As Palestrina marks the culmination of the unaccompanied (_a capella_) church music of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, so Bach is the highest representative of Protestant Church music. Yet he is more than this, for in his sacred cantatas and passions he reveals a nature more profoundly religious than even Handel or Palestrina. His Passion music to St. Matthew has no rival in its special form. It is the sublimest conception in music of the trials and death of Jesus. Among similar works before and during Bach’s time, his passions are the only ones that have lived. The oratorio has replaced the passion; but the older form as perfected by Bach possesses a certain reality and intensity of religious fervor that not even the grandest oratorios of Handel can match, except possibly the “Messiah.” Notwithstanding the sublimity, variety and vocal effectiveness of the latter work, the St. Matthew Passion surpasses it in lyric pathos and dramatic fire. Handel’s long experience with the public, his Italian vocal training, the example of Purcell and other masters of the English anthem, were important factors in his artistic development, and enabled him to carry the art of solo and chorus composition to the highest perfection. On the other hand, Bach’s difficult choral style suggests the organ, and his airs, though full of religious pathos, are often stiff and archaic in style. Great as Bach is in his vocal works, he is still greater in his instrumental music. Through him, for the first time in history, instrumental music reaches a point of influence where it predominates. He is justly considered as the true progenitor of modern instrumental music, and largely to his influence we owe the subsequent wonderful development of this youngest branch of art. Handel, on the other hand, had little influence on instrumental music. His counterpoint is more vocal than instrumental; he makes a more limited use of dissonances and modulation. Bach stood far in advance of his time in these respects, and anticipated many of the effects of the present day. His remarkable use of chromatic and enharmonic modulation is exhibited in all his principal works, especially in such movements as the great organ Fantasia in G minor. (Volume II., Peters’ Edition.) As a master of the fugue, nay, of all polyphonic writing, Bach stands pre-eminent, a model for all time. We are overcome by the inexhaustible wealth of his ideas, that seem as boundless as the forces of nature, and we constantly feel the emotional depth and romantic sentiment of this wonderful artist. He not only perfected the stricter forms of counterpoint, but the older, lighter forms found their ideal in his charming clavier suites, violin sonatas, etc. His “Well-Tempered Clavichord” is a unique work, one of the corner-stones of modern music.