Bach, CPE :: Sonata in C Major

Sonata in C Major

Bach, CPE

International Music Company presents C.P.E. Bach's 'Sonata in C Major' for flute and piano edited by Jean-Pierre Rampal.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), second surviving son of J.S. and Maria Barbara Bach, and the leading composer of the early Classical period. A precocious musician who remained successful, C.P.E. Bach was his father s true successor and an important figure in his own right. In his autobiography he writes: For composition and keyboard-playing, I have never had any teacher other than my father. He studied law, taking his degree at Frankfurt in 1735, although he probably never had any intention of a career other than music. Unlike his elder brother Wilhelm Friedemann, C.P.E. Bach was successful in assimilating the powerful influence of their father and in making the transition into the new style then evolving. This represented a break with the past such as has occurred in very few other periods of musical development. The monumental character of Baroque music gave way to a mercurial Romanticism, for which the favourite contemporary description was sensitivity (Empfindsamkeit). Bach became a leader of that movement but retained the advantage of a solid craftsmanship and assurance for which he always gave full credit to his father s teaching and example.

- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica