![]() ![]() That Forkel is remembered at all is due solely to his monograph on Bach. The rest of his life was spent at Göttingen, where he died on March 17, 1818, having just completed his sixty-ninth year. In 1780 he received from the University the doctorate of philosophy. Four years later (1778) he was appointed its Director of Music, and from 1779 to 1815 conducted the weekly concerts of the Sing-Akademie. ![]() Concurrently he pursued his musical activities, and in 1774 published at Göttingen his first work, Ueber die Theorie der Musik, advocating the foundation of a music lectureship in the University. ![]() He used his opportunity to acquire a knowledge of modern languages, which stood him in good stead later, when his researches required him to explore foreign literatures. Three years later he betook himself (1769), at the age of twenty, to the University of Göttingen, which he entered as a law student, though a slender purse compelled him to give music lessons for a livelihood. Thence, at the age of seventeen (1766), he proceeded to Schwerin as “Chorpräfect,” and enjoyed the favour of the Grand Duke. Forkel's professional career, like Bach's half a century earlier, began at Lüneburg, where, at the age of thirteen (1762), he was admitted to the choir of the parish church. Like Handel, he found a derelict Clavier in the attic of his home and acquired proficiency upon it. In particular he profited by the “Vollkommener Kapellmeister” of Johann Mattheson, of Hamburg, the sometime friend of Handel. He obtained books, and studied them with the village schoolmaster. Presumably he would have followed the craft of his father, the village shoemaker, had not an insatiable love of music seized him in early years. Johann Nikolaus Forkel, author of the monograph of which the following pages afford a translation, was born at Meeder, a small village in Saxe-Coburg, on February 22, 1749, seventeen months before the death of Johann Sebastian Bach, whose first biographer he became. ![]()
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