Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

Early years: 1714–38

C. P. E. Bach was born on 14 March 1714 in Weimar to Johann Sebastian Bach and his first wife, Maria Barbara. He was the composer's third son. The composer Georg Philipp Telemann was his godfather. When he was ten years old, he entered the St. Thomas School at Leipzig, where his father had become cantor in 1723. He was one of four Bach children to become professional musicians; all four were trained in music almost entirely by their father. In an age of royal patronage, father and son alike knew that a university education helped prevent a professional musician from being treated as a servant. Carl, like his brothers, pursued advanced studies in jurisprudence at the University of Leipzig in 1731 and at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder in 1735. In 1738, at the age of 24, he obtained his degree but never practiced law, instead turning his attention immediately to music.

Berlin years: 1738–68

A few months after graduation Bach, armed with a recommendation by Sylvius Leopold Weiss, obtained an appointment at Berlin in the service of Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia, the future Frederick the Great. Upon Frederick's accession in 1740, Bach 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. During his time there, Berlin was a rich artistic environment, where Bach mixed with many accomplished musicians, including several notable former students of his father, and important literary figures, such as Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, with whom the composer would become close friends.

In Berlin, Bach continued to write numerous 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 published with dedications to Frederick the Great (1742) and to Charles Eugene, Duke of Wurttemberg (1744). In 1746, he was promoted to the post of chamber musician (Kammermusikus) and served the king alongside colleagues like Carl Heinrich Graun, Johann Joachim Quantz, and Franz Benda.

The composer who most influenced Bach's maturing style was unquestionably his father. He drew creative inspiration from his godfather Georg Philipp Telemann, then working in Hamburg, and from contemporaries like George Frideric Handel, Carl Heinrich Graun and Joseph Haydn. Bach's interest in all types of art led to influence from poets, playwrights and philosophers such as Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, Moses Mendelssohn and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Bach's work itself influenced the work of, among others, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Felix Mendelssohn.

During his residence in Berlin, Bach composed a 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 concert works; at least three volumes of songs, including the celebrated Gellert 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 (With Changed Reprises, 1760–1768).

While in Berlin, Bach placed himself in the forefront of European music with a treatise, Versuch uber die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen (An Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments), immediately recognised as a definitive work on keyboard technique. "Both Haydn and Beethoven swore by it." By 1780, the book was in its third edition and laid the foundation for the keyboard methods of Clementi and Cramer. In it, Bach broke with tradition in allowing and even encouraging the use of the thumbs. Since his time this has been standard technique for keyboard instruments. The essay lays out the fingering for each chord and some chord sequences. Bach's techniques continue to be employed today. The first part of the Essay contains a chapter explaining the various embellishments in work of the period, e.g., trills, turns, mordents, etc. The second part presents Bach's ideas on the art of figured bass and counterpoint, where he gives preference to the contrapuntal approach to harmonization over the newer ideas of Rameau's theory of harmony and root progressions.

Hamburg: 1768–88

In 1768, after protracted negotiations, Bach was permitted to relinquish his position in order to succeed his godfather Telemann as director of music (Kapellmeister) at Hamburg. Upon his release from service at the court he was named court composer for Frederick's sister, Princess Anna Amalia. The title was honorary, but her patronage and interest in the oratorio genre may have played a role in nurturing the ambitious choral works that followed.

Bach began to turn more of his energies to ecclesiastical and choral music in his new position. The job required the steady production of music for Protestant church services at the Michaeliskirche (Church of St. Michael) and elsewhere in Hamburg. The following year he produced his most ambitious work, the oratorio Die Israeliten in der Wuste (The Israelites in the Desert), a composition remarkable not only for its great beauty but for the resemblance of its plan to that of Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah. Between 1768 and 1788, he wrote twenty-one settings of the Passion, and some seventy cantatas, litanies, motets, and other liturgical pieces. In Hamburg he also presented a number of works by contemporaries, including his father, Telemann, Graun, Handel, Haydn, Salieri and Johann David Holland (1746–1827). Bach's choral output reached its apex in two works: the double chorus Heilig (Holy) of 1776, a setting of the seraph song from the throne scene in Isaiah, and the grand cantata Die Auferstehung Jesu (The Resurrection of Jesus) of 1774–82, which sets a poetic Gospel harmonization by the poet Karl Wilhelm Ramler. Widespread admiration of Auferstehung led to three 1788 performances in Vienna sponsored by the Baron Gottfried van Swieten and conducted by Mozart.

Bach married Johanna Maria Dannemann in 1744. Only three of their children lived to adulthood: Johann Adam (1745–89), Anna Carolina Philippina (1747–1804), and Johann Sebastian "the Younger" (1748–78). None became musicians and Johann Sebastian, a promising painter, died in his late twenties during a 1778 trip to Italy. Emanuel Bach died in Hamburg on 14 December 1788. He was buried in the Michaeliskirche in Hamburg.

Symphonies

Among Bach's most popular and recorded works are his symphonies. While in Berlin, he wrote several string symphonies, most of which were later revised to add parts for wind instruments. Of these, the E minor symphony, Wq. 178, has been particularly popular.

In Hamburg, Bach wrote a major set of six string symphonies for Gottfried van Swieten, Wq. 182. These works were not published in his lifetime (van Swieten, who had commissioned them to be written in a more "difficult" style, preferred to retain them for private use,) but since their rediscovery, have become increasingly popular.

However, Bach's masterpieces in the form (by his own estimation) are assuredly the four Orchester-Sinfonien mit zwolf obligaten Stimmen, Wq. 183, which, as their title suggests, were written with obbligato wind parts that are integral to the texture, rather than being added on to an older string symphony. The first symphony (D major) in the set has been particularly popular, seeing a continuous performance and publication tradition all the way through the 19th century, which makes it the earliest such symphony. Some of its more unusual features have been taken as characteristic of Bach's style: the work, although it is in D major, begins on a D major chord, which then turns into a D dominant-seventh chord, outlining G major. In fact, there is no cadence on D major (D major is not "confirmed" as the key of the piece) until the beginning of the recapitulation, quite late in the piece.

Concertos

Bach was a prolific writer of concertos, especially for keyboard. Like his father, he would often transcribe a concerto for various instruments, leading to problems determining which came first. For instance, the three cello concertos (Wq. 170–172), which are cornerstones of that instrument's repertoire, have often been considered to be transcriptions of the harpsichord versions, but recent research has suggested that they might be originally for cello.

Bach's greatest keyboard concertos (by his own estimation) were the Sei concerti per il cembalo concertato, Wq. 43, which were written to be somewhat more appealing, and somewhat easier to play. His other concertos were written for oboe, flute, and organ. Bach also wrote for more unusual combinations, including an E-flat major concerto for harpsichord and piano. Additionally, he wrote several sonatinas for one or more keyboards and orchestra.

Chamber music

Bach's chamber music forms something of a bridge between stereotypically Baroque and Classical forms. On the one hand, he wrote trio sonatas and solo sonatas with basso continuo (including ones for harp and viola da gamba); on the other, he wrote several accompanied sonatas for piano, violin, and cello, which are more or less early piano trios, and three very popular quartets for keyboard, flute, and viola. Bach also wrote one of the earliest pieces for solo flute, a sonata that is clearly influenced by his father's Partita in A minor for solo flute, BWV 1013.

Keyboard sonatas

Bach was a prolific writer of keyboard sonatas, many of which were intended for his favored instrument, the clavichord. During his lifetime, he published more collections of keyboard music than anything else, in the following collections:

Much of Bach's energy during his last years was dedicated to the publication of the "Kenner und Liebhaber" collections (which also include fantasias and rondos, see below).

Other keyboard works

Easily Bach's best-known piece is the Solfeggietto, Wq. 117/2, to the point that the introduction to The Essential C.P.E. Bach is subtitled "Beyond the Solfeggio in C Minor". Several of Bach's other miscellaneous keyboard works have gained fame, including the character piece La Caroline and the Fantasia in F-sharp minor, Wq. 67. Bach's fantasias, in particular, have been considered to show him at his most characteristic: they are full of dramatic silences, harmonic surprises, and perpetually varied figuration.

Bach published three major collections of miscellaneous keyboard works during his lifetime: the Clavierstucke verschiedener Art, Wq. 112 of 1765, and the Kurze und Leichte Clavierstucke collections, Wq. 113–14 of 1766. The former includes songs, fantasias, dances, sonatas, fugues, and even a symphony and concerto for solo piano (Bach was later to publish an entire collection of keyboard versions of his symphonies).

Bach also wrote a set of six organ sonatas for the organ of Frederick the Great's sister Wilhelmina.

Music for mechanical instruments

Mechanical instruments such as the music box and musical clock were popular at the Prussian court, and C.P.E. Bach wrote thirty original compositions for these instruments, grouped together as Wq. 193. At that time, Bach was court musician to King Frederick the Great at Potsdam; the King, who was intrigued by mechanically reproduced music, had mechanical organ clocks built for the City Castle of Potsdam and for the New Palais.

Choral works

Throughout his lifetime, Bach worked on the Magnificat in D, Wq. 215. J.S. Bach was alive to hear it in 1749, and C.P.E. continued to revise and perform it as late as 1786. The work clearly shows the influence of J.S. Bach's own Magnificat, including the striking resemblance of the Deposuit movements in both works.

His other important choral works include the Heilig (German Sanctus), Wq. 217, which he performed together with the Credo from his Father's Mass in B minor, the oratorios Die Israeliten in der Wuste, Wq. 238 and Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu, Wq. 240, and 21 passions.

Legacy and musical style

Through the later half of the 18th century, the reputation of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach stood very high, surpassing that of his father. Haydn and Beethoven admired him and collected his music. Mozart said of him, "Bach is the father, we are the children." The best part of Joseph Haydn's training was derived from a study of C. P. E.'s work. Beethoven expressed for his genius the most cordial admiration and regard.

The content of his work is full of invention and, most importantly, extreme unpredictability, and wide emotional range even within a single work, a style that may be categorized as empfindsamer Stil. It is no less sincere in thought than polished and felicitous in phrase. His keyboard sonatas, for example, 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.

He was probably the first composer of eminence who made free use of harmonic color for its own sake. 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, Bernhard Joachim Hagen, Ernst Wilhelm Wolf, Johann Gottfried Muthel, and Friedrich Wilhelm Rust. 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"; others opined that he was "a somewhat feeble imitator of his father's style". All the same, Johannes Brahms held him in high regard and edited some of his music. By the early 20th century, he was better regarded but the revival of C. P. E. Bach's works has been chiefly underway since Helmuth Koch's recordings of his symphonies and Hugo Ruf's recordings of his keyboard sonatas in the 1960s. There is an ongoing project to record his complete works, led by Miklos Spanyi on the Swedish record label BIS. In 2014, the Croatian pianist Ana-Marija Markovina, in cooperation with the Packard Humanities Institute, the Bach-Archiv Leipzig, the Sachsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig and Harvard University released a 26-CD box set of the complete works for solo piano on the German record label Hanssler Classic, performed on a modern Bosendorfer grand piano.

The works of C. P. E. Bach are known by "Wq" numbers, from Alfred Wotquenne's 1906 catalogue, and by "H" numbers from a catalogue by Eugene Helm (1989).

He was portrayed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner in the 1941 biopic of his brother Friedemann Bach.

Anniversary year 2014

2014 marked the 300th anniversary of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. All six German Bach cities—Hamburg, Potsdam, Berlin, Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, Leipzig, and Weimar—hosted concerts and other events to commemorate the anniversary.