I do not choose to compare Bach with other artists. Whoever is interested to measure him with Handel will find a just and balanced estimate of their relative merits, written by one fully informed for the task, in the first number of the eighty-first volume of the _Universal German Library,_ pages 295-303.(13) So far as it is not derived from the short article in Mizler’s _Library_ already mentioned,(14) I am indebted for my information to the two eldest sons of Bach himself.(15) Not only was I personally acquainted with them, but I corresponded regularly for many years with both,(16) particularly Carl Philipp Emmanuel. The world knows them as great artists. But probably it is not aware that to the last moment of their lives they spoke of their father’s genius with enthusiastic admiration.(17) From my early youth I have been inspired by an appreciation no less deep than theirs. It was a frequent theme of conversation and correspondence between us. Thus, having been in a position to inform myself on all matters relating to Bach’s life, genius, and work, I may fairly hold myself competent to communicate to the public what I have learnt and to offer useful reflections upon it. I take advantage of my opportunity the more readily because it permits me to draw attention to an enterprise(18) that promises to provide a worthy monument to German art, a gallery of most instructive models to the sincere artist, and to afford music lovers an inexhaustible source of sublimest pleasure. CHAPTER I. THE FAMILY OF BACH If there is such a thing as inherited aptitude for art it certainly showed itself in the family of Bach. For six successive generations scarcely two or three of its members are found whom nature had not endowed with remarkable musical talent, and who did not make music their profession.(19) Veit Bach,(20) ancestor of this famous family, gained a livelihood as a baker at Pressburg in Hungary. When the religious troubles of the sixteenth century broke out he was driven to seek another place of abode, and having got together as much of his small property as he could, retired with it to Thuringia, hoping to find peace and security there. He settled at Wechmar, a village near Gotha,(21) where he continued to ply his trade as a baker and miller.(22) In his leisure hours he was wont to amuse himself with the lute,(23) playing it amid the noise and clatter of the mill. His taste for music descended to his two sons(24) and their children, and in time the Bachs grew to be a very numerous family of professional musicians, Cantors, Organists, and Town Musicians,(25) throughout Thuringia.