Father of Classical Music, CPE Bach - 300th Anniversary

Oh, I've given it another sensational title.

However, this year marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of CPE Bach (Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach), the second son of the great Johann Sebastian Bach. I don't think it's wrong to call him the father of classical music in the narrow sense. Even Mozart,"He is the father and we are the children."¹²

That's what they say.

Let's briefly list some characteristics that distinguish classical music from earlier music.

1. Melody + harmonic form (monophony)
2. Multiple, diverse themes
3. Compared to Baroque, the theme is shorter, and its motives are broken down and used.
4. → Sonata form

These elements have been passed down since the Romantic period and form the foundation of what could be called "classical music" from the Classical period onwards.

On the other hand, the characteristics of CPE Bach's music are said to be as follows:

1. Galant style (melody + harmony)
2. Sensitive style³(Multiple themes with different characteristics)
3. Short themes and motive decomposition, and their application and development (He is said to have been the first to decompose motives and use them.⁴）
4. A sonata in three movements, with an intro + (first theme [main key] + bridge + second theme [dominant key/parallel key]) x3 + development + recapitulation movement = sonata form

Ah, this is the very characteristic of classical music. No wonder Mozart called him "father."

In fact, his influence on Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven was remarkable, and Beethoven also respected him.⁵It seems that Mendelssohn's oratorio "Elia" is also available at the CPE BachThe influence of "Israel in the Wilderness" is evidentAnd Brahms was the reviewer of his work.⁶It seems that they also do this.

In the Bach family, Mozart had a close friendship with his younger brother J.C. Bach.

• JC Bach → Mozart
• CPE Bach → Beethoven

It is sometimes said that Mozart was strongly influenced by Bach. Well, I don't necessarily agree with that, but I do think that in his later years, he was also heavily influenced by CPE Bach. In his later years, Mozart's music changed dramatically from the "fun and simple homophonic music" he had composed up until that point to very elaborate polyphonic music, which was difficult in a sense.⁷There is an urban legend that he lost popularity, his wife was ill, and he was in debt.⁸It is said that the catalyst for this was the music and scores of Bach that Baron Swieten showed him.⁹.

Baron Swieten was somewhat of an eccentric, and played JS Bach, who was not even noticed at the time, at his home concerts. The source of his music was the scores he had collected in Berlin, where he was posted. Why did he collect scores by the forgotten composer JS Bach? Probably because of the influence of CPE Bach. When the Baron was posted to Berlin, CPE Bach was also at the Berlin court and worked as an accompanist and composer for Frederick the Great. At the same time, he was also JS Bach's biggest promoter. At the time, CPE Bach had achieved far greater fame as a composer than JS Bach, but he was the one who best understood the greatness of JS Bach. That's why the Baron returned to Vienna with a collection of JS Bach's scores. Of course, it wasn't just JS Bach's works that he brought back. He also brought back works by CPE Bach, who was more highly regarded than JS Bach at the time, such as a set of six symphonies for strings.¹⁰In fact, I even commissioned them to take it home with me.

So let's hear it.

CPE Bach ：Sinfonia in G major Wq. 182/1, H. 657 – I. Allegro di molto (Composed in 1773)

here,CPE Bach Chamber Orchestra 300th Anniversary CD Let me introduce you to.

Huh? It's just like Mozart...

The following letter indicates that Mozart had been exposed to the works of CPE Bach by the time he composed the Haydn Set.

Letter (1)"By the way, I was thinking of asking you to send me, when you return the Rondo, the six fugues of Handel and the toccata and fugue of Eberlin (Johann Ernst Eberlin 1702-1762). I go to Baron van Swieden's every Sunday at noon. There is nothing played there except Handel and Bach. I am collecting Bach's fugues, not only Sebastian's, but also Emanuel and Friedemann Bach (Wilhelm Friedemann Bach 12-1710). And Handel's. And I am missing only... I would like to give the Baron the works of Eberlin. You already know that the English Bach has died, don't you? What a loss for the music world!" (Letter from Mozart, April 1784, 1782, to Leopold)

(Source) Yoshiyuki Hara:"The Influence of Fugue on Mozart's Late Clavier Sonatas" ¹¹

The following letter shows that Mozart was studying CPE Bach during this period.

Letter (2)"I would be very grateful if you could send me some copies of Emanuel Bach's fugues (I think there are six of them) some day - I forgot to ask for this in Salzburg." (Letter from Mozart to Leopold, December 1783, 12)

(Source) Yoshiyuki Hara: "The influence of fugue on Mozart's late clavier sonatas"¹²

No wonder CPE Bach sounds like later Mozart. So, I wrote above that it is said to be Bach's music and scores shown to Baron Swieten, but the Bach mentioned here actually includes JSBach, but it also refers to CPE Bach.¹³Or rather, I think the influence of CPE Bach is probably stronger. Otherwise, the opening statement "He is the father and we are the children" would not have been made.

Is Schumann the reason why CPE Bach has been forgotten?

So why was such an important composer, CPE Bach, forgotten in the 19th century? One reason seems to be Robert Schumann. His assessment that "as a creative musician, he was in a completely different league to his father" seems to have had an impact. As you know, Schumann was a very influential critic at the time, so to be honest, it's painful to hear such an assessment from him. In the end, he became a composer who was only known to a very small number of people, like Brahms or Mendelssohn... What a shame!

To defend Schumann, like many composers of his time, CPE Bach was very prolific and wrote many poor works. He was a pioneer and an experimenter, so it was inevitable that he would have many failures. When you come across such poor works several times in a row, it is not surprising that you feel like "this is no good". In fact, in a way, I felt the same way.

The reason I decided to reassess CPE Bach was because I visited Leipzig in March this year and saw a poster announcing that this year was the 3th anniversary of his birth. (CPE Bach is a musician who grew up in Leipzig.) In the past, there were no audio sources, so I couldn't listen to his music, and I couldn't reassess it, but we have the Naxos Music Library today! Yes, you can listen to many of CPE Bach's works here. What a great time.

So I decided to do a little research on CPE Bach, and not knowing where to start, I found out that his breakthrough works were two sets of keyboard sonatas called the "Prussian Sonatas" and the "Wurttemburg Sonatas."¹⁴So, without any thought,Württemberg Sonata No. 1 (composed in 1742) performed by Ana-Marija Markovina on pianoSo that's how I started listening to it.¹⁵Well, I was listening to it while doing other things, but after I got into the third movement,"Hey, wait a minute."So I couldn't help but listen to it again.This is in sonata form.

So, when I listened to the score again, I found that it was indeed in sonata form. On the contrary, the bridge between the first and second themes was marked by the "fate motive."¹⁶"CPE Bach" came out and was used heavily in the development section. "What is this?" That's when I started to look into CPE Bach seriously.

So, first, let's listen to the Würtenberg Sonata. I've compared a few, but the Markovina is the best. (By the way, the piano is apparently a Bösendorfer.)
CPE Bach: Württemberg Sonatas Nos. 1-6 (1742-44)

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As mentioned earlier, the third movement of No. 1 is in sonata form. The left hand plays a succession of chords, and the right hand plays a monophonic melody in the galant style. The first and second themes have different characteristics, making it a piece in the sensuous style (or rather, a sonata form is inevitable in the sensuous style). Since it was composed in 3, Bach was of course still alive.¹⁷And so far I have not come across any sonata form older than this.

All of these works are in three-movement form, fast-slow-fast, but in the third (Wq. 3-3, 49), a sonata form appears in the first movement. The theme of this movement is a baroque-style melody with dotted rhythm, but it has a strangely Beethoven-like flavor.

This is even more evident in No. 6 (Wq. 49-6, 1744), which is a bit like Beethoven's piano sonatas from No. 30 onwards.¹⁸It's no wonder people talk about its influence on Beethoven. But just how advanced was it? Beethoven's Symphony No. 30 (Op. 109) was written in 1820. There's a 76-year gap between them.

In fact, this CD also includes a piano concerto. Let's listen to that as well.
CPE Bach: Piano Concerto in D minor, Wq. 23, H. 427 (composed in 1748) Markovina (p) Lungo conducting the Saxon Chamber Philharmonic

The harpsichord basso continuo is Baroque, but apart from that, it's truly "galloping sadness". Oh, is that Mozart's catchphrase? It's in ritornello form, but the piano's entrance after the orchestra plays the theme is so cool that it makes me cry. I recommend this piece, but I would like you to listen to it performed by Markovina/Saxony Chamber Philharmonic, which I introduced. It doesn't have the atmosphere without the piano, and the other versions are too slow and don't have the "galloping sadness". This may be one of the reasons why CPE Bach has not been highly acclaimed until now. If you think it's Baroque and play it in a Baroque style at a Romantic Baroque tempo, it's no good at all. Markovina's recording, who spent 10 years studying and recording CPE Bach, makes this clear. I think it is truly worthy of praise.

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1. The Guardian: CPE Bach: like father, like son, (2011-02-24) The original German text is:Er ist der Vater; wir sind die BubenCould it be that the "Bach is the father of music" that is often said in Japanese music education is a misinterpretation of this statement?
2. Wikipedia Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (Obtained on August 2014, 8)
3. Sensitive Style (German: Empfindsamer Stil, English: Sensitive Style) is a musical style created in 18th century Germany. Aiming to express "straightforward and natural emotions", it is characterized by sudden changes of feeling. It developed in contrast to the Baroque doctrine of "Affektenlehre", which states that the same emotion should prevail throughout a piece (movement).
4. Wikipedia:Sonata Form“, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sonata_form (retrieved 2014/8/27)
5. Source required
6. Wikipedia Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Influence on later generations(Obtained on August 2014, 8)
7. Mozart had never made any mistakes until then.Haydn Set This can be seen from the fact that he apparently rewrote it extensively in (1782-1785). Is that really true? I just remember reading about it in a book by Hidekazu Yoshida or someone else that I read over 30 years ago.
8. In reality, Mozart's income never fell below 2000 million yen in present value, and in the year he died, he was earning 6000 million yen a year. He also kept very careful accounts, so he seems to have been the polar opposite of the character in the play and movie "Amadeus." He wrote many letters of application for loans, but it seems better to interpret them as requests for additional investment in a corporation he established, rather than as an individual. In the end, he personally shouldered the debts of the corporation.
9. Sinfonia Wq. 182/1-6, H.657-662 (composed in 1773)
10. Sinfonia Wq. 182/1-6, H.657-662 (composed in 1773)
11. https://www.seitoku.ac.jp/daigaku/music/mozart06/writings/haramfugue/haramfugue.html
12. Yoshiyuki Hara:"The Influence of Fugue on Mozart's Late Clavier Sonatas" https://www.seitoku.ac.jp/daigaku/music/mozart06/writings/haramfugue/haramfugue.html (2014/8/28取得)
13. Someone wrote something like "It is said that these are Bach's music and scores shown to Baron Swieten," clearly referring to the great Bach. This was a bit inaccurate.
14. As an aside, because he was left-handed, he had difficulty playing string instruments, and was unusual for his time as a musician who focused on keyboard instruments. The book he wrote on how to play keyboard instruments (such as the piano) was highly praised at the time and went through many reprints. It seems that the book promoted a revolutionary way of playing. It uses the thumb. Right. So, it seems that up until then, keyboard playing was about not using the thumb as much as possible. So, CPE Bach is also the father of modern piano playing.
15. The eras of the songs were decided after comparing both Naxos and http://t-yoko.sakura.ne.jp/cpe_bach.html.
16. It's the so-called 'ta-dah-ta-dah' rhythm.
17. The first draft of The Art of Fugue was written in 1742
18. However, the third movement reverts to a Baroque style. This lack of detail is also characteristic of the CPEBach. Perhaps this was done intentionally to give the audience at the time a familiar finale.