the rescue of the old school of vocal worship, but also as the final
word and ultimate model for future church music.

Some years later, at the very height of his glory, Palestrina's heart
suffered its final blow. In the words of Baini, "Lucrezia, _la sua dolce
consorte_, after having piously accompanied the solemn procession for
the transport of the body of Saint Gregory Nazianzeno from the church of
the monks of S. Maria Campa Marzo to the Vatican the fourth of June,
1580, was assailed by a most oppressive malady."

The attentions of her husband and the remedies of the medical art of
that day kept her alive up to the first of July. Then the sickness began
anew and "neither the tears nor the voice of the loving companion
prevailed against the inexorable scythe of death." On the 21st of July
Lucrezia died. The next day her body was received at the Vatican,
Giovanni watching in the schoolroom of the chapel.

It is easy to picture the wild grief of this man, whom a previous
anxiety had thrown into an almost mortal fever. Yet he lived fourteen
busy years, and in his old age he felt both fatigue and want, and was
compelled to join the long list of those musicians who have appealed to
their patrons for charity. But at least his life, like Bach's and that
of many another, had proved that marriage is not always and necessarily
a failure when set to music.

CHAPTER VIII.

BACH, THE PATRIARCH

The genealogy of the Bachs shows them to have been in the habit of
marrying at least two or three times apiece, and of being very prolific.

Johann Ambrosius Bach, the father of "the Father of Modern Music," had a
twin brother, Johann Cristoph. They were astonishingly alike in mind and
manner and mien. They suffered the same disorders and died nearly
together. Their wives, it is said--_horresco referens_!--could not tell
them apart. J. Christoph was sued for breach of promise by a girl whom
he said he had discussed matrimony with and exchanged rings with, but
tired of. The Consistory ordered him to marry her, but he appealed to a
higher court and was absolved from the tenacious woman whom he said he
"hated so that he could not bear the sight of her." He married another
woman four years later.

The great Bach, Johann Sebastian, was the youngest of six children. His
mother died when he was nine years old, but with Bachic haste his
father remarried; the new wife was a widow and seemed to be in the habit
of it, for she buried