Carl Philipp Emanuel BACH

CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH



From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (March 8, 1714 – December 14, 1788) was a German musician and composer, the second of five sons of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach. He was one of the founders of the Classical Style, composing in the Rococo and Classical periods.



LIFE and WORKS



Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was born in Weimar.



When he was ten years old he entered the St. Thomas School at Leipzig, where his father had become cantor in 1723, and continued his education as a student of jurisprudence at the universities of Leipzig (1731) and of Frankfurt (Oder) (1735). In 1738, at the age of 24, he took his degree, but at once abandoned his prospects of a legal career and determined to devote himself to music.



A few months later (armed with a recommendation by Sylvius Leopold Weiss) he obtained an appointment in the service of the Frederick II of Prussia ("Frederick the Great"), the then crown prince, and upon Frederick's accession in 1740 Carl Philipp became a member of the royal orchestra. He was by this time one of the foremost clavier-players in Europe, and his compositions, which date from 1731, include about thirty sonatas and concert pieces for harpsichord and clavichord.



In Berlin he continued to write numerous musical pieces for solo keyboard, including a series of character pieces- the so-called "Berlin Portraits" including La Caroline.



His reputation was established by the two sets of sonatas which he dedicated respectively to Frederick the Great and to the grand duke of Wurttemberg; in 1746 he was promoted to the post of chamber musician, and for twenty-two years shared with Carl Heinrich Graun, Johann Joachim Quantz, and Johann Gottlieb Naumann the continued favour of the king.



During his residence in Berlin, he wrote a fine setting of the Magnificat (1749), in which he shows more traces than usual of his father's influence; 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 veranderten Reprisen (1760-1768) and a few of those fur Kenner und Liebhaber. Meanwhile he placed himself in the forefront of European critics by his Versuch uber 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.



In 1768 Bach succeeded Georg Philipp Telemann as Kapellmeister at Hamburg, and in consequence of his new office began to turn his attention more towards church music. The next year he produced his oratorio Die Israeliten in der Wuste, a composition remarkable not only for its great beauty but for the resemblance of its plan to that of Felix Mendelssohn's 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 Bach, "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 keyboard 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 both the Italian and the Viennese schools, moving instead toward the cyclical and improvisatory forms that would become common several generations later.



The content of his work is full of invention and, most importantly, extreme unpredictability, and wide emotional range even within a single work. It is not less sincere in thought than polished and felicitous in phrase. He was probably the first composer of eminence who made free use of harmonic colour for its own sake since the time of Lassus, Monteverdi, and Gesualdo. In this way, he compares well with the most important representatives of the First Viennese School. In fact he exerted enormous influence on the North German School of composers, in particular Georg Anton Benda, Ernst Wilhelm Wolff, Johann Gottfried Muthel, Friedrich Wilhelm Rust and many others. His influence was not limited to his contemporaries, and extended to Felix Mendelssohn and Carl Maria von Weber.



His name fell into 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 him in high regard and edited some of his music. The revival of C.P.E.Bach's works has been underway since Helmuth Koch's rediscovery and recording of his symphonies in 1960's, and Hugo Ruf's recordings of his keyboard sonatas. There is an ongoing effort to record his complete works, led by Miklos Spanyi on the Swedish record label BIS.



C.P.E. BACH: THE OTHER BACH



by Christoph Wolff. Music Historian, Harvard University.



"Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Sebastian's second son, is an important figure in several respects. First of all, he is the most important caretaker of the family's estate. He saved the material that he inherited from his father, and also from his ancestors, and that makes this collection particularly important because it contains, in Johann Sebastian Bach's hand, quite a number of scores from the 17th century.



Philipp Emanuel was the most prolific of the Bach sons, but he was not just a composer. He was a virtuoso, a performing musician of high caliber. He was a pedagogue and a theorist and a philosopher of music. And he also had very close connections with major poets. His activities as a songwriter were particularly important and had a major impact on the history of song in the later 18th century for Mozart and for Beethoven and eventually for Schubert."



by John Finney. Associate Conductor, Handel & Haydn Society.



"Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach had only one teacher in his life: his father, Johann Sebastian Bach. C.P.E. Bach was probably better known in his lifetime than his father. And there are a number of reasons for that. C.P.E. Bach worked for the Court of Frederick the Great for thirty years. That was a very prestigious position. And the last part of his life he lived in Hamburg, and worked for five different churches, so he was the most famous musician in Hamburg.



J.S. Bach had not had much education. But, J.S. Bach made sure that his son, C.P.E. Bach, went to law school and had a very fine education. C.P.E. Bach was well respected as a scholar, as well as a performing musician. And one of C.P.E. Bach's books is, even today, still a fine reference book on keyboard playing.



J.S. Bach died in 1750, C.P.E. Bach died in 1788. And for a number of years after that, if people mentioned the word Bach, it was C.P.E. Bach that they were talking about. They really didn't pay much attention to J.S. Bach's music through the rest of the 18th century and well into the 19th century. It was only in the early 19th century that Mendelssohn started to rediscover the works of J.S. Bach. But all through that time C.P.E. Bach's music was well known.



This may have to do with the fact that C.P.E. Bach's music was the logical progression into the next era, which included Mozart and Haydn. That could be the reason that C.P.E. Bach's music was still played and appreciated more than his father's music.



C.P.E. Bach had to produce an immense amount of music. Every week he had to produce music for all five churches, and for other occasions as well. So the amount of music that he produced was quite large. And it was not unusual that he would write a piece, perform it, and then put it away, because he had to get on to the next piece. He would probably not have had time to pursue having each piece published. So it is not unusual that a piece was performed in 1785 and then not performed again."



from Greater Boston Arts Web Site



http://www.wgbh.org/pages/bostonarts/2001/bach_cpe.html