ABSTRACT
The American musician important for the spread of Bach’s organ music was John Knowles Paine. Johann Sebastian Bach was almost unknown to the English musical public, as was the case in the United States. An account of musical tastes in one of the major east coast cities, Philadelphia, will illustrate the absence of Bach from the musical scene. Louis Madeira gives some information in his 1896 book on music in Philadelphia and the Musical Fund Society to 1858. The introduction of Bach chorale settings to the United States was subtle, but the individual deserving credit is A. N. Johnson, whose musical career began as a protege of Lowell Mason in the fields of public school and church music in 1838-39. The pattern of spreading the gospel of Bach was thus established at Harvard. In succeeding concerts on this organ in 1864, Paine played fourteen works of Bach, closely followed in number by ten of his own.
