The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-12-31

From the New York Evening Post.
1HE adage that time brings its
Wy revenge has perhaps, perhaps never been cen
case of John Sebastian Bach. At his
death, no one appears to have had the
faintest glimmering of his greatness as
a composer, and his widow died as an
almswoman. Half a century OF almost
complete oblivion followed, and it took
the combined enthusiasm of Mendelssohn,
schumann and many other musicians
following their lead, gradually to con-
vince the world that he was the deepest
of all musical thinkers. Today. he is
universally accepted as such; by the re-
yenge of time he even gets credit not
only for his own stupendous achieve
ments. but for what others did before
him in so far as their methods are re-
Elected in his works. With the excep-
ton of Handel and Palestrina, his pre-
decessors and contemporaries have faded
away, and he now stands as the great
exponent OF musical thought and prac-
tice In the first half of the eighteenth
century and what preceded 1t.
Yet, although Bach has thus been put
on the pedestal he deserved. the musical
world still knows barely one-tenth of
the treasures ne left it. His LIES out
put is, as his latest biographer remarks,
$50 enormous that even the rare enthus
siasts who chance to combine sincere in
tentions with an exceptional allowance
of leisure may well be driven to despair
of ever mastering subject so vast" 1t
is therefore a matter for sincere con-
graduation that this latest biographer,
Sir Hubert H. Parry, Is better qualified
than any other musical author to per-
form tho task of guiding music lovers
to what Is best among the unrevealed
treasures of Bach's genius. In all Eu-
rope there are probably only two or
three other musical scholars as erudite
as Sir Hubert and at the same time as
well quained to set forth their knowl-
edge In lucid language. AS a matter of
course. he is under deep obligations to
Philip Spitta, who spent a lifetime Of
hard work. devotion, and ingenuity in
rescuing from oblivion all that could be
gathered about Bach's activity. But
Spitta wrote as specialist for spe-
cialists; his voluminous work Is not for
reading, but for reference; he marshall-
ed vast array Of superfluous knowl-
edge and failed to give clear idea Of
the personality of the composer or
total impression of his work.
From these defects the Englishman's
work is Free 1t is, as the subtitle in
dicates, THE Story of the Development
of Great Character" or. ms the pre-
face puts 1t, "a consideration of the life
of a great composer mainly from the
point Of view of artistic development
and self-expression." AZ Sir Hubert truly
adds, on another page. of all the COM
posers whose personality gains In fas-
cination and whose individuality be-
comes more and more eloquent with
the passage of time, John Sebastian
Bach stands foremost. The records Of
his life are as scant as those Of Shake
speares. yet how many interesting books
have been written on that poet and his
worksl Sir Hubert's Bach" should be
put on the same shelf with them. no
every student, serious amateur, and pub
lie performer It IL Of absorbing inter-
cSl, uOL O4ly DCCdu50 VI WA'%S ~ s~AAS ~
Bach and his works but for the light
1t sheds, on almost every page. on the
evolution and history Of music in gem
eraL
The most vivid and important I'M
precision the general reader win get from
a perusAl of this book " that Bach was
the exact opposite Of the 'bigwig stuffed
with learning" he was, until nearly a
century after his death, supposed to be.
While his name Ii chiefly associated in
most minds with the word fugue, 1t IL
true of him that mo composer ever at
tanned to anything approaching the spon-
taneity, freshness, and winsomensss Of
his dances his suites and sonatas BE-
ing, in fact, made up chiefly Of bourrses.
gavottes, gigues, passepisds. and other
dances. These dances were those in
vogue in his day; but while no longer
danced. they are nusioally in vogue ~