[Music illustration]

This, surely, must be the one mentioned in the above letter.

In 1760, Bach published six sonatas with varied repeats (_mit
veränderten Reprisen_), dedicated to Princess Amelia of Prussia. In
the preface the composer remarks that "nowadays change or repetition
is indispensable." He complains that some players will not play the
notes as written, even the first time; and again, that players, if the
changing on repetition is left to them, make alterations unsuitable to
the character of the music. These sonatas are of great historic
interest. This preface, also the evident necessity for additional
(inner part) notes at times, especially in the slow movements of E.
Bach and other composers of that day, make one feel that, as it now
stands, much of Bach's music is a dead letter. Here we are face to
face with a question which in a kindred matter has given rise to much
controversy. If the music is to produce its proper effect, something
must be done. To that (in the case of Emanuel Bach's sonatas) all
reasonable musicians must agree. Yet not, perhaps, as to what that
something should be. According to certain authorities, only additions
should be made which are strictly in keeping with the spirit of the
age in which the music was written. Some, on the other hand, would
bring the music up to date; they think it better to clothe
eighteenth-century music in nineteenth-century dress, than to ask
musicians with nineteenth-century ears to listen to patched-up
eighteenth-century music. The second plan would not be approved by
musicians who hold the classical masters in veneration; with a little
modification, the first one, however, ought to meet with general
acceptance. We may write in keeping with the spirit of a past age, but
the music must now be played on an instrument of different character,