Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-03-14
News of Music
Bach and Fort Dodue
A Century Ago Certain Herr Groy
Brought Culture to Iowa
By Day Thorpe
News of Music
By Day Thorpe

Announcement by the music
publishing firm Of Barometer
in Switzerland Of a new edi-
ton of the complete works OF
Bach brings to my mind one
of the most intriguing prob
lens in all musical scholarship.
I have applied myself to the
question for ten years come
next Mardi Gras, and while
I have looked up Fort Dodge,
Iowa, in the Encyclopaedia
BRITANNICA, I have never made
up my mind whether the next
step was to solicit further in
formation from the secretary
of the senior Senator from that
State, or to write the secretary
of the Chamber Of Commerce
In Fort Dodge. am no scholar.
Perhaps the reader may see
little connection between the
complete works of Johann Sc
bastian Bach and Fort Dodge.
Iowa. There. is a connection.
however, and although it is
slight, it cries foR calculation.
The first publication Of the
complete works Of Bach,
known as the Gesellschaft,
was undertaken in the year
1850 in Germany. and the
initial volume made its ap-
pearance the next year. The
edition was an unrivaled joint
effort of many editors and.
though not entirely accurate
(partS were re-edited even
before the last Of the Al
volumes appeared), it has re-
manned to this day the most
widely cherished and beloved
set Of volumes known to
musicians. The books are very
big and very heavy, and If
this comment seems q bit out
of place and puzzling, I ask
you only to be patient and at
tentive.
The Gesellschaft was pub
lished by subscription. Lii
baries, musicians and kings
made up a large nucleus Of the
initial subscribers to the work
which was the indispensable
fundamental of the Bach re-
vival that had started a few
years earlier. The edition be-
came the bible of Bach. An
imposing list of subscribers
was published in the volumes,
which showed monarchs vying
with one another in the num-
Der of copies subscribed to.
and which showed that in
tereSt in the edition was not
confined to Germany but was
In evidence all over the West
ern world.
Why Fort Dodge?
It also showed that there
were eighteen institutions and
individuals in the United
States who wanted their Bach
like their whiskey. uncut. Most
were in New York. Philadel-
phia, Boston and New Haven.
One was in Fort Dodge, Iowa.
His name was Herr r. S.
Gray. and ] know nothing
about him except that he was
a subscriber to the edition. an
honorable member Of the
Gesellschaft. But what was
he doing in Fort Dodge. Iowa?
Was the town an outpost in
Indian territory, or was it the
American Weimar? The en-
cyclopedia says that it had
been settled in 1910 as an
armed garrison, Fort Clarke,
and that in 1851 the name
had been changed to Fort
Dodge. 1851! At the moment
the wet sheets Of the Bach
Gesellschaft we're coming off
the press in Germany, an
nouncing that Herr r. S. Gray.
of Fort Dodge, Iowa, q. s. A.
was a subscriber, this little
outpost of the New World was
just in the process Of estab-
fishing its identity.
Gray was quite a man, there
can be no question of that.
Disinherited because he had
been involved in the Revolu-
ton of 1848-it was an absurd
case Of mistaken identity-he
fled to the New World. bring
ing with him only a well-worn
copy of the 1.-TWO Hundred
Seventy-One Chorales," but he
heard rumors Of the new Or
text on the boat. He decided
to take part in the gold rush,
and started West, but his heart
wasn't in it. What was all this
about Wells Fargo? Pony ex-
press? Something was bound
to happen to Nun komm, der
Heiden Holland" in three
thousand miles in the wilder
ness.
This Necessary?
He went first to Boston to
ask the Handel and Haydn
Oratorio Society for news Of
the new edition. The last any
one in the society had heard
of Bach he was in London
playing duets with a young
.Salzburger called Mozart. AS
for a new edition, was it really
necessary, anyway?
Just when and how Gray
became a subscriber is a myS-
terry. Still, 1t is evident that by
the time he got as far west as
Fort Dodge, he could no longer
bear the thought Of running
away from Volume One. He
settled down to wait for 1t,
meanwhile earning . living
possibly as q barber. He de-
veloped q tolerance to rot-gut
whiskey, and learned to shoot
from the hip, because he was
still in Fort Dodge so years
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