4 SEBASTIAN BACH AND HIS WORKS. 



held.* He is our Handel, belonging, we fondly imagine, to none 

 but ourselves ; me alone can understand him. Foreigners must be 

 content with their Leos, their Pergolesis, their Bachs, their Grauns, 

 and a host of other composers, respectable, no doubt, but not to be 

 named in the same breath with our idol, our own peculiar treasure, 

 the " giant Handel." And this because, instead of in Germany, he 

 lived and wrote in England ;t because he composed in a fog instead 

 of under a blue sky ; and because he gratified English self-love by 

 setting his music to English words. All this, doubtless, is con- 

 temptible enough J but, contemptible as it is, such is the fact: we do 

 but state it, in the hope that people, now knowing the seat of the 

 disease, will set about removing it with all diligence. 



Another cause of the neglect we are complaining of lies deeper, 

 but will be equally apparent when we have explained, further on, 

 what are the characteristics of Bach's music. At present we will 

 only state, and that without fear of contradiction, that it is his sur- 

 passing excellence, his entire freedom from the pedantic and conven- 

 tional observances of inferior minds, his independent boldness of 

 imagination, which dared and performed every thing worthy of 

 being performed, and, above all, the elevated ideal which was con- 

 tinually present to his mind, which has hitherto opposed effectual 

 barriers to his just appreciation and extended fame. Let not these 

 barriers any longer prevail ; let us break through the trammels in 

 which ignorance, self-esteem, and prejudice, have hitherto confined 

 us, and resolve to seek out, and when found to appreciate, whatever 

 is noblest and most elevated in the art ; not to remain satisfied with 

 any degree of excellence as long as there exists one yet more excel- 

 lent, nor to pride ourselves on a one-sided admiration of any com- 

 poser, resulting more from ignorance of his rival's than from due 

 estimation of his own merits. 



Another and the last cause which occurs to us is, the unreflecting 

 readiness with which most men bow down before authority — in 



• We vield to none in a rational admiration of Handel ; but what we 

 mean to assert is, that his almost exclusive celebrity in this country is owing 

 rather to adventitious and extrinsic circumstances than to admiration arising 

 from a knowledge of the merits of other composers, and his superiority over 

 them. Besides this, Handel was essentially a popular composer— that is, he 

 adapted his undoubtedly great powers to the capacities of uncultivated 

 tastes ; and inasmuch as he has done so has he lowered his claims to rank as 

 a great artist, in the highest acceptation of the term. 



f Handel composed the Messiah at Gopsall, the seat of Earl Howe, in 

 Iieicestershire. There is a good portrait of the "gigantic" melodist in the 

 earl's collection at this family residence. — Eds. 



