The Music Of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

Of the four sons of J.S. Bach who became composers, Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714-88) was the most prolific, the most original, and the most influential both during and after his lifetime. This first full-length English-language study critically surveys his output, examining not only the famous keyboard sonatas and concertos but also the songs, chamber music, and sacred works, many of which resurfaced in 1999 and have not previously been evaluated. The bookalso outlines the composer's career from his student days at Leipzig and Frankfurt (Oder) to his nearly three decades as court musician to Prussian King Frederick "the Great" and his last twenty years as cantor at Hamburg. Focusing on the composer's choices within his social and historical context, the book shows how C.P.E. Bach deliberately avoided his father's style while adopting the manner of his Berlin colleagues, derived from Italian opera. Anew perspective on the composer emerges from the demonstration that C.P.E. Bach, best known for his virtuoso keyboard works, refashioned himself as a writer of vocal music and popular chamber compositions in response to changingcultural and aesthetic trends. Supplementary texts and musical examples are included on a companion website. David Schulenberg is professor of music at Wagner College and teaches historical performance at the JuilliardSchool. He is the author of The Music of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (University of Rochester Press, 2010).

The second son of Johann Sebastian Bach, C.P.E. Bach was an important composer in his own right, as well as a writer and performer on keyboard instruments. He composed roughly a thousand works in all the leading genres of the period, with the exception of opera, and Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven all acknowledged his influence. He was also the author of a two-volume encyclopedic book about performance on keyboard instrument. C.P.E. Bach and his music have always been the subject of significant scholarship and publication but interest has sharply increased over the past two or three decades from performers as well as music historians. This volume incorporates important writings not only on the composer and his chief works but also on theoretical issues and performance questions. The focus throughout is on relatively recent scholarship otherwise available only in hard-to-access sources.

First Published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

A collection of the latest work by distinguished scholars on C. P. E. Bach.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714 – 1788), was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and second (surviving) son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach. C. P. E. Bach was an influential composer working at a time of transition between his father's baroque style and the classical and romantic styles that followed it. His personal approach, an expressive and often turbulent one known as empfindsamer Stil or 'sensitive style', applied the principles of rhetoric and drama to musical structures. Bach's dynamism stands in deliberate contrast to the more mannered gallant style also then in vogue. Classic Music Collection constitutes an extensive library of the most well-known and universally-enjoyed works of classical music ever composed, reproduced from authoritative editions for the enjoyment of musicians and music students the world over.

This is a complete edition of the correspondence of the most famous of J.S. Bach's sons. Very few of these letters have appeared previously in English translation. They provide a fascinating picture of an eighteenth-century composer hard at work publishing his own music, debating aesthetic matters, and championing the music and teachings of his father. The readable translation, detailed index, extensive cross referencing, and glossary of names make this an accessible and useful volume.

J. S. Bach's musician son explains the technique for performing eighteenth-century compositions, discussing fingering, embellishments, bass, and accompaniment