138 Antonio Vivaldi, A. 1743; a master of form. That fact turned the attention of German composers to him; while the popularity of his Violin Concertos also attracted musicians, like Bach, whose work at Cöthen was in close association with the Court Kapelle or band.
139 Bach re-wrote sixteen Vivaldi Violin Concertos for the Clavier, four of them for the Organ, and developed one into a Concerto for four Claviers and a quartet of strings which Forkel enumerates ( infra, p. 132) as a composition of Bach’s (Peters bk. 260). Bach learnt from Vivaldi “clearness and plasticity of musical structure.” See article _Vivaldi_ in Grove; Spitta, i. 411 ff; Schweitzer, i. 192 ff. The Vivaldi Clavier Concertos are in Peters bk. 217; the Organ Concertos in Novello bk. 11. Not all these transcriptions are based on Vivaldi. See Schweitzer, i. 193.
140 Girolamo Frescobaldi, b. 1583, d. 1644; Organist of St. Peter’s, Rome.
141 Delphin Strungk, b. 1601, d. 1694; Organist of St. Martin’s, Brunswick; composed for the Organ.
142 Purcell should be added to those whom Forkel mentions as Bach’s models. See infra, p. 261.
143 * See Kirnberger’s “Kunst des reinen Satzes,” p. 157. [The work was published in two volumes at Berlin in 1771, 1776.]
144 Transitus regularis= a passing note on the unaccented portions of the bar; transitut irregularis=a passing note on the accented part of the bar.
145 Spitta (iii. 315 ff. ) prints a treatise by Bach, _Rules and Instructions for playing Thorough-bass or Accompaniment in Four Parts,_ dated 1738. Rule 3 of chap. vi. states: “Two fifths or two octaves must not occur next one another, for this is not only a fault, but it sounds wrong. To avoid this there is an old rule, that the hands must always go against one another, so that when the left goes up the right must go down, and when the right goes up the left must go down.”
146 Actually the third beat of the fourth bar from the end. P. bk. 1 p. 37 Fugue no. 9.
147 Forkel edited the _Wohltemperirte Clavier_ for Hoffmeister in 1801.
148 The rule is not in the _Rules and Instructions_ already referred to.
149 Suite No. 6, in D minor (P. bk. 204 p. 84).
150 * Many people hold the opinion that the best melody is one which the largest number of persons can understand and sing. But this cannot be admitted, for if it were true, popular airs which are sung up and down the country by all classes, even the lowest, must be accounted the finest and best. I should be inclined to state the proposition conversely: a melody which attracts everybody is invariably of the most ordinary kind. In that form the statement might, perhaps, pass as a principle.