Johann Sebastian Bach - booksnow.scholarsportal.info

46 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH.in the spirit of the Reformation. This, more than anythingelse, is the free expression of his own powerfulindividuality—of an individuality which has drawn all itsnourishment from the life of the church, down to the rockof its foundation. This m.ass is more absolutely inseparablefrom the Protestant Church of his time than even thecantatas and Passion music. Though the Passion accordingto St. Matthew extended to a length which made theVesper service of Good Friday seem almost a secondaryobject, the connection was real, and, if only for the sakeof the chorales, quite indispensable. In the B minor massBach has refrained from any use of the congregationalhymn, although there were examples at hand for eachportion of the mass. He adopted no Sunday nor holy day,no church solemnity as its background ; and neverthelessthere is no work which more amply satisfies the true spiritof Protestantism. But when Bach purposed to work downto the very core of the liturgy, the height of the structurehad to correspond to the depth of the foundations ; hecould not let the edifice run up like a spire in the Protestantismof the time ; it must over-arch it. In this work theartist addressed himself ^ith independent Protestant feelingto the "one holy and universal Christian church"; any onewho yet recognised that, and had cherished its spirit, couldunderstand his work.Though, even in the B minor mass, certain portions arerecognisable as remodelled from cantatas, still the natureand purpose of the whole work at once dismiss any ideaof this having been done for convenience sake, or frompressinghaste ; a comparison of the re-arrangements withthe originals shows, too, that Bach carefully selected onlysuch pieces as agreed in poetic feeling with the words towhich they were to be adapted. In the Gloria, the sentenceGratias agiiniis tibi propter inagnam gloriam tuam was set toa chorus, of which the original words were " Wir dankendir Gott "—"We thank Thee, O Lord, we thank Thee, andproclaim Thy wonders"— (see Vol. II., p. 450). Inthe sameportion of the mass, the words Qui tollis peccata mimdi, &c.,are based on the first portion of the opening chorus of a