Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (March 8, 1714 – December 14, 1788) was a German musician and composer, the second surviving son of five sons for Johann Sebastian Bach and his first wife, Maria Barbara Bach. His early works were the epitome of the grand Baroque style, while his later works were the foundation of the Classical style, composing in the Rococo and Classical periods. Standing in the shadow of his famous father J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach is often overlooked as a composer, yet he created imaginative Sonatas for keyboard, and made significant contributions to Protestant Church music in the second half of the Eighteenth Century. During this time he was known as the "Great Bach," the most distinguished son of J.S. Bach. His compositions were the advocate of transition from J.S.Bach, Telemann, and Handel to Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven.

Life and works

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was born in Weimar, Germany, to Maria Barbara and J.S.Bach. Two days old, Bach was baptised in the Lutheran Church with Telemann as a godfather. Three years later, in 1717, his family moved just over 200 miles to Cöthen, where J.S.Bach was appointed kapellmeister. Three years after that Maria Bach died, and in 1723 the family moved again to Leipzig, where C.P.E.Bach attended the Thomasschule, at the age of ten, as a day student. J.S.Bach said later that one of his reasons for accepting the post of Kantor at the Thomasschule was that his sons’ intellectual development suggested that they would benefit from a university education.

The young Bach continued his education as a student of jurisprudence at the Universities of Leipzig (1731) and of Frankfurt (Oder) (1735). During this time he was trained by his father in music on the keyboard and organ. From the age of fifteen he participated, with his father, in church music and also in the collegium musicum. In 1738, at the age of 24, he received his law degree, but soon after, abandoned his prospects of a legal career, determining instead to devote himself to music.

In 1740 he obtained an appointment in the service of the Frederick II of Prussia ("Frederick the Great"), the then crown prince, and he moved to Berlin. Frederick the Great, one of the greatest "scholar kings" of all time, was an accomplished flautist. His interests in music lead him to assemble a musical entourage consisting of several of the greatest performers and composers of his time, like Carl Heinrich Graun, Johann Joachim Quantz, and Johann Gottlieb Naumann. He was by this time one of the foremost keyboard instrumentalists in Europe. His earliest compositions date back to 1731. Bach composed about thirty sonatas and concert pieces, which were performed on his favorite instrument, the keyboard. His reputation was established by the two sets of sonatas which he dedicated respectively to Frederick the Great and to the grand duke of Württemberg, which in 1746, lead to his promotion as chamber musician.

During his residence in Berlin, he wrote a fine setting of the Magnificat (1749). This piece shows many traces of his father's influence. Bach composed an Easter cantata (1756); several symphonies and concerted works; at least three volumes of songs; and a few secular cantatas and other occasional pieces. But his main work was concentrated on the clavier, for which he composed, at this time, nearly two hundred sonatas and other solos, including the set Mit veränderten Reprisen (1760-1768) and a few of those für Kenner und Liebhaber. Meanwhile he placed himself in the forefront of European critics by his Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen, a systematic and masterly treatise which by 1780 had reached its third edition, and which laid the foundation for the methods of Muzio Clementi and Johann Baptist Cramer.

Although Bach served Frederick for nearly thirty years, Frederick ignored Bach's compositions and resented the independance he expressed. Fortunately for Bach, Frederick became more involved in the Seven Years War and was freqently away. It was during this time that Bach was introduced to Italian opera seria, and it's dramatic style influenced his compositions.

Because Bach was grossly underpayed, compared to other musicians like Nichelmann, Quantz, and the Graun brothers, he began applying for posts in other cities. Finally in 1767, when his godfather G.P. Telemann, cantor and music director in Hamburg, died, Bach applied for the position and was chosen to succeed him. Frederick finally released Bach after repeated requests, and in March 1768 Bach took up the position in Hamburg, where he remained to the end of his life.

In consequence of his new office, Bach began to turn his attention more towards church music. The next year he produced his oratorio Die Israeliten in der Wüste, a composition remarkable not only for its great beauty, but for the resemblance of its plan to that of Felix Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah, and between 1769 and 1788 added over twenty settings of the Passion, and some seventy cantatas, litanies, motets, and other liturgical pieces. At the same time, his genius for instrumental composition was further stimulated by the career of Joseph Haydn. He died in Hamburg on December 14, 1788.

Legacy and musical style

Through the latter half of the 18th century, the reputation of C.P.E. Bach stood very high. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who also had a close relationship with Johann Christian Bach said of Carl Philipp, "He is the father, we are the children." The best part of Haydn's training was derived from a study of his work. Ludwig van Beethoven expressed for his genius the most cordial admiration and regard. This position he owes mainly to his klaviersonaten (piano sonatas), which mark an important epoch in the history of musical form. Lucid in style, delicate and tender in expression, they are even more notable for the freedom and variety of their structural design; they break away altogether from the exact formal antithesis which, with the composers of the Italian school, had hardened into a convention, and substitute the wider and more flexible outline which the great Viennese masters showed to be capable of almost infinite development.

The content of his work, though full of invention, lies within a somewhat narrow emotional range, but it is no less sincere in thought, than polished and felicitous in phrase. His name fell into some neglect during the 19th century, with Robert Schumann notoriously opining that "as a creative musician he remained very far behind his father"; in contrast, Johannes Brahms held C.P.E. Bach in high regard and edited some of his music. Today, students very frequently play his Sonaten für Kenner und Liebhaber, his oratorios Die Israeliten in der Wüste and Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu, and several harpsichord concertos such as those in G major (Wq. 3) and D major (Wq. 11). Also, his Flute Concerto in D Minor (Wq. 22), due to its unparalleled mellifluous opening movement, has been performed by the greatest flautists worldwide, including Jean-Pierre Rampal. Rampal's recording is sadly out of print as of 2006, it features the Paris Opera orchestra conducted by Pierre Boulez and was published by Harmonia Mundi, HMP 390545.

In addition to his own substantial contributions to music, C.P.E.Bach provided an immense service in protecting the legacy of his deceased father. Prof. Eugene Helm, one of the foremost authorities on Emanuel Bach, states that he was "an honourable and effective guardian of Sebastian’s music and other Bach family treasures important to Bach research; most of the Bachiana now extant were owned by him. Unfortunately, the largest share of Sebastian Bach’s autographs had been given after his death to his eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann, due to whose negligence most of the scores he inherited have been irrecoverably lost. Philipp Spitta’s account of the disposition of J.S. Bach’s five Passions indicates the comparative respect by Emanuel and neglect by Friedemann of their paternal legacy:

. . . After his death, his sons, Friedemann and Emanuel, divided these cantatas [i.e., Sebastian’s five yearly cycles of such works] between them, and the Passions were no doubt included. Emanuel had the original scores of the St. John and the St. Matthew Passions. He treasured them faithfully and they still exist. The original manuscript[s] of the other three fell into the hands of the dissipated Friedemann, who now grew wilder than ever; they were sold for a trifle, and two have entirely disappeared . . . .

Further reading

A list and critical account of his voluminous compositions may be found in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians(1980). A complete edition entitled Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: The Complete Works is underway and scheduled to be completed by 2014.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

External links

• A Tribute to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Sketch of the composer's life with extensive references.
• Complete Catalogue of C.P.E. Bach's oeuvre (French)
• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)
• Website of the edition Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: The Complete Works.
• Finding the Lost Manuscripts of C.P.E. Bach Greater Boston Arts
• Free Public Domain Scores by C.P.E. at IMSLP
• Free recordings and MIDI files at Classical Archives.com