J. S. BACH Jonathan Berkahn - Victoria University - Victoria ...

his nature to be exclusive about anything musical. His career had begun in the 1740s,
with a musical world dominated by Handel, Geminiani, and Domenico Scarlatti. He
lacked, however, the antiquarian cast of mind possessed by his contemporary
Hawkins, 87 and had no desire to reflect longingly upon the glories of the past. Instead,
as generation succeeded generation: Arne, Boyce, Abel, J. C. Bach, Sacchini,
Giordani, Gluck, and eventually Haydn and Mozart, he continued to expand his
horizons and keep up with the latest developments. Indeed, this colleague of Handel
even remarked favourably on certain pieces of ‘that gigantic youth Beethoven, Whose
feet, beyond a dout are cloven’ 88 when he came across them in 1803. In the light of
this, his late development of a taste for J. S. Bach could be seen partly as a
continuation of this diversifying process, partly as a example of his willingness to keep
abreast of contemporary developments in musical taste. For Samuel Wesley, Bach
was ‘the greatest Master of Harmony in any Age or Country, 89 ‘the very Quintessence
of all musical Excellence’, 90 ‘the great Musical High Priest’, 91 and, when all epithets
failed, simply: ‘the MAN’. 92 By contrast: ‘Bach was not the greatest of all musicians in
Burney’s estimation, but he never assigned that honor to anyone because in his view
music was in the process of continuous refinement.’ 93 There was simply no room for
such a concept in Burney’s capacious mind.
Nevertheless, there is no doubt that, if Burney did not quite fulfil Wesley’s
hopes by abjuring his former ways, his attitude does seem to have altered by his
87 This would seem to be a strange qualification for a historian, but there is no doubt about the relief
with which he concludes his treatment of Medieval and Renaissance music, and his growing ease and
enjoyment as he approaches the music of his own time. It is in fact precisely this sympathy with his
contemporaries that makes him such a valuable commentator.
88 From a poem Burney wrote in 1804, quoted in Lonsdale, Burney, p.478.
89 Letter to Jacob, 17 October 1808, Olleson, Letters, p.75.
90 Letter to Jacob, 2 March 1809, ibid., p.99.
91 Letter to Benjamin Jacob, 13 August 1808, ibid., p.71.
92 ‘...(which expression I now prefer to any Epithet of ‘great’ or ‘wonderful’, &c, which are not only
common, but weak, as is every other Epithet applied to one whom none can sufficiently praise)’; in
letters to Jacob: 4 September 1809, 5 November 1809, and 24 November 1809 (ibid., pp.117, 128,
and 130)—although earlier he had his doubts, speaking of ‘our matchless Man (if Man he may be
called)’ (19 October 1808, p.81).
93 Grant, Burney, p.197.
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