Except for the unmistakable seriousness of the author, this description might be taken as a joke, just as in one of the “Bible” Sonatas the deceit of Jacob is expressed by a deceptive cadence; but such extreme examples serve to emphasise the author’s declaration that, at times, words are indispensable.  Before noticing the sonatas themselves, one more quotation in reference to the same subject must be made from this interesting preface.  The humblest scholar, Kuhnau tells us, knows the rule forbidding consecutive perfect consonances, and he speaks of certain strict censores who expose the clumsiness of musical poets who have refused to be bound by that rule.  “But,” says Kuhnau, in lawyer-like language:  “Cessante ratione prohibitionis cessat ipsa prohibitio.”  The term musical poets (the italics are ours) is a remarkable one; Kuhnau himself, of course, was one of them.

Philipp Spitta, in his Life of J.S.  Bach, devotes one short paragraph to the Bible stories, and gives one or two brief quotations from the second; but they certainly deserve a longer notice.

The 1st Sonata is entitled “The Fight between David and Goliath.”  It opens with a bold section, intended, as we learn from a superscription, to represent the bravado of Goliath.  The giant’s characteristic theme, on which the whole section is built, is as follows:—­

[Music illustration]

Then follows a section in A minor.  A Chorale represents the prayer to God of the terrified Israelites, while the palpitating quaver accompaniment stands for the terror which seized them at sight of the giant; the harmonies are very striking.  This Chorale setting should be compared with one by Bach (Spitta’s Life of Bach, English edition, vol. i. p. 216), said to owe its existence to the influence of Georg Boehm, organist at Lueneburg at the commencement of the eighteenth century.  Next comes a little pastoral movement (C major, three-four time) expressive of David’s courage and of his confidence in God.  Then a tone-picture is given of the encounter; the heavy tread of the Philistine is heard in the bass, while semiquaver passages, evolved from a figure in the preceding movement, evidently portray the spirited youth.  One realistic bar scarcely needs the explanation given by Kuhnau that it is the slinging of the stone which smote the Philistine in his forehead; and the same may be said of the “Goliath falls” in the following bar:—­

[Music illustration:  Il combattere fra l’uno e l’altro, e la loro contesa.  Vien tirata la selce colla frombola nella fronte del gigante.  Casca Goliath.]

This section, limited to sixteen bars, is not only an early, but a notable specimen of programme-music; it is realistic, but not in the least ridiculous.  Rapid passages with points of imitation tell of the flight of the Philistines.  A bright movement (still in C) bears the superscription, “The joy of the Israelites at their victory”; in it there is an allusion to the pastoral movement.  Maidens then advance, with timbrels and instruments of music, to meet the victor, and the sonata concludes with a stately Minuet, similar in character to the Minuet in the Overture to Handel’s Samson; the people are dancing and singing for joy.