(f. h.)
BACH, Karl Philipp Emmanuel, second son of the above, was born at Weimar on the 14th March 1714, and died at Hamburg on the 14th September 1788. He was perhaps the most highly gifted musician of the eleven brothers, and his influence on the development of certain musical forms gives him a prominent place in the history of the art. He studied at the Thomasschule and afterwards at the university of Leipsic, devoting himself, like several of his brothers, to jurisprudence. In 1738 he took up his residence in Berlin, where he was soon afterwards appointed chamber musician to Frederick the Great. In 1767 he was allowed, after considerable negotiation, to relinquish his situation at court in order to accept the post of kapellmeister at Hamburg, where he passed the last twenty-one years of his life. He was a very prolific composer, his most ambitious work being the oratorio of The Israelites in the Wilderness. The majority of his compositions, however, were naturally written for his instrument, the clavier. His Versuch iiber die wahre Art das Klavier zu spielen (Essay on the true method of harpsichord playing) was long a standard work, and dementi professed to have derived from Bach his distinctive style of pianoforte playing. Haydn is said to have acknowledged in his old age his deep obligation to the works of Philipp Emmanuel Bach. From them he certainly learned the form of the sonata and symphony, of which Bach may fairly claim to have been the originator, though Haydn enriched it and gave it permanence. This fact gives Bach s name a distinction to which the intrinsic merits of his compositions might not entitle him, it being now generally agreed by the best critics that he was a somewhat feeble imitator of his father s style.
BACHE, Alexander Dallas, a distinguished American physicist, who has gained a wide reputation as superintendent of the great American Coast Survey, was a great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, and was born at Philadelphia, 19th July 1806. In 1821 he entered the military academy at West Point, and graduated there with the highest honours in 1825. For some time he acted as assistant professor in the academy, holding at the same time a commission as lieutenant of engineers, in which capacity he was engaged for a year or two in the erection of coast fortifications. He occupied the post of professor of mathematics in the university of Pennsylvania from 1827 to 1836, and was then made president of the newly-instituted Girard College. In this capacity he undertook a journey through some of the principal countries of Europe, in order to examine their systems of education, and on his return published a very valuable report. In 1843, on the death of Professor Hassler, he was appointed by Government to the office of superintendent of the coast survey. He succeeded in impressing Congress with a sense of the great value of this work, and by means of the liberal aid it granted, he carried out a singularly comprehensive plan with great ability and most satisfactory results. By a skilful division of labour, and by the erection of numerous observing stations, the mapping out of the whole coast proceeded simultaneously under the eye of the general director. Nor were the observations confined to mere description of the coast-line; the several stations were well supplied with instruments, and a vast mass of magnetic and meteorological observations was collected, such as must infallibly prove of infinite service in the future progress of physical science. The annual reports issued by the superintendent were admirable specimens of such summaries, and secured for him a high reputation among European savants. Professor Bache contributed numerous papers to scientific journals and transactions, and laboured earnestly to raise the position of physical science in America. For some months before his death, which took place at Newport, 17th February 1867, he was afflicted with softening of the brain, caused, perhaps, by intense and long-continued mental exertion.
BACHELOR, a word of various meaning, and of exceedingly obscure origin. In modern times the most common significations of it are (1), an unmarried person; (2), one who has taken the lowest degree in any of the faculties at a university. At various times, however, it has signified either a young man in general, from which the first of the modern meanings was easily developed ; or a knight who was unable to lead a body of retainers into the field, i.e., to use the technical phrase, was not able lever bannwre ; or, finally, an ecclesiastic at the lowest stage of his course of training. It has also been pointed out that bacheleria, which meant the body of aspirants to knighthood, came to be used as synonymous with gentry. Etymology gives little help in arranging these meanings so as to discover the unity underlying them. In mediaeval Latin the word baccalaria (connected by Ducange with vasseleria, by Stubbs with bacca, i.e., vacca, a cow), which, according to Diez, is peculiar to the south of France and the north of Spain, signified a certain portion of land, the size and tenure of which imposed on the possessor certain feudal duties. The possessor was called baccalarius, and the name readily acquired the signification of one who, from poverty or other cause, as youth, was not able to take rank as a knight. As a third stage in the use of the word, Diez marks out the application of it to denote the lowest degree in a university. But though these transitions from the primitive meaning may perhaps appear natural, thera is no historic evidence of their having taken place. The same applies to the five meanings given in Ducange.
We look with more prospect of success to the old French words bacelle, bacdote, bachelette, bachelerie, bachelage, which have all the meaning of youth, apprenticeship. They may possibly be connected with the Celtic or Welsh words, bach, little, bachgen, a boy. (See Wedgwood, s.v., who is of opinion that the baccalarius of the north of Spain is not in any way connected with our word bachelor.) It is very probable that this is truly the root of the word. It has, however, been frequently connected with baculus, a stick, from which is supposed to have come baculari.us, as the word used often to be spelled. (See Prompton um Parvulorum, s.v.) Whether the relation in this case is that of shooting forth or budding (cf. the Portuguese bacharel, a twig of vine, and Barbazan s derivation from baccalia), or the more obvious one suggested by the functions of the bacidarius, who appears to have acted as the monitor or praepostor at schools (see H. T. Eiley, Chronica Monasterii St Albani), is very doubtful.
