ABC of JSB
From Peter Smaill
Sir: I’m afraid J.S. Bach wouldn’t last long in court (Rod Liddle, 18 November) suing Procol Harum for, er, ‘adapting’ the ‘Air on a G String’ to become a ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’. That’s because he himself ripped off Vivaldi, copied Handel and even reset the popish ‘Stabat Mater’ by Pergolesi.
However, conscious of the need to fingerprint several significant works, his putatively final masterpiece, the ‘Art of Fugue’, is signed in German musical notation, BACH. Less well known is that his very first cantata, BWV 150, has a BACH verbal acronymn in the final four lines. If it is accepted that there is a code in which B=1, A=2, C =3 and H=8, then a whole host of works are signed with the magical gematric 14, including the ‘Mass in B Minor’ and ‘St John Passion’, not to mention the 14 sharps in the penitential ‘Advent Chorale’, ‘Nun komm der Heiden Heiland’ (the latter chosen by Prince Charles as suitable for his marriage to the Duchess of Cornwall, by the way).
Peter Smaill
Borthwick, Midlothian
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