f development. It was, of course, natural that such
a new departure should attract the notice of John Sebastian Bach, who
was Kuhnau's immediate successor as cantor of St. Thomas' School,
Leipzig, and Spitta, in his life of Bach, refers to that composer's
_Capriccio sopra la lontananza del suo fratello dilettissimo_, and
reminds us that "Kuhnau as well as so many others had some influence
on Bach." Of course, among the "so many others," Froberger's name--as
we shall see later on from Kuhnau's preface--deserves a prominent
place. In addition to what Kuhnau says, Mattheson has recorded that
"Froberger could depict whole histories on the clavier, giving a
representation of the persons present and taking part in them, with
all their natural characters." When writing the Capriccio above named,
Spitta believes that Bach was specially influenced by the last of the
"Bible" Sonatas (we may perhaps add that Spitta tells us that Bach
was intimately acquainted with Kuhnau). He indeed says: "We might
doubt the early origin of the Capriccio if its evident 'dependence' on
Kuhnau did not solve the mystery." Then, again, in a Sonata in D by
Bach, published in the Bach Gesellschaft edition, Spitta calls
attention to the opening subject in D, and does not hesitate to
declare that "it is constructed on the pattern of a particular part of
the story of Jacob's marriage" (the 3rd of the "Bible" Sonatas). His
description of the Bach sonata would, doubtless, have attracted more
notice but for the fact that copies of the Kuhnau sonatas were
extremely rare; they were, we believe, never reprinted since the
commencement of the eighteenth century. The first two have now been
published by Messrs Novello & Co. The Kuhnau influence on Bach seems,
however, to have been of short duration; for, after these juvenile
attempts, as Spitta observes, "he never again returned to this branch
of music in the whole course of a long artistic career extending over
nearly fifty years." The fugue form absorbed nearly the whole
attention of that master; and the idea of programme-music remained in
abeyance until Beethoven revived it a century later.[16] Emanuel Bach
inherited some of his father's genius, and he may instinctively have
felt the utter hopelessness of following directly in his footsteps.
J.S. Bach had exhausted the possibilities of the fugue form. It was
perhaps fortunate for Emanuel Bach that, while still young, he left
his father's house. After residing for