The real soul of Bach’s organ art is to be found in that numerous group of his organ works that take the chorale for basis and inspiration. Many of these are short compositions intended for use in the church service, but many are long and elaborate and written for concert use. They appear in three forms, the chorale-prelude (figured and fugal), the chorale-fantasia, and the chorale-variation. The signification of the chorale in the services of the Church to which Bach had dedicated the full strength of his artistic powers sank deep into his soul and the heart-beat of religious sentiment and devotion constantly furnished stimulus and direction to his imagination and intellect. His chorales frequently speak to us in a language suggestive of words, but which words cannot express, the secret remaining in the music. Inexhaustible are the forms that thus find characteristic expression, born of the poetical suggestion. In the chorale ‘Through Adam’s fall we all are doomed’ the fall into sin is suggested by the ever-recurrence of the interval of a seventh in the bass. In _Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam_ the rushing waters of the river Jordan are portrayed by the swift notes of the bass in the left hand with 16-foot tone, while the subject is played by the pedal with 8-foot tone. In the variations on the chorale _Vom Himmel hoch da komm’ ich her_ in canon-form, Bach astonishes with his almost superhuman mastery of contrapuntal devices, but the expressive power never suffers, the mathematical element and the musical fantasy joining in harmonious and poetical union. So many of Bach’s works have been transcribed for other instruments[104] that the following comment by Busoni[105] will have interest: ‘One finds among the master’s organ works pieces of a more pianistic character, as one finds among the piano fugues some that show the type of organ pieces. The technical manner of Bach’s writing is in its essence the same for both instruments. The transcription of his works from the organ to the piano (or _vice versa_) cannot, therefore, be regarded as wrong, esthetically considered.’ IV