BACH'S VIRTUOSITY
Snt,—Apropos of Mr. Cooper's article on Bach, is it not rather an aspersion on all that we know about Bach's clear, honest and simple character to suggest that all he wanted to do was to " show off "? No musician was ever less a " showman " than J. S. Bach. When he wrote the work " Musical Offering " he must have been at the height of his powers. Born in 1685, he would be about sixty years of age, and he could no more help displaying his great skill in writing canons in
all forms than he could his mastery of the " fugue ," and that without any descent into mere virtuosity.
Mr. Cooper seems also to imply that Bach's dedication of this work to Frederick the Great was merely eyewash, since after referring to it he goes on to say that, " Actually, of course, Bach wished to show his skill," &c. Would it not be more in keeping with what we know of Bach to assume that he was quite sincere in dedicating the work to Frederick the Great who had provided Bach with the theme? Bach was a German, even though perhaps not a Prussian, and as such Frederick must have loomed very much larger in Bach's horizon than in ours. Bach could not see the results of Frederick's policy on the German
Previous page
