Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach

Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach

Introduction

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, was the most important composer of Empfindsame Stil, the German variant of the Style French galant, and, more generally, from the mid -eighteenth century. He worked as a court musician in Berlin and, later, as a musical director in Hamburg. As a preclassic musician, transition between the Baroque and classicism, and who lived in full apogee of the Enlightenment, his works and his words will try to generate a break with all of the above, with the ideas and ways of composing the Baroque, criticizing and promoting the change towards an enlightened thought. In this way, his music will tend to adjust to the canons of the new style of which he is a promoter, participant and pioneer, reflecting in his own work an attempt to try to stop being pretentious, rich in virtuosity and technique.

Developing

The text begins directly criticizing who thinks that the technique and colorful interpreter is the key piece to succeed as a musician. This beginning not only judges those people, but also musicians with innate ability to transport, to play agilely, to play with good firing, who dominate the trill … which, clearly, makes a criticism of the Baroque (and his obsession (and his obsession (and his obsession (and his obsessionfor technique and virtuosity without soul) implicitly and explicitly, as refers to with the trill. He mentions that this technical ability, without sensitivity, is worthy of praise, but that compared to an interpreter who is capable, that has the capacity, to transmit emotions and feelings, beyond the movement generated by virtuosity, typically of the previous musical genre inChronology, and being able to carry those feelings further from their own ear and way of understanding music, to listeners, it is impossible to consider for a single moment that the first can even be half good than this.

In short, for CPE Bach the emotions transmitted in an interpretation prevail, before aseptic technical perfection and unable to transmit anything. 

Therefore, and to achieve this transmission of feelings of the interpreter to the public, moving it, the first step is that this musician moves himself;If this detects an afflicted or sad tone in the work, he must be computed and taciturn, and transmit it with his interpretation;Similarly, if he detects a passionate, cheerful character, he must turn on and jump from one emotion to another, with passion, causing himself to be seen and heard. If the expressiveness of the work lies in the intention of the author himself, the musician must appropriate that intention and, if he achieves it successfully and slightly add his personal touch, perhaps the author discovers that in what has composed there is more than more thanWhat he had even imagined, creating a mixture that is "delicious" for the ear of even the most inexperienced person in the musical field. This intentionality that tries to reflect in its compositions will decisively influence the development and stylistic of the nascent classic style. 

conclusion

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, unintentionally, is a participant in a baroque evasion towards a more aimBaroque, clear, differentiated and symmetrical phrases with clean lines of ornaments, implementation of crescendo and decreasing or the textures are more transparent and light with a tendency to the melody accompanied above the counterpoint for it, we can extract that no matter how dominatedHave the technique of an instrument It is impossible to succeed and enjoy our audience if we are not able, even to transmit what urge us, through the score, the composer.

This does not mean that we have to strictly stick to this intention.  If we are able to contribute, with some criteria and intelligence, certain emotions that we believe adequate, we can improve a piece, we can even make it shine in a unique and new way, even if it originally has a mediocre value.