s visit to Buxtehude formed another white milestone in his career.
He came back filled with enthusiasm and overflowing with ideas and plans
that a single lifetime could not materialize. Those who have analyzed
the work of Buxtehude and Bach tell us that there is a richness of
counterpoint, a vigor of style, a fulness of harmony, and a strong,
glowing, daring quality that in some pieces is identical with both
composers. In other words, Bach admired Buxtehude so much that for a
time he wrote and played just like him, very much as Turner began by
painting as near like Claude Lorraine as he possibly could. Genius has
its prototype, and in all art there is to be found this apostolic
succession. Bach first built on Reinke; next he transferred his
allegiance to Buxtehude; from this he gradually developed courage and
self-reliance until he fearlessly trusted himself in deep water,
heedless of danger. And it is this fearless, self-reliant and
self-sufficient quality that marks the work of every exceptional man in
every line of art. "Here's to the man who dares," said Disraeli. All
strong men begin by worshiping at a shrine, and if they continue to grow
they shift their allegiance until they know only one altar and that is
the Ideal which dwells in their own heart.

* * * * *

And now behold how Heinrich Bach had educated his people into the belief
that there was only one way to play, and that was as he did it. It is
not at all probable that Heinrich put forward any claims of perfection,
but the people regarded his playing as high-water mark, and any
variation from his standards was considered fantastic and absurd.

In all of the old German Protestant churches are records kept giving the
exact history of the church. You can tell for two hundred years back
just when an organist was hired or dismissed; when a preacher came and
when he went away, with minute mention as to reasons.

And so we find in the records of the Church at Arnstadt that the
organist, Johann Sebastian Bach, took a vacation without leave in the
year Seventeen Hundred Five, and further, when he returned his playing
was "fantastical."

With the young man's compositions the Consistory expressed echoing
groans of dissatisfaction. A list of charges was drawn up against him,
one of which runs as follows: "We charge him with a habit of making
surprising variations in the chorales, and intermixing divers strange
sounds, so that thereby