rs that no combination of tones since made by any writer
is without a precedent in the works of Bach; the strange chords of
Schumann and Wagner find their prototypes in the works of this great
Leipsic master. Melodically considered, Bach was a genius of the
highest order. Not only did he make this impression upon his own time
and upon the great masters of the next two generations, but many of
his airs have attained genuine popularity within the present
generation, and are played with more real satisfaction than most other
works that we have. This is the more remarkable because from the time
of his first residence in Leipsic when he was only twenty-four years
old he went out of that city but a few times, and heard very little
music but his own. He was three times married, and had twenty-one
children, many of whom were musical. Three of his sons became eminent,
and the principal episode of his later life was his visit to Potsdam,
where his son, Carl Phillip Emanuel, was musician to Frederick the
Great. Here he was received with the utmost informality by the king
and made to play and improvise upon all the pianos and organs in the
palace and the adjacent churches. As a reminiscence of this visit he
produced a fugue upon a subject given by Frederick himself, written
for six real parts. This work was called the "Musical Offering," and
was dedicated to Frederick the Great. In his later years Bach became
blind from having over-exerted his eyes in childhood and in later
life. He died on Good Friday in 1750.

CHAPTER XXIV.

GEO. FREDERICK HAeNDEL.

The companion figure to Bach, in this epoch, was that of George
Frederick Haendel, who was born at the little town of Halle in the same
year as Bach, 1685, and died in London in 1759. Haendel's father was a
physician, and although the boy showed considerable aptitude for music
his father did not think favorably of his pursuing it as a vocation;
but the fates were too strong for him. When George Frederick was about
eight years old, he managed to go with his father to the court of the
duke of Saxe Weissenfels, some distance away, where an older brother
was in service. Here he obtained access to the organ in the chapel,
and was overheard by the duke, who recognized the boy's talent, and,
with the authority inherent in princely rank, admonished the father
that on no account was he to thwart so gifted an inclination.
Accordingly the youngster had lessons in music upon the clavie