Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1897-11-21
BACH AND HANDEL.
BY MRS. C. P. FLICK.

the line of natural science; second, in So
I Geological lines, examining the inter-rela-
| tionships of humanity; third. toward the
world above us, the ethical. the moral, the
| emotional-the south world
!! While certainly related to natural
science and powerful element in social
relationship, music is far more closely con-
nected with the world above us, the emo
tional-the ethical. The province of music
is far greater than to please the aesthetic
side of the human intellect. True music
always expresses thoughts the language
of the soul or dialect of that language.
which embraces the sister arts of poetry
and painting The artist strives to express
his ideal upon canvass or in the marble
the poet to convey the purity and nobility
of his though through the medium
of language; the musician vividly
portrayS every shade of human
emotion in the varied forms of
sound. The efforts of each is an as
piration after something nobler and purer
and higher than can ever hope 10
reach--the unknowabN: each has but a
different way of expressing the same
thought.
A long period of musical evolution must
of necessity be passed over, from the
time when 1.-The wind Blowing through
the reeds upon thetbanks of the Nile
suggested the pipe to some equally print
tive human inha bitant of that remote
land to the year 1855, when John Sebas-
tan Bach and George Frederick Handel
seemed to have absorbed and utilized and
given expression to all that had preceded
them, and to have begun a new musical
era. The simple reeds were bound to-
gether. one reed used for each note, and
the Pandean pipes were produced; then
one imaginative dreamer became possess
ed of the idea of having one pipe produce
all the tones, and flute came into being.
Some equally clever inventive genius must
have thought the sweet and tender
tones of the flute inadequate for the
expression Of his more vigorous emo
tions, so larger pipes and more
of them We're used, and machin-
cry employed to blow them, and the or
gan. the oldest instrument used in art
music, was the result.
We read of an organ built for Winches-
ter Cathedral in 951, having four hun
dred pipes and thirteen pairs of bellows,
requiring seventy blowers. This instru-
Of sound was the principal consideration.
Only one note was played at a time on
these early Cathedral thunderers," and
these were pressed down by the fist or ell
bow.
TIL idea of harmony had not yet made
its appearance, and it's advent later was
the incentive to the discovery of further
possibilities for the pipes, until at the
=; e oh, he foo st q
organ being capable of producing such
magnificent productions as those he left
us. gives us a somewhat adequate idea
of its Improvement.
Many of you are, doubtless, familiar
with the old story of Hermes, who, walk
ing on the sands of the sea, beheld a dead
tortoise, whose sun-dried intestines were
stretched taut across his shell. Hermes
touched one and 1t gave forth a musical
note, and Selling upon this suggestion of
nature. he fashioned the seven-stringed
Tyre 1t is pleasant to attribute to the
fascinating Hermes the origin of the liz
tie instrument which finally evolved
through the monochord and psaitery and
their descendants, the clavichord, harpis-
chord, spnet and virginia., to the modern
piano, although stubborn facts assure US
until long after the Egyptians had harps
with "a goodly number of strings
Meanwhile, the evolution of music was
keeping pace with that of the instru-
ments. The instruments must have ex-
listed before the composers made use OF
them. but they in turn We're improved, as
the ever-unfo,dng ideas required a more
suitable means for expression. Before
means rare. The improvisation was car
ried to an extraordinary extent. Appli-
cants for church positions were frequently
required to improvise on given melody a
fugue which would severely tax the abil-
tiles of the best organistS of to-day. whose
access to the vast store of written COM
position has rendered improvisation on
such an extensive scale Almost lost art.
Henderson says: The way was now paved
for the mighty masters of modern music.
but two came to seize. it.. Two giants
whose monumental works live with all
the. freshness of their youth in our day.
and seem like wine. to grow stronger,
Although of the same nationality and
born the same. year Bach and Handel
have been the fault of Handel as twice
when he visited Halle bach tried to see
him. The third time he came Bach was
dead.
a period of two hundred years the Bach
family devoted themselves to music and
we have a record of at least fifty of
them who occupied positions of prom
inence in the history of their art. In this
family musical talent seems to be sort
of bequest from one generation 10 another.
Notwithstanding Bachs immediate
of the Thirty Years War" the house
OF Bach were almost without exception
Of moral worth and integrity, together
with a constant striving after the highest
ideals. These qualities could hardly have
met with much recognition or encourage
ment from the outside world at that time
We read OF frequent family reunions in
which the Bachs delighted: and of the
pleasure and profit they derived from the
bers. The name the Bachs." became a
term by which the town musicians were
known. even after there ceased to be any
Bachs among them. 1T seems only a
natural consequence that the scattered
rays of great gifts like these should af-
ter one hundred years, be concentrated in
a genius Ike John Sebastian Bach. whose
originality. depth and force. says Grove.
exhibit such a climax as only a few
great spirits of any time or country have
attained.
Bachs life was simple and uneventful.
His father began to teach him violin at
a very early age but when he was ten
years old both parents died. and he went
to live with an older brother, who was
organist at Ohrdruff. Here he began the
C.avier, his remarkable genius began 10
played all his lessons by heart; his aspira-
tons after more difficult music. however
seems to nave been regarded with
disfayOr by his brother. There was a VOL