Omaha daily bee., 1889-04-01
BACH.
A Wonderful Musician Who Was Not
Appreciated Until A fter His Death.

a Wonderful Musician Who Was Not
Appreciated Until a fter His Death.
The names of Bach and Handel throw
a flood OF glory over the eighteenth
century, says writer in the Youths
Companion. They were both born in
1855, Bach at Eisenach, Handel at
Halle. But though Bach was twice at
Halle, the two great masters never
met. In prosaic century these two
great men united in their own sphere
those tendencies of modern thought
which brought about the revolution
from the Italian art of Palestriua to the
music of the present day. But their
destinies were widely different.
Bach lived in poverty, Handel in
competence. Bach lived in retirement
and comparative obscurity, Handel in
del, during his own lifetime, enjoyed an
overwhelming popularity; but Bach,
though he has affected quite as deeply
the minds OF modern composers, did not
| begin to produceSa marked impression
till fifty years after his death, and but
for the influence of MoSsrt and Mem
delssohn his music mig possibly even
have fallen into obi
| 1t has been said mann that
Emusic owes to Bach as great q
debt as religion owes founder"
Johann Sebastian Bach s one Of
| great family of muslcians.k His father
early taught him the violin and, what
| was more important, inspired him with
those deep Protestant feelings of piety
which influenced all his life. I'M
happily, however, the boy was left an
orphan at the age of ten, and became
dependent on his harsh and uncongenial
Il T~l..
was then organist at Ohrdruf.
The little Sebastian learned his ex-
ercises with a skill and perfectness
| which gave his brother the extra trouble
| OF constantly supplying new ones, and,
| perhaps, also awOke his jealously.
Christoph possessed a manuscript
| volume of music which he const tntly
| studied, and which oSebastian long gSd to
| possess; but Christoph sternly refused
| to lend it. TheiG precious book was
| locked up in rallied cupboard; but the
| little hand could pass through the rails,
and, when opportunity offered, Sebas-
tian could not resist the temptation to
| tiously.
| His progress, however, was very slow,
| as he could only work at in the even
| ing, and---since he was allowed no cam
| dles---only on moonlight nights. Still,
| with heroic perseverance, snatching
| his chances when he could, he was able
in six months to copy out the much
coveted book. His task was hardly
achieved when his brother discovered
| the boys secret, and, with cruel
tyranny, demanded the surrender of the
copy so ]aboriously made. Sebastian
| gave it up with tears, and saw it no
more till thes esyear 1898, when he was
| thirteen years old and his brother died.
But the death of his brother threw
the young orphan upon the world.
and trudging off to Luneburg with
companion, he got an appointment as
chorister in the school of St. Michael.
His education was thus provided for,
but his passion for music often made
him go on. oot to Hamburg to hear
Reinken at st. Catharine's church, and
even to Celle to hear the kude's French
band.
One day when the hungry, foot-worn
boy was trampiing all the long. way
home from Hamburg, and stopped be-
fore an inn from which came the saw
ory odors of the dinner which he could
not afford, a pitying stranger flung TO
him out of the window two herrings'
heads. When he picked them up and
opened them he found in each ducat,
which enabled him to buy some food
ana get nome IN less misery.
But the days of chorister who de-
pends on his voice are doomed, and
when Bach's voice failed his outlook
would once more have been very dark
had he not been appointed violinist, at
the age OF eighteen, to the duke OF Sake
Weimar.
In 1908 he was chosen organist at
Arnstadt. Living contentedly on less
than 9lO year, he continued his
studies, and during the whole of his
long, uneventful life-until, like his
great contemporary. Handel, he be-
came blind just before his death-he
devoted his whole powers to musical
composition. He obtained various
humble appointments as organist, and
lived in patriarchal simplicity, always
struggling with poverty, but noble,
modest aud contented, 70 the last.
His first wife was taken from him by
a sudden death. H smarried again,
and had thirteen chifdfen as his second
family. Though kings and princes hon,
ored him for his genfus, he seemed
never to have been d nassing rich" even
on so much as forty pounds year"
Yet "Eather Bach" as.he was lovingly
called, was very happy. His art and
his family were the two motives for
which he lived. Oatwardly, his life
was humble and inafa4 ificant, but in
wardly 1T was richI e3id productive.
Maintaining to the last HE calm dignity
of his character, he Nke Button, be-
lieved that ''genius is patience"
1t was nearly forty lyears after his
death that Mozart, hearing one of his
motets at Leipzig, extlbimed, Thank
God! here is something new, and learn
something" Still later, Mendelssohn
revived the half-forgotten Passion
music, and it was through him that the
Bach society was founded.
Sparks of Wit.
keU fark World.