Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel (the “Berlin”Or “Hamburg” Bach)
Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel (the “Berlin”Or “Hamburg” Bach)
Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel (the “Berlin”Or “Hamburg” Bach), third (and second surviving) son of Johann Sebastian; b. Weimar, March 8, 1714; d. Hamburg, Dec. 14, 1788. He was educated under his father’s tuition at the Thomasschule in Leipzig, then studied jurisprudence at the Univ. of Leipzig and at the Univ. of Frankfurt-an- der-Oder. Turning to music as his chief vocation, he went to Berlin in 1738, and in 1740 he was confirmed as chamber musician to Frederick the Great of Prussia. In that capacity he arranged his father’s visit to Potsdam. In March 1768 he assumed the post of cantor at the Johanneum (the Lateinschule) in Hamburg, and also served as music director for the five major churches. He held these posts until his death. Abandoning the strict polyphonic style of composition of his great father, he became an adept of the new school of piano writing, a master of “Empfindsamkeit” (“intimate expressiveness”), the North German counterpart of the French Rococo. His Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen...(two parts, 1753–62; re-ed. by Schelling, 1857; new, but incomplete, ed. by W. Niemann, 1906) became a very influential work which yielded much authentic information about musical practices of the second half of the 18th century. An Eng. tr. of the Versuch..., entitled Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments, was publ. by W. Mitchell (N.Y., 1949). His autobiography was reprinted by W. Kahl in Selbstbiographien deutscher Musiker des XVIII. Jahrhunderts (Cologne, 1948); an Eng. tr. was made by W. Newman, “Emanuel Bach’s Autobiography,” Musical Quarterly (April 1965). His compositions are voluminous (see E. Helm, Thematic Catalogue of the Works of C.P.E. B., New Haven, 1989). E. Suchalla ed. C.P.E. B.: Briefe und Dokumente: Kritische Gesamtausgabe (two vols., Göttingen, 1994), and S. Clark tr. and ed. The Letters of C.P.E. B. (Oxford, 1997).
Works
ORCH.: 20 syms.; about 50 harpsichord concertos; 12 harpsichord sonatinas; concertos arranged from the harpsichord concertos. CHAMBER: 3 keyboard quartets; about 20 trio sonatas; more then 30 duo sonatas; 18 solo sonatas; wind music, etc. keyboard: About 150 sonatas; fantasias; variations; rondos; fugues; minuets. VOCAL: Magnificat (1749); the oratorios Die Israeliten in der Wüste (1769) and Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu (1780); Morgengesang am Schopfungsfeste, ode (1783); Passions; sacred cantatas and motets; chamber cantatas; arias; about 300 sacred and secular 300 songs.
Editions of his various works include the following: C. Krebs, ed., Die Sechs Sammlungen von Sonateti, freien Fantasien una Rondos für Kenner und Liebhaber (Leipzig, 1895; rev. ed. by L. Hoffmann, Erbrecht, 1953); O. Vrieslander, Kleine Stücke für Klavier (Hannover, 1930); O. Vrieslander, Vier leichte Sonaten (Hannover, 1932); K. Herrman, ed., Sonaten una Stücke (Leipzig, 1938); V. Luithlen and H. Kraus, eds., Klavierstücke (Vienna, 1938); K. Herrman, ed., Leichte Tänze una Stücke für Klavier (Hamburg, 1949); P. Friedheim, ed., Six Sonatas for Keyboard (N.Y., 1967); H. Ferguson, ed., Keyboard Works of C.P.E. B. (4 vols., London, 1983).
Bibliography
C. Bitter, C.P.E. B. und Wilhelm Friedemann Bach und deren Brüder (2 vols., Berlin, 1868); M. Fleuler, Die norddeutsche Symphonie zur Zeit Friedrichs des Grossen, und besonders die Werke P.E. B.s (Berlin, 1908); H. Schenker, Ein Beitrag zur Ornamentik: Als Einflihrung zu P.E. B.s Klavierwerke (Vienna, 1908); O. Vrieslander, C.P.E. B. (Munich, 1923); H. Wien-Claudi, Zum Liedschaffen C.P.E. B.s (Reichenberg, 1928); H. Miesner, P.E. B. in Hamburg (Leipzig, 1929); E. Schmid, C.P.E. B. und seine Kammermusik (Kassel, 1931); A.-E. Cherbuliez, C.P.E. B. 1714–1788 (Zurich and Leipzig, 1940); E. Beurmann, Die Klaviersonaten C.P.E. B.s (diss., Univ. of Gö;ttingen, 1952); K. Geiringer, The Bach Family: Seven Generations of Creative Genius (N.Y., 1954); C. Haag, The Keyboard Concertos of K.P.E. B. (diss., Univ. of Calif., Los Angeles, 1956); G. Busch, C.P.E. B. und seine Lieder (Regensburg, 1957); P. Barford, The Keyboard Music of C.P.E. B. (London, 1965); E. Suchalla, Die Orchestersinfonien C.P.E. B.s nebst einem thematischen Verzeichnis seiner Orchesterwerke (Augsburg, 1968); R. Wade, The Keyboard Concertos of C.P.E. B. (Ann Arbor, 1981); H.-G. Ottenberg, C.P.E. B. (Leipzig, 1982; Eng. tr., 1988); D. Schulenberg, The Instrumental Music of C.P.E. B. (Ann Arbor, 1984); S. Clark, ed., C.P.E. B. Studies (Oxford, 1988); W. Horn, C.P.E. B.: Frühe Klaviersonaten (Hamburg, 1988); E. Thorn, ed., Die Entwicklung des Doppel- und Gruppenkonzertes im 18. Jahrhundert bis zur “Sinfonia concertante”: Fragen der Aujführungspraxis und Interpretation von Werken C.P.E. B.s—ein Beitrag zum 200. Todestag (Michaelstein/Blankenburg, 1989); H. Marx, éd., C.P.E. B. und die europaische Musikkultur des mittleren 18. Jahrhunderts: Bericht über das Internationale Symposium der Joachim Jungius Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften Hamburg 29. September-2. Oktober 1988 (Göttingen, 1990); H. Poos, ed., C.P.E. B.: Beiträge zu Leben und Werk (Mainz, 1993); G. Wagner, Die Sinfonien C.P.E. B.s: Werdende Gattung und Originalgenie (Stuttgart, 1994); A. Nagel, Studien zur Passionskantate von C.P.E. B. (Frankfurt am Main, 1995).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire