Johann Sebastian Bach - booksnow.scholarsportal.info

FUX'S GRADUS.I23instruction has always been considerably in arrear of artisticpractice. So much, however, is certain that there werepractical musicians even at the beginning of that centurywho knew that the easiest introduction to the art of compositionwas the knowledge of thorough-bass. In the year1624 the Berlin Cantor, Johann Crüger, calls this method,which he himself employed, a well-known one ;^®'' andalthough for a time it held less prominence than variousother methods which he describes, it is certain that it neverdied out again, but that, like practical music itself, it waxedstronger and stronger, and, in Germany at least, graduallybecame the prevailing method.^^ Thus in employing thismethod Bach did nothing new, for it had been long inuse. Of course it had its weak points, and was liableto misuse and superficial treatment in unskilful hands. Onthis account it was assailed in the year 1725 by JosephFux, Capellmeister in Vienna, with his Gradits ad Parnassum;in this he begins the course of composition with simpletwo-part counterpoint, note against note, and, after athorough working out of the five kinds of simple two,three, and four-part counterpoint, he proceeds graduallyto imitation, to fugue in two, three, and four parts;he next treats of double counterpoint, applying the sameagain to fugue, and concludes with some chapters on thechurch style and recitative, thorough-bass and harmonyremaining unnoticed. This method was really new at thattime in certain circles, and Fux designated it as such,nor does he attempt to conceal the reactionary spirit whichled him to oppose the increasing arbitrariness and law-187 Crüger, Synopsis Mustces. Berlin, 1624. page 57: "jVos incipientibusgratificatiiri compendiosissimam illam et facillimam ingrediamur componendiviam,qiianimirnmad Fundamentnm prius substratum et positum reliqtKZ sttperioresmodiilationes adjici possint. Hoc enim qui poterit, facillirne postmodum melodiaregali Tcnoris et Cautus reliqiias adjunget voces.''''i**J. G. Walther, in his MS. instruction book of 1708, says, with evidentreference to Crüger's Synopsis: "And this is the most compendious and theeasiest way to compose, by building the other parts up from the bass, takingthat as the foundation. . . . Therefore we will keep to this said easymethod, and make a beginning of composition with four parts (as that whereonso much depends)."