but seldom, for they require the most highly trained executive
ability. But if the average music-lover will become familiar with
the French and English Suites, with the Preludes and Fugues of
theWell-tempered Clavichord, with some of the Violin Sonatas,
he will find for his imagination and mental machinery a food
which, once enjoyed, becomes indispensable. For his music has
that greatest of qualities in art as in human relationships—it
wears well andlasts. We all know that books which reveal
everything at a first reading are soon thrown aside, and that
people whose depth of character and sweetness of disposition
we discern but slowly, often become our life-long friends. Music
which is too easily heard is identical with that which is imme-
diately forgotten. The first impulse created by any great work
of art is our longing to know it better. Its next attribute is
its power to arouse and hold our steady affection. These ob-
servations may be applied literally to Bach’s music, which can
be heard for a lifetime, never losing its appeal but continually
unfolding new beauties. Furthermore, in Bach, we feel the force
of a great character even more than the artistic skill with which
the personality is revealed. In this respect Bach in music is quite
on a par with Shakespeare in literature and Michael Angelo in
plastic art. With many musicians, there is so disconcerting and
inexplicable a discrepancy between their deeds as men and the
artistic thoughts for which they seem to be the unconscious me-
dia, that it is inspiring to come into touch with one who rings
true as a man whatever demands are made upon him; whose
music is free from morbidity or carnal blemish, as pure as the
winter wind, as elemental as the ocean, as uplifting as the stars.
In Bach let us always remember the noble human traits; for the
universal regard in which his work is held could never have come
merely from profound skill in workmanship, but is due chiefly
to the manly sincerity and emotional depth which are found
therein. The revival of his works, for which the world owes to
Mendelssohn such a debt, has been the single strongest factor
in the development of music during the 19th century; and their
influence[42] is by no means yet at an end, as may be seen from
the glowing tributes paid to him by such modern composers as
Franck, d’Indy and Debussy.[43]
[Footnote 41: Beethoven, commenting on the name, majestically
said: “He is no brook; he is the open sea!”]
[Footnote 42: For a very suggestive article on this point by