Scan 36
Violin master works and their interpretation, 1925
12 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1CHAPTER II.
3BACH'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE VIOLIN REPERTOIRE.
5In writing anent instrumental music of any kind we must hark back with devotion to its originator, its real creator, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), the source and fountainhead of all music to the present day, whose genius influenced most of the greater composers who followed him at a later date* and helped develop their own genius.
7The history of music tells the tale of Felix Mendelssohn's discovery of the great Bach choral compositions, and of that epoch-making performance of the "St. Matthews' Passion" in Berlin, in 1829, which first called general attention to the unique value and importance of Bach's creative work. And it was Ferdinand David in Leipzic who earned the undying gratitude of the violinistic world by discovering the "Solo Sonatas for Violin" and the famous "Six Sonatas for Violin and Piano." David edited and published these works, and Joseph Joachim was the first to introduce them to the musical world at large. And it was due to Joachim's matchless presentation and interpretation of them that these compositions became a fundamental pillar of violin literature. We find one or another of the Bach Sonatas or movements from them represented on the programmes of most of the contemporary virtuosos.
9Before taking up the "Six Sonatas" individually, we must consider a single movement of one among them, whose over-
11* Johann Sebastian Bach's greatest contributions to the literature of the violin, the "Solo Sonatas for Violin" and the "Six Sonatas for Violin and Piano," were not generally known to his contemporaries. Very few of Bach's works were even published during his lifetime, most of them still being in Mss. more than a century after his death, while many have been lost. His works were practically ignored for more than half a century after he died. The Italian composers dominated the field of violin composition toward the middle of the eighteenth century, and that Bach was acquainted with their works is shown by his transcribing sixteen Vivaldi violin concertos for the pianoforte and four for the organ. These somewhat bare originals he transformed by the power of his genius into true masterpieces. As Wasielewski says: "If we compare the Vivaldi Concerto in the private library of the King of Saxony with Bach's (piano) transcription, we can see what has happened to the Italian composer's dry skeleton. It seems as though some magic power had turned a meagre grassplot into an attractive flower-bed!" Bach's immortal original "Sonatas," however, are altogether his own; yet as we have said, their influence did not make itself felt until long after their creator had passed away.
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