C. P. E. Bach
The keyboard composer who carried the Baroque into the language of Empfindsamkeit
Related
Who he was
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788) was the second son of J. S. Bach. He was born in Weimar, studied law at Leipzig and Frankfurt, and from 1740 played harpsichord for Frederick the Great in Berlin for twenty-eight years. In 1768 he left Berlin for Hamburg to succeed Telemann as city music director, and stayed there until his death. He wrote keyboard music, symphonies, concertos, sacred music and songs, and left a two-volume treatise on keyboard playing.
His place
He sits exactly between the end of the Baroque and the start of the Classical. His father's music is built on counterpoint and continuo; C. P. E. Bach moved the weight to expression and sudden contrast, which German writers of the time called Empfindsamkeit, the sensitive style. His Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen sets out fingering, ornament and improvisation in detail, and both Haydn and Beethoven studied it. The sonatas and fantasias he wrote in Berlin later shaped how the Classical sonata behaves.
What to hear
Listen first for suddenness. His music stops in the middle of a phrase, turns to a distant key without warning, or answers a long note with a short sighing figure. Then listen for recitative. The rondos and fantasias contain passages that sound like speech, where rhythm follows the tone of voice rather than the bar. Finally listen for the touch of the clavichord. He preferred that instrument because it can make a fine vibrato and a gradual swell; listen for volume changes so small that a piano cannot produce them.
Key works
- Solfeggio in C minor, H. 220, and Fantasia in F-sharp minor, H. 300
- Abschied von meinem Silbermannischen Claviere, H. 272, and Sonata in F minor, H. 40
- Prussian Sonatas (1742), Württemberg Sonatas (1744)
- Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen (1753, 1762)
Influence
He turned keyboard music from the performance of counterpoint into the expression of feeling, and Classical sonatas, fantasias and improvised passages all bear his mark. Haydn admitted learning from the treatise, and Beethoven's early keyboard writing shows his example. When the early-music movement revived his fantasias in the twentieth century, it became clear that he was more than the son of a famous father.
Listen in the library
All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).
Sources
- 巴赫生平、柏林与汉堡职位及 H 编号，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians 的 Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel 条；本文为原创表述
- 《试论键盘演奏的正确方式》1753 年与 1762 年两卷，参通行十八世纪键盘研究；实例说明为本站听辨提示
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.