Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: a tercentenary assessment

Abstract

C. P. E. Bach, second son of J. S. Bach, is generally recognized as an important figure in music history. During his own time, admiration for his music was indicated in critical writings of contemporaries such as Charles Burney, as well as by efforts of collectors to gather copies of his complete works. Yet persistent questions about the coherence and originality of his music have not been put to rest by the recent recovery of many lost vocal works or an on-going edition of his complete compositions. This article surveys Bach’s output, showing that the composer himself distinguished between original and derivative works. His obsessions with variation (or embellishment) and with remote modulations, and his acceptance of the stylistic norms and conventions of music at the Berlin court, where he served for 30 years, may have prevented his compositions from achieving the same degree of integration as those of his father or his younger Viennese contemporaries. His late works adopt elements of a popular ‘comic’ style that he once criticized. Yet his best music employs original designs and achieves unique effects unattainable through other means.