Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (Weimar, March 8, 1714 - Hamburg, December 14, 1788) was a German musician and composer. He is often referred to as C. P. E. Bach.

He is considered one of the founders of the classical style and one of the most important composers of the gallant period, apart from being the last great master of the harpsichord until the 20th century.

Early years of life

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was the fifth of the seven children of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach; his father had twenty in all. Georg Philipp Telemann was his godfather.

At the age of ten he entered the school of Saint Thomas in Leipzig, of which his father had been cantor since 1723. He studied law at the universities of Leipzig in 1731 and, from 1734, at the Viadrina University of Frankfurt in oder. He graduated in 1738, at the age of 24, but did not develop any legal career, devoting himself, instead, fully to music. He had already started composing in 1731.

In the same year, 1738, he was appointed harpsichordist at the court of Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia ("Frederick the Great"). On his accession to the throne in 1740, Carl Philipp Emanuel was part of his court. He was by then one of the most important harpsichordists in Europe. His reputation was definitively established by two series of sonatas, dedicated respectively to Frederick the Great ( Preußische Sonaten , 1742) and the Grand Duke of Württemberg ( Württembergische Sonaten , 1744).

Married couples and children

In 1744, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach married Johanna Maria Dannemann, the daughter of a Berlin wine merchant. Among his descendants, only Johann Adam (1745-89) showed artistic inclinations.

Musical development

In 1746 he was made a chamber musician, and for twenty-two years he shared royal favor with such musicians as Carl Heinrich Graun, Johann Joachim Quantz, and Johann Gottlieb Naumann. During this time that he resided in Berlin, he composed mainly works for the keyboard and for the flute, Frederick II's favorite instrument and of which the king was a fairly acceptable interpreter.

After his father's death in 1750, Carl Philipp Emanuel sought the position of Cantor of Saint Thomas, but was not granted the position, probably because the Council had grown tired of the Bachs. Carl Philipp Emanuel did not assume as heir a part of the family assets, especially a large number of scores and cantatas. He welcomed into his house the young half-brother of his, Johann Christian, of whom he was a teacher between 1750 and 1755. to Leipzig.

In 1753 he published his Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen (Essay on the true art of playing keyboard instruments), a systematic and magisterial treatise which was hugely successful. By the year 1780 he had reached the third edition. It is the basis for the methods of Muzio Clementi and Johann Baptist Cramer. It is still valid.

In 1768 Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, after the death of Georg Philipp Telemann, succeeded him as Kapellmeister in Hamburg. This led to him being known as the 'Hamburg Bach', to differentiate it from his brother Johann Christian's, known as the 'London and Milan Bach'. In this new position, he had to pay more attention to sacred music. At the same time, Joseph Haydn's career stimulated his own instrumental composition for all his people.

Death

He died in Hamburg on December 14, 1788. In 1805, his widow wanted part of the material that Carl Philipp Emanuel had inherited from his father. The catalog of his musical legacy appeared in print in 1790.

Instruments

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach used, for his performance, instruments (harpsichord and fortepiano) made by Gottfried Silbermann, at the time a well-known maker of keyboard instruments. In recent years, one of Bach's instrument models, Gottfried Silbermann 1749, has been used as a model to make a copy.

Works

The works of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach are found with two different references, Wq. and H., which refer to two different catalogues:

• Wq. (sometimes, W.) is abbreviation of Wotquenne, index developed by Alfred Wotquenne. It is the oldest catalogue (1905).
• H. is the catalogue made by E. Eugen Helm, more complete and updated, presented in Thematic Catalogue of the Works of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1989).

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach composed twenty-two Passions, two oratorios, nineteen symphonies, fifteen concertos, some two hundred chamber works, and various keyboard pieces, songs, and hymns. Of all his catalog, the following should be highlighted:

• Concert for two classics in FaWq. 46 (1740). It is one of the fifty-two keyboard concerts that he composed throughout his life.
• Six sonatas prusianas (Preussische Sonaten1742), dedicated to Federico the Great.
• Six sonatas Wurtemberg (Württembergische Sonaten1744), dedicated to the great Duke of Wurtemberg.
• Eleven sonatas for fluteamong them: in Re, Wq. 83; in Mi, Wq. 84; in Sol, Wq. 85; in Sol, Wq. 86; in Mi menor, Wq. 124; in Sol, Wq. 127; in La menor, Wq. 128; in Re, Wq. 129; in Sol, Wq. 133; in Sol, Wq. 134. Compositions in Potsdam, between 1745 and 1755.
• Magnificat (1749), in which he shows a great influence of his father.
• Five concerts for flute, among them: Concert in minor, Wq.22; Concert in the Greater Sun, Wq.169, and Concert in Si bemol, Wq.167 (1755). With these concerts Carl Philipp contributed to the flute repertoire for King Frederick the Great; however, they require such virtuosity that it is doubtful that they were interpreted by the king himself.
• Between 1755 and 1759 he composed several works for organ, with inevitable echoes of his father. These may be mentioned: Concerts for organin Sol, Wq. 34 and in Mi bemol, Wq. 35; Fantasy and escape in Lesser DoWq. 119/7; Prelude in ReWq. 70/7.
• Five Symphonies of BerlinH 649, 50, 53, 54 and 56. Composed between 1755 and 1762, the author being in Potsdam.
• A Easter Cantat (1756).
• The series Mit veränderten Reprisen (1760-1768) and Sonaten für Kenner und Liebhaber. Works from Berlin.
• Ten sonatinas for keyboard and other instruments, and two more for two keyboards. Berlin, 1762- 1764. They are a kind of experiment in which it combines elements of the concert and the suite.
• Fantasy for clavicémbalo and accompaniment.
• Two. Concerts for oboe: in Si bemol, Wq. 164, and in Mi bemol, Wq. 165 (1765).
• Israeli Dieten in der Wüste (The Israelites in the desert) (1769). Oratory composed in Hamburg, which deserves to be highlighted by its great beauty and the likeness of its plan with the oratory ElijahOp. 70, Felix Mendelssohn.
• Die letzen Leiden des Erlösers (The last sufferings of the Savior) (1770). Oratory with moments even more inspired than his predecessor.
• Concerts for clavicordioWq. 43/1-6 (1771). From the Hamburg period. Original and volatile temperament.
• Six Hamburg SymphoniesH 657-62 (Wq. 182/1-6) (1773). Written for the Baron von Swieten. They represent the late Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, with greater freedom than when he was in the Berlin court.
• Selma, H 739 (Wq. 236) (1775).
• Concert in my key bemol, pianoforte and orchestra, H 479 (Wq 47) (1788). Concert in the style of Haydn, in which it plays with the contrast of the instrumental solos.
• Cuarteto en la menor para flauta, viola, chelo y claveNo. 1, H 537 (Wq 93), Sicily (1788). It's one of the three quartets he made last year of his life. The other two are: No. 2 in Re, Wq. 94 and No. 3 in Sol, Wq. 95.

A catalog of his works can be found in Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980). A complete edition, titled Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: The Complete Works, is being published and is expected to be completed in 2014.

Musical style and legacy

The work of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach is located between the Baroque and Classicism, as the main representative of the Empfindsamer Stil, a musical movement similar to the Sturm und Drang, which presents the first elements of Romanticism. He stands out above all for having contributed to the development of the sonata in the modern sense, being a precursor in this point of the work of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

Carl Philipp Emanuel said that «in piano composition and performance I have never had another teacher than my father [Johann Sebastian Bach]»; Undoubtedly, in the parental home he found what other contemporary musicians had to diligently search for and at the cost of great travel and expense.

Her work is full of invention, sincere in thought, and happy phrasing. He is probably the first eminent composer to freely use harmonic color, valuing it for its own sake, since the days of Orlando di Lasso, Monteverdi and Gesualdo. He represents a pioneer of the work of the First Vienna School, in the classical style.

In the second half of the 18th century, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach had a great reputation. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was close to his young paternal half-brother, Johann Christian Bach, said of Carl Philipp: "He is the father, we are the children." Studying his work provided the best part of Haydn's training. Both Haydn and Mozart adopted elements of his language in their instrumental works. Beethoven expressed the warmest admiration and respect for his genius. This high regard is due, above all, to his harpsichord sonatas, which marked a milestone in the evolution of this musical form. The style is lucid, his expression delicate and tender. They stand out for their freedom and the variety of their structural design; his keyboard compositions are full of strange contrasts, breaking with the rigid scheme that the composers of the Italian school had imposed. With this he favored the arrival of the great Viennese masters, who took the sonata to an almost infinite development.

His name fell into some obscurity in the 19th century. Robert Schumann considered that "as a creative musician he was very far from his father"; on the contrary, Johannes Brahms held him in high esteem and edited some of his works.

As early as the 20th century, students frequently interpreted their Sonaten für Kenner und Liebhaber, his oratorios Die Israeliten in der Wüste and Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu, as well as several harpsichord concertos, such as the Concerto in G major (Wq. 3) and in D major (Wq. 11).

The Flute Concerto in D minor (Wq. 22) is part of the regular repertoire of flutists all over the world, especially due to its incomparable opening movement. It has been recorded by Jean Pierre Rampal with Pierre Boulez as conductor (Harmonia Mundi, HMP 390545).

The Quartet in A minor for flute, viola, cello and orchestra, no. 1, H. 537 (Wq. 93) or Siciliano, is also performed. which has been recorded for L'Oiseau-lyre by Christopher Hogwood as conductor and on harpsichord.