vals and especially the convenience of the different
registers of the voice are very imperfectly considered, for which
reason his works have not been performed to anything like the extent
to which their musical interest would otherwise have carried them.
This is especially true of the greatest of all, the Passion according
to St. Matthew. It was first performed on Good Friday, 1729, in the
St. Thomas church at Leipsic, and it does not appear to have been
given again until 1829, when Mendelssohn brought it out. Since that
time it has been given almost every year in Leipsic, and more or less
frequently in all the musical centers of the world, but its
elaboration is very great and its vocal treatment unsatisfactory to
solo voices, for which reason it succeeds only under the inspiration
of an artistic and enthusiastic leader. In fact, all the great works
of Bach are more or less in the category of classics, which are well
spoken of and seldom consulted. While, in Beethoven's time, the whole
of the "Well Tempered Clavier" was not thought too much for an
ambitious youngster, at the present time there are few pianists who
play half a dozen of these pieces. The easier inventions for two
parts, some of the suites, several gavottes, modernized from his
violin and chamber music, and a very few of his other pieces for the
clavier, are habitually played.

It would be unjust to close the account of this great artist without
mentioning what we might call the prophetic element in his works. The
great bulk of Bach's compositions are in two forms, the Prelude and
the Fugue. The fugue came to perfection in his hands. It was an
application of the Netherlandish art of canonic imitation, combined
with modern tonality. In a fugue the first voice gives the subject in
the tonic, the second voice answers in the dominant, the third voice
comes again in the tonic, and the fourth voice, if there be one, again
in the dominant. Then ensues a digression into some key upon what
theorists call the dominant side, when one or two voices give out the
subject and answer it again, always in the tonic and dominant of the
new key. Then more or less modulating matter, thematically developed
out of some leading motive of the subject, and again the principal
material of the theme, with one or more answers. The final close is
preceded by a more or less elaborate pedal point upon the dominant of
the principal key, after which the subject comes in. With very few
ex