Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was a German composer, the second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach, and a central figure of the empfindsamer Stil that bridged the Baroque and Classical eras. He served Frederick the Great in Berlin for nearly thirty years before succeeding Telemann as music director in Hamburg, and his Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments became a foundational treatise on keyboard performance.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.
- Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–1788) Overlapped 74 years →
- John Wesley (1703–1791) Overlapped 74 years →
- Qianlong Emperor (1711–1799) Overlapped 74 years →
- Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) Overlapped 74 years →
- Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787) Overlapped 73 years →
- James Lind (1716–1794) Overlapped 72 years →
Life events
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was born in Weimar on 8 March 1714, the second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach; Georg Philipp Telemann was his godfather.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAfter the family moved to Leipzig in 1723, he was educated at the St Thomas School, where his father served as Thomaskantor, receiving his musical training entirely from J. S. Bach.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgBach studied law at the University of Leipzig from 1731 and continued at Frankfurt an der Oder from 1734, supporting himself by teaching and directing music.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgIn 1738 Bach moved to Berlin and joined the musical establishment of the future Frederick the Great, becoming court harpsichordist upon Frederick's accession in 1740.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgIn 1744 Bach married Johanna Maria Dannemann, the daughter of a Berlin wine merchant; three of their children survived to adulthood.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe first part of his Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen appeared in 1753, becoming the definitive eighteenth-century treatise on keyboard technique and interpretation.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgIn 1768 Bach succeeded his godfather Georg Philipp Telemann as Kantor of the Johanneum and director of music at Hamburg's five principal churches.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgIn Hamburg Bach produced major choral works, including the 1769 oratorio Die Israeliten in der Wüste, alongside symphonies and keyboard collections for connoisseurs and amateurs.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgCarl Philipp Emanuel Bach died in Hamburg on 14 December 1788 and was buried in the crypt of St Michael's Church.
Source: en.wikipedia.org