March 8
By Linda de
Vries
On this date in 1714, Sebastian’s fifth child, Carl Philipp
Emanuel, was born in Weimar. His godfather was the composer Georg Philipp
Telemann, about whom you will read more in this series.
On this date in 1895, the evaluation committee released its
report on Sebastian’s remains, concluding that they had truly found the grave
of the great musician in the bombed out St. John’s Church in Leipzig.
The subject of our Bach Bagatelle for today is, though,
Sebastian’s son: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.
C.P.E., as he came to be known, was the second surviving son
of Sebastian and first wife Maria Barbara. Besides being the primary
conservator of his father’s legacy he was an important composer in his own
right, providing a bridge between the Baroque and Classical periods in music.
Today is the 300th
anniversary of his birth! Today you can hear concerts in cities all over
the world celebrating this event—even here in Los Angeles at the Colburn
School!
Typical of so many musicians of the period, CPE studied law
at the University of Leipzig, but upon graduation almost immediately turned his
full attention to music and accepted a position with Crown Prince Frederick of
Prussia in Berlin. When the prince became king (Frederick “the Great”) in 1740,
CPE, one of the leading harpsichord players in Europe, became a member of the
royal orchestra. He was 26 years old.
In this capital city he mixed with the cultural elite of
German society, becoming a lifelong friend of the literary giant Gotthold
Ephraim Lessing. He also continued composing, which he had begun in 1731. His
primary influences were his father Sebastian Bach, his godfather Telemann, and their
friend Georg Frideric Handel. C.P.E. composed mainly for the keyboard in
Berlin, where he published his widely influential book, An Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments, still
used today.
While in Berlin he married Johanna Maria Dannemann. Three of
their children lived to adulthood but none was a musician.
In 1768 CPE succeeded his godfather as director of music at
Hamburg, where he began to turn his energies more toward the composition of
choral music. Ultimately, he composed in every genre except opera. He died in
Hamburg on December 14, 1788 and was buried in St. Michael’s Church.
Classical Music
In the middle of the 18th century taste began to
move toward a new style, a style that came to be called Classicism, as artists
sought to copy the ideals of Classical Greece.
This new taste reflected changes in society such as the rejection
of absolute monarchies in favor of the independent individual, an emphasis on
reason and skepticism that led to the rise of science, and the rise of the
middle class with its new-found wealth.
Consequently, the new style in music favored simplicity over
complexity. It shifted from polyphony (two
or more lines of simultaneous independent melody) to homophony (one dominant melody accompanied by subordinate chords).
Variety of key, melody, rhythm, and dynamics became more pronounced,
as did changes in mood and timbre. The harpsichord was replaced by the piano (called
the fortepiano initially, because it
could play both loudly and softly, which a harpsichord could not). Melodies
were marked by clear-cut phrases and cadences (pauses at the end of a section of
music).
The most important composers in the transition from Baroque
to Classical were the Italian Domenico Scarlatti, the Viennese master Christoph
Willibald Gluck, and C.P.E. Bach. Sebastian’s son was held in high esteem both
for his ability to master the older forms and to present them in a new guise.
Many stylistic sub-groups arose within Classical style, so
you also find the period also referred to as rococo (from rocaille, a
form of home and landscape decoration using shells), meaning highly decorative
and fanciful.
Another term was stil gallant,
or Empfindsamer Stil. C.P.E.
practiced this “sensitive style,” which emphasized simplicity, immediacy of
appeal, and elegance. In contrast to the Baroque Doctrine of Affections in which a piece maintained the same emotion
throughout its length, sensitive style aimed to express “true and natural” feelings
and featured abrupt contrasts in mood. To achieve his highly dramatic style, C.P.E.
recommended free improvisation and the elimination of the bar line in a score!
The giants of the fully-evolved Classical style are Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart and Franz Joseph Haydn of the Vienna School, both of whom were
highly influenced by C.P.E. Bach. Mozart said of him, “He is the father; we are
the children.” Currently, there is a project underway to record his complete
works, and today is his 300th birthday!
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