77 Spitta (i. 513) infers that, in the later years of the Weimar period, Bach spent part of the autumn of every year in visits to the Courts and larger towns of Germany in order to give Organ recitals and to conduct performances of his Cantatas. Besides the visit to Halle, in 1713, to which Forkel alludes, Bach performed at Cassel in 1713 or 1714 before the future Frederick I. of Sweden, who presented him with a ring which he drew from his finger. Bach’s feet, an admirer recorded, “flew over the pedal-board as if they had wings.” In December 1714 he visited Leipzig and performed Cantata No. 61, _Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland._ In 1716 he was again invited to Halle, and at about the same time performed at Meiningen. Forkel records the famous contest with Marchand, the French Organist, at Dresden in 1717. 78 Forkel’s brief account follows the _Nekrolog._ Bach was in Halle in the autumn of 1713, a year after Zachau’s death. The latter’s post was still vacant and a new and particularly large Organ (sixty-three speaking stops) was being erected. The authorities pressed Bach to submit himself to the prescribed tests, and he complied so far as to compose a Cantata and to conduct a performance of it. On his return to Weimar he received a formal invitation to accept the post. After some correspondence Bach refused it, partly, perhaps chiefly, on the ground that the income was inadequate. The refusal was answered by the groundless accusation that he had merely entertained the Halle proposal in order to bring pressure upon Weimar for a rise of salary. The misunderstanding was cleared away by 1716, when Bach visited Halle again. In the interval Zachau’s post had been given to his pupil, Gottfried Kirchhoff. The whole matter is discussed at length in Spitta, i. 515 ff. 79 Frederick Augustus I. of Saxony was elected, as Augustus II., to the throne of Poland in 1697. He died In 1733. 80 Louis Marchand, b. 1669, d. 1732; Organist to the French Court and later of the Church of St. Honoré, Paris. His arrival in Dresden was due to his being in disgrace at Versailles. Whether or not he was offered a permanent engagement at the Saxon Court, he was regarded as the champion of the French style, and as such the challenge was issued to him by Bach. 81 Francois Couperin, b. 1668, d. 1733; Organist of St. Gervais, Paris. Forkel’s judgment upon his art is not supported by modern criticism. 82 Bach, however, admired Marchand’s compositions sufficiently to give them to his pupils. See Pirro, p. 52.