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

contrapuntal writing, but most of his mature rondos show a complexity of texture and
originality of structure that must have deterred many an amateur looking for ‘easy, fast
music’. When he does adopt a lighter, easier manner (as in sets of variations on ‘The
Lass of Richmond Hill’ or the College Hornpipe), the basis of his pianoforte style
reveals itself to be clearly derived from the galant generation of Abel and J. C. Bach—
somewhat old-fashioned for the time of Haydn and Clementi, let alone that of
Beethoven and Weber. Nevertheless, he could win the applause of the groundlings if
he chose. At one point he describes with glee how in ‘the Fantazia I played on the
Piano Forte I concluded with “Roly Poly Gammon & Spinach,” [“The frog he would a-
wooing go”] which tickled the Tobies 108 of the Button Makers 109 at such a rate, that I
thought I never should have gotten off the Stage, at least till I had broken my Back
with Bowing.’ 110 The ‘Fantazia’ in question was most likely improvised (although an
unpublished rondo on this tune survives); if not quite in the class of Clementi and
Cramer as a pianist, he was quite capable of playing to the gallery when necessary.
The most striking aspect of his attempts to woo the public, however, was his
deeply-rooted belief in the commercial potential of J. S. Bach. Johann Peter Salomon
(Haydn’s impresario) advised him thus: ‘What a Shame it is that such Music should
not be known in this Country where every Body pretends to be musical! I will tell you
what strikes me: if you were to have a Morning Party in some large Room capable of
containing a good Organ, & to play some of these Fugues of Bach, interspersed with
Voluntaries of your own, & make the tickets 7 shillings a Piece, I am persuaded that
you would make Money by it.’ 111 Burney seems to have made a similar suggestion—
Wesley writes to him: ‘Here is a Proof of the Truth of your Prophecy, that this
108 Buttocks
109 The concert was in Birmingham, where the manufacture of buttons was an important industry.
110 Letter to Benjamin Jacob, 25 October 1809, Olleson, Letters, p.121. In the same letter he describes
Salomon as having ‘more Zeal in planning, than Steadiness in the Execution of his Schemes’;
strangely, in view of the success of his Haydn concert series.
111 Letter to Burney, April or May 1808, ibid., p.63.
185