Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel (EN)

Bach Carl Philipp Emanuel, *8 March 1714 Weimar, †l4 December 1788 Hamburg, second son of Johann Sebastian and his first wife Maria Barbara, German composer and harpsichordist, called Berlin or Hamburg Bach. He received his musical education in composition and playing keyboard instruments from his father. He attended the Latin school in Köthen and the Thomasschule in Leipzig, where he matriculated at the university as a law student in 1731; in 1734–38, he continued his studies in Frankfurt (Oder). He began composing at f 18 (Minuet Wq 111); during his stay in Leipzig, he wrote solo works and concertos for clavichord and harpsichord, as well as chamber works, which he later reworked in Berlin. In 1738, he was appointed to the court of Prince Frederick of Prussia in Rupin. In 1740, in Charlottenburg, he accompanied the flute productions of King Frederick II on the harpsichord. As a court harpsichordist (Kammercembalist), he participated in the king’s evening concerts in Berlin and Potsdam and accompanied him alternately with Ch.F. Schale (from 1741), Ch. Nichelmann (1744–56) and C.F.Ch. Fasch (from 1756). In the royal band, he met J.J. Quantz and brothers J.G. and C.H. Graun. He taught the harpsichord to Prince Carl E. von Württemberg, to whom he dedicated a collection of Six Sonatas, the so-called “Württemberg” (1743); he also taught his brother Johann Christian, who lived with him in 1750–54, J.A.P. Schulz and F.W. Rust. In 1745, he dedicated a collection of 6 Sonatas, the so-called “Prussian,” to Frederick II, and 6 Sonatas “with changed reprises” to Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia (1760). He was associated with the circle of Berlin musicians and writers: J.Ph. Kirnberger, G.E. Lessing, C.W. Ramler, J.W.L. Gleim. In program pieces for clavichord and harpsichord, he presented musical portraits of the bourgeois intellectual environment of Berlin (Wq 117, including La Gleim, L’Auguste, La Sophie). In addition to instrumental and vocal compositions, the didactic work Versuch über die wahre Art das Klavier zu spielen (Part 1, 1753) was written in Berlin, which made the name of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach famous as the most outstanding teacher at that time. The desire to free himself from the rigid aesthetic rules of the Berlin School and the lack of proper assessment from the king caused Carl Philipp Emanuel to apply for the position of cantor in the church of St. John in Zittau in 1753, and in 1755 to take over his father’s cantorate in the church of St. Thomas in Leipzig. The efforts were not crowned with success. Only in March 1768 did Carl Philipp Emanuel succeed Telemann, his godfather, as director of music in five churches and cantor at the Johanneum gymnasium in Hamburg. There, he found himself again at the centre of the artistic and scientific community. He maintained contacts, among others, with F.G. Klopstock, H.W. von Gerstenberg, M. Claudius, J.H. Voss, Ch.D. Ebeling, J.A.H. Reimarus and the publisher Ch. Bode; exchanged views with them on singing poetic works (Sing-Poesie), musical rhetoric (redende Prinzip) and program music. He organised public concerts (in the Auf dem Kamp hall, one of the first concert halls in Germany) and became known as an excellent virtuoso and a brilliant improviser; he also conducted concerts composed of his compositions and those of his father, from oratorios by Händel, Telemann, C.H. Graun, Hasse, Haydn. By promoting the works of contemporary composers, he fought for the social independence of creators. He published his works, among others, at his own expense at B & H in Leipzig; he also maintained contacts with Artaria in Vienna, inspired by Baron G. von Swieten, for whom in 1773 he wrote 6 Symphonies for string orchestra (Wq 182) and to whom in 1781 he dedicated the third collection of sonatas, fantasies and rondos for piano “for connoisseurs and amateurs” (Wq 57). He corresponded, among others, with Diderot and J.N. Forkel. His students in Hamburg included N. Schiørring, Baron D.E. von Grotthus and F.J. Hérold (father of Ferdinand Hérold). Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and his wife Johanna Maria Dannemann had two sons: Johann Adam (1745–89) and Johann Sebastian (1748–78), a painter and student of A.F. Öser in Leipzig, and a daughter, Anna Carolina Philippina (*1747), who outlived her father. In 1925, the place where the body of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (also his family) was buried was found in the church of St. Michael in Hamburg.

The work of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach marks a bridge in instrumental music between Johann Sebastian Bach and the Viennese classics. Carl Philipp Emanuel was the leading representative of clavichord music of his era and the last master of the clavichord. The development of his artistic individuality was influenced by his father’s work, as well as Italian (cantilena) and partly French (illustrative) traditions. He contrasted the gallant style with poetic reflectivity, directness of feeling and deepening of expression characteristic of sentimentalism (empfindsamer Stil). He understood music as “the language of feelings,” he postulated modelling it on the human voice, in line with Rousseau’s concepts and the assumptions of the Berlin School, but he sought to deepen the autonomous meaning and expression of music itself. He knew and applied the principle of thematic dualism in instrumental music, but the concept of form was based primarily on improvisation, fantasising and processing one thematic idea using surprising textural, harmonic and rhythmic contrasts (he used, among others, irregular rhythmic groups), in which he came close to the spirit of romantic music. The influence of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s (almost without exception) three-movement sonatas (with a sequence of movements: fast, slow, fast) reached back to Haydn and the young Beethoven. His six collections of sonatas, rondos and fantasies from the cycle “for connoisseurs and amateurs” reflect the transition from the texture of the clavichord and harpsichord to the piano texture; there, one encounters the markings of a clavichord vibrato with virtuoso harpsichord figuration, rich ornamentation and sudden changes and dynamic nuances typical of the piano. Carl Philipp Emanuel used the clash of technical means of harpsichord and piano in a double concerto for these instruments (Wq 47). Also, in the second edition of Versuch… (part 1, 1759) he put the piano on par with the harpsichord and clavichord in terms of sound qualities, and in part 2 of Versuch… (1762) he spoke about the advantages of the forte pedal. This work is the main source of knowledge about playing keyboard instruments around the mid-18^th century and, next to Quantz’s flute school and L. Mozart’s violin school, it is a compendium of contemporary instrumental performance practice – general bass, ornamentation and improvisation in general. Carl Philipp Emanuel’s concertos and symphonies are set in the convention of the baroque concertante style with 4–5 tutti-solo oppositions in the first movement, with the second tutti often running on the plane of the subdominant, not the dominant, and presents the typical technique of developing the melodic line using motivic storytelling. Sometimes, however, broader, more closed, surface themes emerge, as, for example, in the first movement of the Concerto in B flat major for harpsichord (Wq 28 and 167, 171). Carl Philipp Emanuel prefers to construct lively themes in allegro (Concerto in D minor for harpsichord, Wq 23), filled with ornamentation, dotted rhythms, and interval jumps. He took over rhythmic motifs from Vivaldi and J.S. Bach. He also uses patterns of baroque instrumentation; uses b.c. markings, which also appear in some works for keyboard instruments, e.g. in improvisational fantasies from the collections “for connoisseurs and amateurs” (including Fantasy in E flat major from the 4^th collection). In vocal music, apart from expressive odes and songs, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach did not achieve a more individual style, remaining within the manner of the northern German song school. In church music, he relied mainly on his father’s works.

Literature: C.Ph.E. Bachs Autobiographie, Hamburg 1773, «Fascimiles of Early Biography» IV, ed. W.S. Newman, Hilversum 1967; A. Wotquenne Thematisches Verzeichnis der Werke von C.Ph.E. Bach (1714–1788), Leipzig 1905, reprint Wiesbaden 1972; C.H. Bitter C.Ph.E. Bach und Wilhelm Friedemann Bach und deren Brüder, 2 vol., Berlin 1868, reprint Leipzig 1973; H. Schenker Ein Beitrag zur Ornamentik ais Einführung zu C.Ph.E. Bachs Klavierwerken, Vienna 1908, new edition Vienna 1954; O. Vrieslander C.Ph.E. Bach ais Theoretiker, in: Von Neuer Musik, Kolonia 1925; H. Miesner C.Ph.E. Bach in Hamburg, Leipzig 1929, reprint 1969; E.F. Schmid C.Ph.E. Bach und seine Kammermusik, Kassel 1931; W.J. Mitchell, C.Ph.E. Bach’s Essay. An Introduction, „The Musical Quartely” XXXIII, 1947; K. v. Fischer C.Ph.E. Bachs Variationenwerke, RBelgM IV, 1952; P.C.G. Canave A Re-Evaluation of the Role Played by C.Ph.E. 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