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Dlgnitate Thcrincte," alfo 410. Patavli, 153.^ ; «' De Na- 

 turali Viiionim Hiftoria, de Vinis Italian, et Oe Convivns An- 

 tiquomm," fol. Rome, 1596; " De Gemmis et Lapuiibas 

 pnetioris, decorum viribus et ufii," l2mo. Fiancf. 1603, 

 and 1643; with various other works. Haller Bib. Med. 



Praa. p.157. . . . 



BACCOFOE, in Botary, the name of a fruit very corn- 

 mon in Guinea. It is like the banana, except tlmt it is 

 whiter, thicker, and fliorter. The talle and fmell are both 

 very agreeable , and fome pretend, that on cutting it through 

 tranfv«-lely, there is tb'S figure of a crucifix on each fide of 

 it. Phil. Tranf. N° 108. 



BACH, Sebastian, m Biography. The il'.uftrious fa- 

 milv of Bach has produced more great muficians, than any 

 other fmgle family in Germany, or, perhaps, in Europe ; as 

 previous to tht great eminence to which Seballian had arri- 

 ved, early in the laft century, bis family, according toWalther, 

 had diftinguiihed itfelf in the profeflion of mufic, particular- 

 ly in organ-plaving, for four generations. Iiinumcrabl<e are 

 the llones lliU ciiculating in Giirmany, of Sebailian Bach's 

 conflifts and triun^phs over great competitors, till at length, 

 like a courfer often victorious, his for.T. was fo high, as to 

 difcourage all competition. He was as fuperior to all or- 

 gan-players on the continent, as Handel was in England. 

 The performances andcompofitions of thefe two great mufi- 

 cians, not only furpafTed thofe of all their cotempcirarics, 

 but ellablifhed a llyle of playing and writing for the organ, 

 which is ftill refpeded and imitated by the greateil organills 

 in Germany, where men of fuperior abilities have always 

 abounded, and been celebrated, not only for treating the ma- 

 nuals, but the pedals of that noble inftrument. 



Sebaftian Bach is faid by Marpurg, in his "Art de la 

 Fugue," to have been " many great muficians in one, pro- 

 found in fcience, fertile in fancy, and in tafte eafy and na- 

 tural;" he fhould rather have faid, original and refined, for 

 to the epithets eafy and natural many are unwilling to af- 

 fent ; as this truly great man feems by his works tor tlie 

 organ, to have been condantiy in fearch of what was new 

 and difficult, without the leall attention to nature and fa- 



cility. 



Old Kirkman, the harpfichord maker, ufed to relate the 

 ■extraordinary curiofily excited at Salzburg, when Handel and 

 Sebailian Bach happe'ntd to meet in that city. On their go- 

 ing together to the cathedral, they found it ib full that they 

 could fcarcely get to the organ-loft ; and when one of them 

 opened the organ, it was not jfoiTible for more perfons to 

 crowd into the church. But fo great was the fame of thefe 

 performers, that thofe who could not gain admlffion into 

 the interior of the building, procured ladders, and placed 

 them at the windows, in order to gratify their ears with all 

 the pafTages which the full organ could convey to tliem 

 through ail impediments. 



0( Sebcijiicn Back, who was fucceffively cantor, organift, 

 and mufic director, at Leipfig, all the mnfical writers of 

 ■Germany for thefe lalt fixty years, have born teflimony to 

 ■the abihties. Quantz in his "Art of Playing the Flute," 

 ■written during the life of Bach, fays, that this admirable 

 mufician had brought organ playing to the higlieft degree 

 of perfcftion. 



The cl. ilienge which he received and accepted, from the 

 celebrated French orgaiill Marchand, at Drefden, is well 

 known in Germany. Upon the arrival of Marchand in that 

 city, after he had vanquhhed all the organilh of Fiance and 

 Italy, he offered to play extempore with any German whom 

 the king of Poland could prevail upon to enter the lifts 

 againft him ; n.) one at Drefden had the courage to encoun- 

 ter fo fuccefsiul a champion ; but an exprefs being fent to 



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Sehaftian Bach, who was at that time a young man, and re- 

 fiHing at Wein;ar, he came away immediately, and, like ano- 

 ther David, vanqnillicd this Goliah. It mull not, however, 

 be concluded from this defeat, that Marchand was a mean 

 performer ; if that had been the cafe, the victory over him 

 would have added notliing to tiie fame of his competitor. 

 It was an honour to Pompey that he was conquered by 

 Cifar, and to Marchand to be only vanquilhed by Bach. 



This was the Bach whom the learned editor of the Latin 

 Thefaurus, John Matthias Gefner, has celebrated in his 

 notes on Qiiinftilian, i. xii. p. 61. where the ancient citharse- 

 difts are extolled for the ufe they made of their feet as well 

 as their hands (perhaps merely to beat time) in their per- 

 formance. The critic addrelliiig himfelf to the (hade of 

 Qiiinftilian, exclaims ; " you would think but fiightlv, my 

 dear Fabias, of all thofe exertions of the cithara;dilts, if you 

 could revifit the world, and attend tlie exhibitions of Bach, 

 one of my colleagues in the univerfity of Leipfig ; who, 

 when at the great organ, while every finger of both hands 

 is engaged at the manuals, his feet are running over the pe- 

 dals with a (liill and velocity which feveral of your cithaia;- 

 dills with 5C0 tibicinifts could not emulate ; nor is his dex- 

 terity inferior in direiling a band of thirty or forty perfor- 

 mers, all em.ployed at once ; correcting the time of one by 

 his nod, of another by his foot', and of a third by holding 

 up a threatening finger ; giving the right note to one from 

 the top of his voice, to another from the bottom, and to a 

 third from the middle of it ; if you could have fecii him 

 amidil the very powerful founds with which he was fur- 

 roundid, performing a very difficult part himfelf, yet 

 marking wlicncc proceeded the leaft difcordance, and aid- 

 ing thofe that erred ; favourer as I am of antiquity, the 

 exertions of our Bach appear to me to eflccl what not 

 many Orpheufes, nor twenty Arions, could atchieve." — • 

 " Maximus alioquin antiquitatis fautor, multos unum Or- 

 pheas et viginti Arionas coinplexum Bachium meum, et 

 fi quis illi fimihs fit forte, arbitror." Seballian Bach died 

 at Leipfig in 1754. 



Bach, C barks Philip Emanud, fon of Sebaflian, refided 

 many years at Berlin, in the fervice of Frederic II. king 

 of Pruflia: he was afterwards, mufic-direclor at Hamburg, 

 and long regarded as the greatctl compofer and perfor- 

 mer on keyed inflrumcnts of his time ; he was certainly 

 the founder of the prelent ftyle of compo'.ition for the 

 piano-forte, as his father and Handel had been for that 

 of the organ. It was obferved by Abel, that if Sebal- 

 tian Bach and his admirable fon Emanuel, inflead of being 

 niufic-direftors in commercial cities, had been fortunately 

 employed to compofe for the flage and public of great 

 capitals, fuch as Naples, Paris, or London, and for per- 

 formers of the firft clafs, they would doubtkfs have fim- 

 phfied their flyle more to the level of their judges ; the 

 one would have facrificed all unmeaning art and contri- 

 vance, and the other have been lefs fantaflical and recherche^ 

 and both, by writing in a flyle more popular, and gener- 

 ally intelligible and pleafmg, would have extended their 

 fame, and been indifputably the gieatefl muficians of the 

 eighteenth century. 



Emanuel Bach, in his life, written at our requetl by 

 himfelf, has fome excellent refleCHons on his own llyle, 

 which he formed and polifiied by hearing the grcatefl per- 

 formers, vocal and inftrumental, of his youth, who vilited 

 his father, ov were employed in the theatre at Berlin. 

 When the critics, fays he, are difpoftd to judge impar- 

 tially, which feldom happens, they are frequently too fe- 

 vere on works that come under their lafh, from not know- 

 ing the circumllances that gave tliem birth, or remember- 

 ing 



