Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

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Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, painted by his sixth degree nephew Johann Philipp Bach
Signature Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.PNG
Frankfurt stories: the virtuoso Emanuel

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (* March 8, 1714 in Weimar ; † December 14, 1788 in Hamburg ), also known as the Berliner or Hamburger Bach , was a German composer and church musician from the Bach family . He was the most famous of the Bach sons and enjoyed admiration and recognition in Protestant Germany in the second half of the 18th century, especially as a teacher and composer of works for keyboard instruments. He was a composer of the transition between baroque and classical ( early classical ).

Life

Early years

Memorial plaque on Markt 18 in Weimar
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, bust in the Konzerthaus Berlin

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was born in 1714 as the second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach and his first wife Maria Barbara . His godparents were Georg Philipp Telemann , as well as the page master Adam Immanuel Weldig (until 1713 landlord of the Bach family in Weimar) and Catharina Dorothea Altmann (wife of chamberlain C. F. Altmann from Arnstadt). He moved with his family to Köthen in 1717 , where his birth mother died in 1720, and to Leipzig in 1723 , when his father became Thomaskantor there and taught all his sons as a teacher at the Thomas School . In 1731 he began studying law at the University of Leipzig . After an unsuccessful application as organist at the Wenceslas Church in Naumburg in 1732, he enrolled at the Brandenburg University of Frankfurt in 1734 , where he became a member of the local Collegium musicum . In addition to his own early compositions, he performed works by his father there, including the overture in D major with the famous Air , the coffee cantata and the harpsichord concerto in D minor BWV 1052, presumably in a separate arrangement ( BWV 1052a). In 1738 he finished his studies, but gave up his plans for an academic career in order to devote himself to music.

Bach composed from 1731 on. However, he seems to have placed little value on his first attempts at composition, at least as illustrated by a letter from him from 1786.

“Forgive me for my chatter and smear! The most important thing of all is the king's gracious caution, where, through Handel, the work of young people is preserved to the utmost. I don't compare myself to Handel, but recently I got a ream u. more old works of mine burned u. I am glad that they are no longer. "

A similar note can also be found in the catalog of Bach's “clavier works” (1772).

In the service of Frederick II (Prussia)

Adolph Menzel : Frederick the Great's Flute Concerto in Sanssouci , oil on canvas, 1852. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach sits at the harpsichord. He served the king for 28 years.

In 1738 he was appointed harpsichordist to Ruppin in the chapel of the Prussian Crown Prince Friedrich . He declined an offer from Heinrich Christian von Keyserlingk, a son of Hermann Carl von Keyserlingk , who suggested that he accompany him on an educational trip. In 1741 Bach was given a permanent position as a concert harpsichordist in the court orchestra of the Crown Prince, who had been crowned King of Prussia the previous year (1740). Bach was then one of the most famous “piano players” in Europe. For the harpsichord - his favorite instrument - he has written around 150  sonatas and over 50 concertante pieces. In the crown prince's chapel in Rheinsberg he got to know Johann Joachim Quantz and the Graun brothers as well as Franz and Georg Anton Benda , who also took part in the king's flute concerts (in the Menzel picture, Franz Benda is said to be standing on the far right of the wall). As Friedrich II's chamber harpsichordist, he taught the young Duke Carl Eugen von Württemberg in Berlin . He dedicated the six Württemberg sonatas for harpsichord (Nuremberg 1744) to him. Two years earlier he had dedicated his six Prussian sonatas , the most important evidence of the new style formation in the field of the piano sonata, to Friedrich II. Many organ works created in the context of 1755 by Ernst Julius Marx and Johann Peter Migendt built house organ of the Princess Anna Amalia , in Berlin-Karlshorst is received. Until the last years of his life, Bach wrote works for keyboard instruments; they form the core of his compositional work.

In 1744 Bach married Johanna Maria Dannemann, the daughter of a Berlin wine merchant. The marriage resulted in a daughter, Anna Philippina Bach (1747–1804), and two sons: Johann Adam Bach (also called August, 1745–1789), who worked as a lawyer in Hamburg, and Johann Sebastian Bach "the younger" (also called Johann Samuel, 1748–1778), who became a painter and died on a study trip to Rome. In 1746 Bach rose to become a chamber musician . His Magnificat (1749), an Easter cantata (1756), several symphonies and concerts , three volumes of songs  - the spiritual odes and songs with melodies based on texts by - also date from his time in Berlin, because of which he was also called the “Berlin Bach” Gellert (1758), the Odes with Melodies (1762) and the Sing-Oden (1766) - as well as some secular cantatas and occasional pieces. His settings of Gellert's odes and lieder were published five times by 1784 and inspired many other composers, including Beethoven for his Gellert lieder op.48.Bach 's main work, however, was on the piano , for which he composed nearly a hundred sonatas and other solo works during this period , including the collection with modified reprises (1760–1768) and some of the sonatas for connoisseurs and enthusiasts . In addition, many important flute sonatas, including the Hamburg sonatas , were written.

Bach is a major exponent of the sensitive style . His music is full of torn melodies and unusual jumps, harmonies and twists that emerge from the baroque tradition . His work thus forms, as it were, a musical counterpart to the literary sensitivity that emerged a little later around Klopstock , Herder and the young Goethe .

In 1753 he published the first part of his most important textbook, attempt on the true way of playing the piano, self-published in Berlin; a second part was also self-published in 1762. In many places in this work, Bach presumably presents the idea of ​​“musical thoughts” for the first time. In the 41st chapter “Von der Freyen Fantasie” he writes in § 3: “If there is no division of the rhythm in such fantasies, the ear as we shall hear further below demands a certain proportion in the alternation and duration of the harmonies among itself , and the eye a proportion in the validity of the notes, so that one can write down one's thoughts. "

On March 26, 1755, Bach played the continuo part in the premiere of Carl Heinrich Graun's passion music Der Tod Jesu . In the same year there was a dispute between Bach and his competitor Christoph Nichelmann , who in his treatise Die Melodie accused Bach of an affected style, both according to its nature and its characteristics . Bach ordered a polemical reply from a "Caspar Dünkelfeind", who is in all probability Christoph Gottlieb Schröter , which led to another attack by Nichelmann. Finally, Nichelmann resigned his service at court, Bach's salary was increased by 200 thalers, and on February 1, 1756 , the 20-year-old Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch was employed as a second court harpsichordist at the usual salary of 300 thalers.

As a result of these disputes, Bach increasingly distanced himself from court life and became more active in private Berlin music circles. He was an important member of the first Berlin song school founded by Christian Gottfried Krause , although he did not play a leading role in it and mainly set humorous texts to music. Occasionally he composed songs “in folk style”, for example the drinking song “The landlord and the guests” based on a text by Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim .

In Hamburg

Bach with Pastor Sturm , 1784

On April 2, 1768, a Holy Saturday , Bach succeeded his late godfather Georg Philipp Telemann as municipal music director and cantor at the Johanneum in Hamburg, but was not officially introduced into his office until April 19. His duties in Hamburg were quite similar to those of his father in Leipzig, and accordingly he now turned more to church music . A total of around 200 performances were to take place annually at the five main churches in Hamburg , and many compositions were expected for special occasions. Bach tried to master this heavy workload through forward-looking planning: For many of his works he used already existing material; be it own, earlier compositions or the works of other composers such as Georg Anton Benda , Gottfried August Homilius , Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel , but also those of his father and Telemann. He used the pasticcio technique to work on these “foreign” works : he added voices or entire sentences, orchestrated new and revised recitatives .

In 1769 he created the oratorio The Israelites in the Desert and between 1769 and 1788 over twenty passion settings , a second oratorio The Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus and around seventy cantatas, litanies , motets and other liturgical pieces. For the piano he published the six volumes for connoisseurs and lovers from 1779 to 1787 .

Bach's circle of friends in Hamburg initially included Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , whom he had met in Berlin, and the mayors Hans Jacob Faber and Jacob Schuback . Later among his friends were the theologian Christoph Christian Sturm , the mathematics professor Johann Georg Büsch and the doctors Johann Albert Heinrich Reimarus and Johann August Unzer .

In addition to his official duties as church music director, Bach took a leading position in Hamburg's concert life from the start. In addition to his own oratorios he led work on other composers, including death of Jesus by Carl Heinrich Graun and Blessed Consider and Donnerode by Telemann. At a “historic” concert on April 9, 1786, in addition to a symphony composed by him, his Magnificat and his cantata Heilig, there were also parts from his father's B minor Mass and the aria I know that my Redeemer lives from George Frideric Handel Messiah for the performance.

Bach maintained extensive correspondence with numerous personalities of his time, including Denis Diderot , the editor of the Encyclopédie . There is evidence of two letters that Diderot had written to Bach. It is possible that Diderot Bach paid a visit to Hamburg at the end of March 1774, where he was returning from Saint Petersburg a . a. Wanted to acquire sheet music and compositions for his musically interested and educated daughter Marie-Angélique de Vandeul (1753-1824). Denis Diderot's stay did not escape the local press either, for example the Hamburg Address Comtoirs News , issue 32 on Thursday, March 31, 1774, reported on the encyclopedist's stay .

Grave of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in the crypt of the St. Michaelis Church

Bach died in Hamburg in 1788. His tomb in the vault of the St. Michaelis Church is still open to the public today. After his death, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim dedicated poetic obituaries to him.

Over the course of almost 60 years, Bach composed over 1,000 separate works. The greater part of the music he left behind was later acquired by the collector Georg Poelchau . Also Friedrich Wilhelm von Thule Meier kept very good copies of the compositions of JS Bach as well as Quantz , creators Raths and Nichelmann on. The estate directory , printed in Hamburg in 1790, is the most important source of precise details about Bach's work and often provides more information on the date and place of a composition than the autograph manuscripts.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach is one of the most important composers in the period between the Baroque and Viennese Classical periods . During his lifetime he was more famous than his father Johann Sebastian. In 1788, shortly before Bach's death, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart conducted three performances of the oratorio The Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus in Vienna. On this occasion, the absent composer from Hamburg received another extraordinary honor: “In the performance on March 4th, Mr. Graf ( van Swieten ) the portrait of Mr. Capellmeist engraved in copper. Walk around the brook in the hall. The princesses and countesses present and the whole of the very brilliant aristocracy admired the great composer, and there was a high vivat and three loud applause. "

Bach was highly regarded among the Viennese classics. Joseph Haydn confessed : “Anyone who knows me thoroughly must find that I owe a lot to Emanuel Bach, that I understood him and studied him diligently.” Mozart wrote: “He (Emanuel Bach) is the father; we are the boys. Those of us who can do something right learned from him. ” Ludwig van Beethoven wrote in a letter to Breitkopf & Härtel :“ I only have a few things from Emanuel Bach's piano works, and yet some of them certainly don't have to be enjoyed by every true artist alone , but also serve for study. "

Works

There are various catalogs of the works of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. The Wotquenne directory of Alfred Wotquenne of 1905, the abbreviation "Wq", it has remained the most common today, although E. Eugene Helm restructured Thematic Catalog of the Works of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1989) offers a more comprehensive basis; Helm's directory is labeled "H." In 2014, a fundamentally new directory of vocal works was published as part of the Bach repertory; that of the instrumental works is in preparation [as of 2014].

Works available on phonograms and in print (selection)

  • Concerto for harpsichord in C major, Wq 20, H. 423
  • Concerto for harpsichord, two violins, viola and basso continuo in D minor , Wq 23, H. 427
  • Concerto for harpsichord, piano and orchestra in E flat major, Wq 47, H. 479 (1788)
  • 6 Prussian Sonatas , Wq 48
  • 6 Württembergische Sonatas , Wq 49 (No. 1 in A minor, No. 2 in A flat major, No. 3 in E minor, No. 4 in B flat major, No. 5 in E flat major, No. 6 in B minor)
  • Six sonatas for an attempt on the true way of playing the piano , Wq 63
  • Keyboard works (sonatas, fantasies, rondos) For connoisseurs and lovers , Wq 55-59 and 61
  • Sonatas for transverse flute & fortepiano (Sonata No. 1 in D major, Wq 83, Sonata No. 2 in E major, Wq 84, Sonata No. 3 in G major, Wq 85, Sonata No. 4 in G major, Wq 86, Sonata No. 5 C major, Wq 87)
  • Twelve variations on La Folia Wq 118/9
  • Sonata in A minor for solo flute, Wq 132, H. 562
  • Hamburg Sonata in G major for flute and basso continuo, Wq 133
  • Sonata for viola da gamba in D major, Wq 137
  • Duo for flute and violin, Wq 140
  • Trio sonata (Sinfonia a tre voci) in D major (1754), H. 585
  • Trio for flute, violin and basso continuo in B minor, Wq 143
  • Trio for flute, violin and basso continuo in C major, Wq 147
  • Trio Sonata in B flat major, Wq 158
  • Trio sonata in C minor “ Sanguineus et Melancholicus ”, Wq 161/1
  • Oboe Concerto in B flat major, Wq 164, H. 466
  • Oboe Concerto in E flat major, Wq 165, H. 468
  • five concertos for flute in D minor (Wq 22), A minor (Wq 166), B major (Wq 167), A major (Wq 168) and G major (Wq 169)
  • three concertos for violoncello in A minor, B flat major and A major (Wq 170–172)
  • two symphonies, Wq 173 and Wq 178
  • Berlin Symphonies (No. 1 in C major, Wq 174; No. 2 in F major, Wq 175; No. 3 in E minor, Wq 178; No. 4 in E flat major, Wq 179; No. 5 in F major, Wq 181)
  • Six Hamburg Symphonies , Wq 182 (No. 1 in G major, No. 2 in B major, No. 3 in C major, No. 4 in A major, No. 5 in B minor, No. 6 in E major)
  • Four orchestral symphonies, Wq 183
  • Magnificat , Wq 215
  • Phyllis and Thirsis , cantata for soprano, two flutes and basso continuo (first edition GL Winter, Berlin 1766), Wq 232
  • Luke Passion (1771)
  • St. John Passion (1772)
  • St. Matthew Passion (1785)
  • Mark Passion (1786)
  • The resurrection and ascension of Jesus (1787)

Editions of works (selection)

  • Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Complete Piano Works in 14 Volumes. Koenemann Music Budapest.

Late finds

In December 2001 the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin was returned to the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin as part of the “loot return” from the Crimea, including Christmas cantatas by C. P. E. Bach ( To the angels equal from 1769 and Glory to God in the amount of 1772) and Georg Anton Benda ( God descends , edited by Bach's son). The re-performance of the three cantatas with the Zelter Ensemble of the Sing-Akademie (under Joshard Daus ) was broadcast by Deutschlandradio Kultur on December 15, 2003.

souvenir

There is a Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach music high school in Berlin . The Franciscan monastery church in Frankfurt (Oder) has borne Bach's name since it was converted into a concert hall. In 2010, an organ was built in the St. Michaelis Church in Hamburg that bears the name of Bach.

Anniversary year 2014

March 8, 2014 marked the 300th birthday of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. In his honor, the Bach cities of Hamburg, Potsdam, Berlin, Weimar, Frankfurt (Oder), Leipzig and many other German cities organized a program of concerts and events.

On this occasion, the Leipzig Bach Archive , together with Cantus Thuringia & Capella, produced a live CD with the recording of the festival concert on March 8, 2014 in the Thomaskirche Leipzig . There are two of his church cantatas, performed again for the first time.

In March 2015, the Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Museum was opened in Hamburg on Peterstraße.

Fonts

Reprint of both parts with the additions to the editions of 1787 and 1797: Kassel 2003 (edited by Wolfgang Horn)
  • Text to the music, when the venerable, in God devout and highly learned, Mr. Georg Heinrich Berkhan, was consecrated on February 8th, 1787, as main pastor at the St. Catharinen Church in Hamburg . Peter Nicolaus Bruns, Hamburg 1787 ( digitized on the website of the Berlin State Library).

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach  - Sources and full texts
Wikiquote: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach  - Quotes
Commons : Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Catalog raisonnés

Remarks

  1. ^ New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , Second Edition 2001, Volume 2, p. 387.
  2. ↑ Music - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: The rediscovered master composer. March 7, 2014, accessed April 28, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Before him, his older brother Johann Christoph was born on February 23, 1713, who died on the same day.
  4. ↑ “In composition and playing the piano I have never had a teacher other than my father,” says CPE Bach's autobiography.
  5. ^ New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , Second Edition 2001, Volume 2, p. 388.
  6. ↑ Mutual visits took place in Gotha and Hamburg (1778).
  7. ↑ Cf. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, attempt on the true way of playing the piano , edited by Dr. Walter Niemann. CF Kahnt, Leipzig 1925, p. 120.
  8. ↑ Biography: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in Hamburg
  9. ^ Doris Bosworth: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: A Guide to Research. Routledge music bibliographies, Powers Psychology Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8153-2179-1 , pp. 53 f.
  10. ↑ a b Jörg-Ulrich Fechner: Diderot's letters to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in the original wording. Functions of contemporary reception. In: Présence de Diderot. International colloquium on the 200th year of Denis Diderot's death at the University of GH-Duisburg from 3. – 5. October 1984. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 3-631-41696-2 , pp. 33-57.
    Jutta Lietz: Le passage de Diderot par l'Allemagne en 1774. In: Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie , Année 1998, Volume 24, Numéro 24, pp. 154-163.
  11. ↑ Biography: Death and Nachruhm
  12. ^ Otto Vrieslander: Philipp Emanuel Bach. P. VII.
  13. ^ Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Thematic-systematic directory of musical works . Part 2: Vocal works ( Bach repertory. Catalog raisonnés on the Bach family of musicians , published by the Leipzig Bach Archive, Volume III.2; BR-CPEB). Edited by Wolfram Enßlin and Uwe Wolf with the assistance of Christine Blanken, with a foreword by Christoph Wolff. Carus, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-89948-209-6 . Review by Ingeborg Allihn on info-netz-musik , June 29, 2014, accessed on September 16, 2014.
  14. ↑ According to musicologist Enßlin a pasticcio ( online ).
  15. ↑ A Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Museum is planned in the “Composers Quarter” on Peterstraße, in the immediate vicinity of the existing Johannes Brahms Museum and the Georg Philipp Telemann Museum, planning presentation on March 9, 2014 ( website CPE Bach and Website ( Memento from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) of the Carl Toepfer Foundation)
  16. ↑ www.cpebach.de - official website for the anniversary year of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.
  17. ↑ www.kompistenquartier.de , website of the Hamburg Composers Quarter
predecessor Office successor
Georg Philipp Telemann Cantor et Director chori musici in Hamburg
1768–1788 		Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke
personal data
SURNAME Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer
DATE OF BIRTH March 8, 1714
PLACE OF BIRTH Weimar
DATE OF DEATH December 14, 1788
Place of death Hamburg