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196 BACH ntL'ls conferred upon Mm the title of ka- pellmeister, with the emoluments of the office, without requiring his personal attendance at court; and in 1736 Augustus of Saxony created him " royal Polish and Saxon electoral court composer." In 1747 he was persuaded to ac- cept an invitation from Frederick II., king of Prussia, to visit Berlin and Potsdam. Notice was given the king of his arrival in the latter city, just as a private concert in the palace was to hegin. " Gentlemen," said Frederick, " old Bach has come ! " The old organist was instant- ly sent for, and without affording him time to change his dress, he was brought to the palace. The king had several of Silbermann's piano- fortes in various apartments one may still be seen there and to these in succession Bach was taken and called upon to try their powers. At length the king gave him a theme for a fugue, which was so wrought out as to afford him the highest gratification, and he immedi- ately afterward demanded an extemporaneous fugue in six parts. Bach thought a moment, and, selecting the theme, worked it up to the astonishment not only of the king but of the several distinguished musicians present. Upon his return to Leipsic he wrote out the fugue, added to it another in three parts, and a ricercar also in six, both upon the same theme, together with other specimens of his powers, and pub- lished them with the title of " A Musical Offer- ing." The only works by Bach published dur- ing his life are exercises for the harpsichord, in three parts, which appeared at intervals ; an air with 30 variations ; six choral preludes in three parts for the organ ; variations in canon upon the choral Vom Himmel Koch; and the "Musi- cal Offering." The rest of his works, left in manuscript, have come out one by one, or still remain imprinted. The Bach society at Leip- sic, having over 500 members in all parts of the art world, has been engaged since 1850 in publishing a complete collection of his works. Among them are found five complete sets of vocal pieces for the church, for all the Sundays and festivals of the year ; a great collection of oratorios, masses, magnificats, sanctus, pieces for birth, wedding, and funeral occasions, and not a few comic compositions ; five " passions," so called, compositions to which the accounts of the suffering and death of Christ, as given by the evangelists, furnish the text ; more than 100 sacred cantatas are preserved in the libra- ry of the Thomas school alone. "The Well- tempered Clavier," a collection of 48 preludes and 48 fugues, is known to every earnest stu- dent of the pianoforte, as remarkable in its adaptation to the purpose of enabling the per- former to conquer the difficulties of that in- strument. His works for organ, harpsichord, orchestra, and every solo instrument in use a century since, are as numerous and effective as his vocal compositions, and begin again to form a part of the programmes in the principal con- certs of central Europe. As a virtuoso upon keyed instruments, Bach seems to have antici- pated the wonderful effects produced in our own days by Thalberg, and even Liszt. In his own age he was in this regard as has been said of Shakespeare as a pod so far above all others as to have no second. The fingering invented by Bach was the basis of his son Emanuel's work upon the pianoforte, which opened a new era for the instrument, and led the way, through Mozart and dementi, to the extraordinary perfection exhibited by the vir- tuosos of our own time. To it he was brought by his own works, for, as he himself said, "he had often been compelled to study long at night, how to play the compositions which he had written during the day." Perhaps the most striking points in Bach's compositions are the marvellous invention they exhibit, and their extraordinary grandeur, power, and science. Of the sixth generation of the Bach family, some 30 in number, the more distinguished were the following: XI. Joliann Ernst, born at Eisenach, June 28, 1722, died in 1781. Ik- was educated at the Thomas school and the university of Leipsic, made jurisprudence his profession, and settled as an advocate in his native city. But he was a Bach, and music early drew him from the law. At the age of 28 he was made asssistant organist to his father, and finally appointed kapellmeister by the duke at Weimar. Life at court proved disagreeable to him, and upon the death of the duke he re- turned to Eisenach and to his former position. He was an industrious and successful composer for the church, and while at Weimar produced i a great number of orchestral works. Few of his compositions were printed. XII. illiHiu Frledemann, eldest son of Johann Sebastian, born at Weimar in 1710, died in Berlin, July 1, 1784. Of all the Bachs born since Sebastian, this man seemed by nature the best fitted to succeed to the high position which his father held in the art. His genius was of the highest order, and the progress which he made in childhood under his father's instructions gave rise to the brightest hopes for the future. In his early and extraordinary mastery both of the practice and theory of music, he seems to have more nearly rivalled Mozart than any other. His compositions were remarkable for their power and depth, and by his command of the liarpsichord and organ in reproducing instantly any musical idea which occurred to him, he aroused the wonder of all who heard him. He studied the violin with the celebrated Graun, afterward concert master to Frederick II. of Prussia, with equal success. He passed through regular courses of instruction at the Thomas school, and then entered the university at Leipsic, where he devoted himself to jurispru- dence and mathematics. To the latter science he specially inclined, and retained his fondness for it throughout life. Music, however, was not neglected, and in his 23d year he was called to Dresden as organist in the Sophia church. He remained there till 1747, when he re- moved to Halle as music director and organist,