104 Gottfried Silbermann, a pioneer of the modern pianoforte. Bach was already familiar with his Claviers with hammer action, and indeed had offered useful criticism of which Silbermann had taken advantage. See Spitta, ii. 46.
105 * The pianofortes manufactured by Silbermann, of Freiberg, pleased the King so much, that he resolved to buy them all. He collected fifteen. I hear that they all now stand, unfit for use, in various corners of the Royal Palace. [Robert Eitner, in 1873, found one of the pianos in Frederick the Great’s room at Potsdam.]
106 According to another account, which Spitta (iii. 232) follows, Bach played before a large congregation in the Church of the Holy Spirit, Potsdam. The King does not appear to have been present. The extemporisation of the six-part Fugue took place in Frederick’s presence on the evening of that day.
107 Bach’s letter to Frederick accompanying the gift is dated 7th July 1747. He calls it “a musical offering, of which the noblest portion is the work of Your Majesty’s illustrious hand.” In addition to Forkel’s analysis it contains a Sonata for Flute, Violin, and Clavier, and a canon perpetuus for the same three instruments.
108 John Taylor (1703-72), oculist to George II. The operation took place in the winter of 1749-50. Taylor is said to have operated on Handel in 1751 (see the article on him in the _Dict. Nat. Biography._). Streatfield (_Handel,_ p. 212), however, does not mention Taylor, and his account suggests that Samuel Sharp, of Guy’s Hospital, was the operator in Handel’s case.
109 The actual date was July 28, at 8.45 P.M. Bach was working to the very moment of his collapse on July 18. Probably his last work was the Choral Prelude (Novello bk. xvii. 85) on the melody _Wenn wir in höchsten Nöthen sein._ Facing eternity, he bade his son-in-law, Altnikol, inscribe the movement with the title of the Hymn, _Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiemit,_ whose first stanza filled his mind:
Before Thy throne, my God, I stand, Myself, my all, are in Thy hand.
An addendum to the Genealogy, in C. P. E. Bach’s hand, gives July 30 as the date of his father’s death.
111 See Genealogical Tables VII. and VIII.
112 The statement is misleading. Of the five sons of the first marriage, two were famous, two died in infancy, and the fifth abandoned a promising musical career for the law. Of the six sons of the second marriage, one was imbecile, three died in infancy, two were famous.