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A German composer of the 18th century, Carl Philipp Emanuel
Bach was born the second son of Baroque composer J.S. Bach (1685-1750).
Emanuel’s influential and legendary father was, among many
things, a music educator, passing the passion for music on to
his sons. A Classical music scholar has said: "There is
a kind of perverse obstinacy in Emanuel Bach, which his father
and older brother also had in large measure and which caused
all of them great trouble. In Emanuel this trait shows itself
in his determination to go his own compositional way" (Downs
357). J.S. Bach had a total of four children who later became
composers: Johann Christoph (1732-1795), Carl Philipp Emanuel
(1714-1788), Johann Christian (1735-1782), and Wilhelm Friedemann
(1710-1784). Along with brother Johann Christian, Emanuel became
a well-known figure for the Classical period in music. C.P.E.
Bach was educated as a child at the Thomasschule in Leipzig,
then went on to study law at the University at Frankfurt on
the Oder.
Centered around two locations of employment, C.P.E. Bach’s
musical career developed first in Berlin at the court of Frederick
the Great (King of Prussia from 1740-1786). Bach remained there
for 28 years, then left to become Director of Music at the five
main churches in Hamburg. He was court harpsichordist and accompanist
for King Frederick. While the king played the flute, Emanuel
was expected to accompany him on the continuo, an instrument
that provides a foundation for the other instruments or voices.
Frederick the Great was strict with regard to Bach’s musical
freedoms, and the composer became unhappy with many aspects
of his job. However, his wife and family were Prussian and therefore
subordinate to the king, who prevented them from leaving when
Emanuel was not satisfied. "In order to further his career,
Bach had to choose between forsaking his family or submitting
to the king’s pleasure" (Downs 21). In 1767, the composer
left Prussia and went to Hamburg, succeeding his godfather Georg
Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) as a church music director. It
was during these years (the 1760s and 1770s) that "Emanuel
Bach demonstrated most fully the two sides of his musical character:
the fantastic eccentric and the conformist" (Downs 138).
C.P.E. Bach’s musical style manifests itself in both
adherence to past elements and originality in compositional
approach. In early works, he emphasized elegance and simplicity.
In later compositions, however, Bach was drawn to an extensively
expressive and expansive nature. The composer was a leader
in the empfindsamer Stil, the main "singing"
style associated with Classical music. An elegant style, this
was characterized by an emphasis on subtleties and on the
expression of numerous sentiments within one movement of a
composition. Bach also stated about this style of emotional
feeling that "the human voice was the model for any kind
of melodic writing, which should always stress simple beauty
without excessive embellishment" (Pauly 25). This lightness
and simplicity are also featured in C.P.E. Bach’s keyboard
works, which are the most significant genre of all his compositions.
An advocate of the empfindsamer Stil, C.P.E. Bach found
the Baroque characteristics of music "dry and despicable
pieces of pedantry" (Kamien 208). Therefore, his style
held a lot of surprise with impulsive changes in dynamics,
melody, and harmony. Within this context, Bach made use of
ornamentation, the decorating and embellishing of notes,
often in improvisation. Also possessing great improvisational
skills in performance, "he grew so animated and possessed,
that he not only played but looked like one inspired. His
eyes were fixed, his under lip fell, and drops of effervescence
distilled from his countenance" (Pauly 25).
Emanuel Bach wrote a great amount of keyboard music, including
many sets of keyboard sonatas. The first of these were
published in 1742 and called the "Prussian" Sonatas,
named for the dedication to Frederick the Great. Coined the
"Württemberg" Sonatas, the second set was dedicated
to the Duke of Württemberg. These were published in 1744
and began to show the increase of musical contrasts inherent
in Bach’s later, more creative style. Each of these two
sets includes six keyboard sonatas. C.P.E. Bach began to write
larger sonatas during the 1760s with the musical repetitions
written out, which was very costly to print. In the "Sonatas
with Varied Repeats," Bach combined the empfindsamer
Stil and galant (the representative modern) styles.
He also wrote "Six Easy Keyboard Sonatas" in 1766.
A seventh set of keyboard sonatas was also composed for the
King’s sister, who honored Bach with the title of Honorary
Court Kapellmeister upon his departure from the court of Frederick
the Great. In 1799, C.P.E. Bach published the first of six
collections of keyboard sonatas for "Conoisseurs and
Amateurs," but the pieces diminished into a smaller size
and he intertwined other types of pieces among the sonatas
as the collections advanced. This decrease of output was primarily
because the public began to lose interest in the composer’s
old style of writing as the keyboard sonata became more virtuosic
and expanded at the hands of other composers. Bach also wrote
approximately 50 keyboard concertos before 1760 and
added woodwind instruments to the string orchestra.
Emanuel Bach also successfully composed in numerous other
musical genres: songs, oratorios, and instrumental
music (chamber music, concertos, and symphonies)
as well as some sonatas for flute and harpsichord. Since compositions
for the keyboard were most important to Bach’s repertoire,
his favorite instrument was the clavichord. A historical
type of piano, this instrument is very soft and offers much
color in dynamics. However, it was gradually replaced by the
fortepiano, the predecessor to our modern piano. This
instrument was somewhat like the harpsichord, but offered
more dynamic variety and color shades worthy of the empfindsamer
Stil elegance. Bach’s last few keyboard sonatas were
written for the fortepiano.
In addition to his important keyboard literature, C.P.E. Bach
is most remembered for his treatise, the "Essay on the
True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments," written from
1753-1762. In this essay, the composer discusses ornamentation
and the musical view of the Classical period’s conventions.
The treatise has become "invaluable source material for
historically accurate performance of eighteenth-century music,
in all its aspects" (qtd. Downs 29). Quoted from the
essay is Bach’s thoughts on individual performances,
"One must play from the soul, not like a trained animal"
(Pauly 25).
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach had a great influence on Classical
composer Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), especially through
his treatise and "Prussian" keyboard sonatas. Haydn
revealed: "Whoever knows me well must realize that I
owe a great deal to Emanuel Bach" (qtd. Pauly 75). Bach
was the most important composer to develop the sensitive empfindsamer
Stil, but "like his father before him, Emanuel died
still attached to a style that had fallen from favor"
(Downs 361). Nevertheless, C.P.E. Bach was passionate about
an elegant, emotional style: "I believe music must, first
and foremost, stir the heart" (qtd. Downs 30). |
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6:00-7:00 AM J.S. BACH: Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G BWV 1049 The English Concert/Trevor Pinnock 7:00-8:00 AM WEBER: Concertino for horn & orch in e Op 45 Hermann Baumann, horn; Gewandhausorchester Leipzig/Kurt Masur 8:00-9:00 AM SCHUMANN: Overture, Scherzo & Finale in E Op 52 London Symphony Orchestra/Neeme Järvi 4:00-5:00 PM COPLAND: El Salón Mexico New York Philharmonic/Leonard Bernstein 5:00-6:00 PM DVORAK: Suite, ""American"" in A Op 98 Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Antal Dorati 6:00-7:00 PM MENDELSSOHN: Concerto for Violin in e Op 64 Joshua Bell, violin; Camerata Academica Salzburg/Roger Norrington |
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