Two additional fugues are now given in the Supplement (see Nos 17 and 18) for the consideration of the student: the _Cat-Fugue_ of Domenico Scarlatti, with its fantastic subject (said to have been suggested by the walking of a favorite cat on the key-board) and the _Fuga Giocosa_ of John Knowles Paine, (the subject of which is the well-known street-tune ”Rafferty's lost his pig”) This latter exa but a typical ies of the fugue are to be found in literature; three of the most famous are herewith appended

”Hist, but a word, fair and soft!

Forth and be judged, Master Hugues!

Answer the question I've put you so oft: What do you ues?

See, we're alone in the loft”

--Browning, _Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha_

Throughout, a al style

”Whence the sound Of instruan; and who mov'd Their stops and chords was seen; his volant touch Instinct through all proportions, low and high, Fled and pursued transverse the resonant fugue”

--Milton, _Paradise Lost_, Book XI

”Then rose the agitation, spreading through the infinite cathedral to its agony; then was coolden tubes of the organ which as yet had but sobbed and es of incense--threw up, as frofast with unknown voices Thou also, Dying Truuish that was finishi+ng, didst enter the tuuish--rang through the dreadful Sanctus”

--Froue in the ”Vision of Sudden Death_”