a
similar position at Weissenfels. His wife had died in 1720, leaving seven
children, of whom Friedermann and Philipp Emanuel had a great future before
them. (For his sons see BACH, K. P. E., below.) In December 1721 Bach
married again, and for the beautiful soprano voice of his second wife he
wrote many of his most inspired arias. She was a great help to him with all
his work, and her musical handwriting soon became so like his own that her
copies are difficult to distinguish from his autographs. In 1729 Bach heard
that Handel was for a second time visiting Halle on his way back to London
from Italy. A former attempt of Bach's to meet Handel had failed, and now
he was too ill to travel, so he sent his son to Halle to invite Handel to
Leipzig; but the errand was not successful, and much to Bach's
disappointment he never met his only compeer. Bach so admired Handel that
he made a manuscript copy of his _Passion nach Brockes_. This work, though
almost unknown in England then as now, was, next to the oratorios of
Keiser, incomparably the finest Passion then accessible, as Graun's
beautiful masterpiece, _Der Tod Jesu_, was not composed until four years
after Bach's death. The disgusting poem of Brockes (which was set by every
German composer of the time) was transformed by Bach with real literary
skill as the groundwork of the non-scriptural numbers in his _Passion
according to St John_.

All Bach's most colossal achievements, such as the _Passion according to St
Matthew_ and the _B Minor Mass_ (for discussion of which see ORATORIO and
MASS), date from his cantorship at Leipzig. But, important and congenial as
was his position there, and smooth as the course of his life seems to have
been until his death in 1750, he must have had quite as much experience as
can have been good for him. He was often ruffled by the town councillors of
Leipzig, who (like his earlier employers at Arnstadt) were shocked by the
"unecclesiastical style" of his compositions and by his independent
bearing. But he had more serious troubles. Of his seven children by his
first wife only three survived him. By his second wife he had thirteen
children, of whom he lost four of the six sons. For the head of so large a
family his post was dignified rather than lucrative, and few documents tell
a prouder tale of uncomplaining thrift than the inventory of his
possessions made after his death. One can only be thankful that he did not
live to see anything but the