BACH-ARCHIV LEIPZIG ACQUIRES PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN LETTER IN THE HAND OF CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH

Portrait of CPE Bach, painted
by relative Johann Philipp Bach
(1752 - 1846), himself a musician
in addition to a painter.* c. 1780

The Leipzig Bach Archive has announced the recent discovery of a written exchange between Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (CPE/Emanuel) - the fifth child and second surviving son of Johann Sebastian and Maria Barbara Bach - and local publisher Engelhard Benjamin Schwickert.

The two-page document was authored by CPE on 4 August, 1786, just two years prior to his death. It concerns a new edition of his best-selling "Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen" (Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments).

Considered one of the most influential texts on music written during the 18th century, Emanuel's Versuch underwent a second printing just six years after its initial launch - the treatise remaining a staple of study well into the 19th century. It was even famously lauded by Clementi, Haydn and Beethoven - the latter of whom incorporated the essay into his teaching curriculum as essential reading for his star pupil Carl Czerny.

   

Above: Newly acquired letter at the Leipzig Bach Archive, penned by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach to Leipzig publisher Engelhard Benjamin Schwickert, dated 4 August, 1786. Click on images to enlarge.  |  Bach-Archiv Leipzig

CPE's Versuch was also the first treatise of its kind which placed equal emphasis on the importance of emotional expression, which the pedagogue insisted, exists on par with technical ability: "Since a musician cannot move others unless he himself is moved," CPE famously wrote, "he must of necessity feel all of the affects that he hopes to arouse in his listeners."

The newly discovered correspondence (pictured above) is described by Dr. Peter Wollny, the director of the Leipzig Archive as a "two-page letter with extraordinary provenance...[which will] create new persepectives for scientific research." It joins an already extensive letter collection dedicated to the family of Emanuel, and marks the third letter added to the Bach-Archiv penned by the composer to Schwickert.

The manuscript made its 234-year journey home to Leipzig thanks to the support of the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien, the American Friends of the Leipzig Bach Archive and the Los Altos, California based Packard Humanities Institute, in addition to private donors who helped finance the purchase from J.& J. Lubrano. The New York-based music antiquarians had exclusively offered the institution the manuscript in 2019. 

The newly acquired document will be made available for public viewing on 27 October, 2020 in conjunction with an event held by the Leipzig Bach Archive to mark the 70th anniversary of the institution, which was founded in 1950.

For more information on this exciting discovery - including details on what is known (and surmised) concerning the manuscript's provenance - visit the Leipzig Bach Archive here.


Below: In the year the above letter was written, 72 year old Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was busying himself in Hamburg, where he conducted at a noble charity concert for the infirm poor (the Medizinisches Armeninstitut, an association of physicians who performed their services for the impoverished at no cost).  continued below...

       

Held on Palm Sunday, 1786, Emanuel began the concert with a performance of the Credo from his father, Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B Minor, BWV 232, followed by two movements from Handel's Messiah ("I know that my Redeemer liveth" & “Hallelujah").  

Program for the 1786 charity concert led
by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.
| Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin

The second half of the program consisted of the composers' own works: his Symphony in D Major, Wq 183 (pub. 1780), his newly revised Magnificat in D major,  Wq 215 (1749), and the double-choir motet, heard above in two parts, "Heilig is Gott," Wq 217 (Holy is God, 1776), which borrows from the visionary experience of the Lord upon a throne as detailed in sixth chapter of the biblical Book of Isaiah. This latter motet was enthusiastically received by CPE's contemporaries, and is heard above as part of a stunning recreation of the concert at Hamburg by RIAS Kammerchor and the Akademie fur alter Musik Berlin, led by Hans-Christoph Rademann (feat. German contralto Wiebke Lehmkuhl). 

The original event was hailed as a triumph for CPE and is notable for the historical reception of his late father's music. By including the Credo of Johann Sebastian's Mass in B Minor (on which the late composer toiled before his death) to the program, the ever consummate son (who added his own Introduction) effectively gifted upon posterity a recorded, contemporaneous perspective of the late master. An announcement in the Hamburgische Nachrichten aus dem Reich der Gelehrsamkeit (21 March 1786) detailed a resounding review of the "full force...[of the] great works" of both father and son, whilst paying added homage to the music of the elder Bach, stating that the mass was "...eine der  prachtvollsten Kirchenmusiken vom sel. Joh. Seb. Bach" ("one of  the most splendid pieces of church music by the late J.S. Bach").


*A note on the above portrait of CPE:

Johann Philipp Bach,
self-portrait

There existed numerous painters within the extensive Bach family line. While some, such as CPE's son, Johann Sebastian Bach the Younger (so named after his more famous grandfather) dedicated their lives solely to art, others balanced portrait painting alongside a career as a working musician -  as was the case with Johann Philipp Bach (JPE) and that of his father, Gottlieb Friedrich Bach, whose posts as court painter and court organist Johann Philipp would inherit in 1790 at the court of Saxe-Meiningen (Sachsen-Meiningen). The younger Bach would add court harpsichordist to his resume during this period.

JPE can be seen at left, in this undated self-portrait, in which he depicted himself busy at work on the canvas.


  
Further Reading (external links):

• "Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen" (1st pt., Winter, 1759, auf Deutsch)
  
• "Editing C.P.E. Bach's Versuch..." (brief history of published editions, PDF from cpebach.org; authored by Mark W. Knoll, ed. C.P.E Bach: The Complete Works)

-Rose.

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