s which certain German
masters made to bring home to their countrymen an appreciation of
instrumental music. How long the seed lay germinating in Bach's mind we
know not. A new idea had taken possession of him, or, rather, he
contemplated the application of the principle of his former labors in
polyphony to instrumental music pure and simple.

At Koethen he supplemented his labors at Weimar. At Leipsic, whither we
shall presently follow him, he brought them to completion.

But we are anticipating. We have seen how patiently, how toilsomely,
Music has broken one by one the fetters of conventionality; how she has
grown in strength and beauty, anticipating the moment of her final
deliverance. It has come at last. With the patience and impatience of
genius Bach strikes in twain the last fetter of conventionality. He has
realized his quest. The boy who, far away in future thought, studied the
art-forms of his great predecessors and contemporaries in the lowly
chamber or by the light of the silent moon, has found his beloved, the
Tonal Muse. She stands free before him to serve his will--his will
purified by conception and incessant effort--and he will lead her in her
new-found freedom and place her in the path of progress.

Bach's compositions at this time include the early part of one of the
greatest of his works, the _Wohltemperirte Clavier_. In this work--the
second part of which was composed at Leipsic--Bach attained the full
mastery of form. The strivings and efforts of the great Netherland
masters found completion in this work of Bach. In it are compressed the
labors of centuries. The works of the masters, Okeghem, Dufay, Josquin
des Pres, and others, are but prophecies in tone, announcing a
realization of their ideal in the centuries yet to come, that ideal
which they felt so particularly, yet could not express. The
_Wohltemperirte Clavier_ then marks the first great climax of musical
art.

The evolution was certain, and it consummated in a kindred mind. The
deepest expression of human feeling, the agony of the dire distress and
conflict of life, the calm majesty of faith which enables the soul to
overcome every obstacle, its pathetic appeal to God for rest and
comfort, the strength of victory, are possible in music, are expressed
in music as no other art can express them, because of Bach.

True to his trust, he extracted all that was best in the works of his
predecessors and, vivifying it by his genius, created f