Johann Sebastian Bach - booksnow.scholarsportal.info

294 APPENDIX.These were exhausted by October 6, 1748, and on that day he %vrote tohis cousin, Elias Bach, of Schweinfurt, to have a few more copiesprinted off at once, and that each copy was to cost one thaler.Whether the trio was included in this order is doubtful since he onlymentions the " Preussiche Fuge." The work afterwards came into themarket, and in 1761 it was sold by Breitkopf for i thlr, 12 gr., as wesee by his circular for Easter, 1761. But, according to the commoncustom at that time, it was also much copied, and as it was not acomplete or inseparable whole each one transcribed only as much as hepleased, and in whatever order was most convenient. Complete copiesin MS. must have been extremely rare, and I do not know of asingle one now existing. Agricola copied the three-part simple fugueand three of the canons ; this MS. is in the Amalien-Bibliothek. Abovethe first canon he has written ": Canone perp : sopra il soggetto dato dalR^" and Kirnberger has used the same superscription in his " Kunstdes reinen Satzes," II., 3, p. 45.9 (p. 219). Six Chorales for the Organ. Rust was the firstto point out (B.-G., XXV.,^ p. V.) that the title of the original editionaffords a ground for estimating the date of its publication ; his onlyerror is that he limits it to 1747— 1749. Friedemann Bach was establishedas organist at Halle by 1746 (see Chrysander, Jahrb. für Mus. Wissensch.Vol. II., p. 244), and it is possible the work may have been publishedeven so late as 1750. Bach kept up business relations with Schüblertill his death ; in the papers relating to his affairs and bequests we find,among " other necessary payments," paid to " Herr Schübler 2 thlr.16 gr." This small sum could not relate to the "Kunst der Fuge";besides, it is improbable on other grounds that Schübler should haveengraved that work; but it may very well relate to the six chorales,and we may infer that these either were not published till 1750, or thatsome new copies were at that tirae printed off.10 (p. 219). The Variations on " Vom Himmel hoch.'*The Necrology says, p. 173, " Bach delivered to the Society the chorale' 'Vom Himmel hoch completely worked out, and it was afterwards engravedon copper." From this the work cannot have been engraved untilafter Bach had presented it to the Society. As he was busy all through thesummer of 1747, and even before that, the chorales cannot very wellhave appeared before 1748. This result cannot be reconciled with acertain remarkable circumstance. In 1745 Emmanuel Bach broughtout, through Balthasar Schmidt, of Nuremberg, a clavier concerto withaccompaniments in D major (see his autobiography in Burney III., p.203), and this concerto is numbered 27 by the publisher. Seb. Bach'ssetting of the Christmas chorale is numbered 28, and therefore musthave been brought out immediately after his son's work. Schmidt wasjust then much employed (see ante, note 6) ; but if the chorales were notpublished till after Bach had joined the Society, Schmidt would havepublished nothing for about three years, and that is incredible. It in