The English
regard him as one of their national glories, call him the "Saxon
Goliath," the "Michael Angelo of music," a "Bold Briareus with a hundred
hands," and have carved his form in enduring marble above his tomb in
Westminster Abbey. Nothing they have said can equal the tribute paid him
by the dying giant Beethoven, who pointing to Handel's works exclaimed:
"There is the truth."
Another lofty, yet wholly different personality, born also in 1685, is
found in Johann Sebastian Bach, whose Passion Oratorios, a direct
outgrowth of the Passion plays of old, furnish materials and inspiration
for all time. Handel worked in and for the public and fought his battles
in the great world. Bach was the lonely scholar who lived apart from
outside turmoil and unabashed in the presence of earthly monarchs,
reigned supreme in the tone-world. A typical Teuton, his music,
intensely earnest, highly intellectual, contains the essence of
Teutonism, and gives full, rich, copious expression to the inmost being
of humanity.
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