Of Johann Sebastian Bach's twenty children, four became composers: Wilhelm Friedemann (1710-1784), Carl Philipp Emanuel, Johann Christoph Friedrich (1732-1795), and Johann Christian (1735-1782). Both Johann Christian and Carl Philipp Emanuel became well-known figures of the Classical period.

Emanuel was the fifth (although only third surviving) of the six children of J. S. Bach and his first wife, Maria Barbara Bach. At the age of nine Emanuel attended St. Thomas' School in Leipzig, where his father had taken up the post of Kantor. Although he was a talented keyboard player, Emanuel attended the University of Frankfurt-an-der-Oder with the aim of becoming a lawyer. Upon graduating, however, Emanuel took up a position among the musical entourage of Crown Prince Frederick (later Frederick the Great) of Prussia. Emanuel's main duties at the court were as harpsichordist and to serve as accompanist for the king while he played the flute. Despite the prestige of the position, there were certain dissatisfactions: for the nearly thirty years Emanuel was in Frederick's service, he was underpaid compared with the other court musicians. The king's chamber music concerts were supervised by Quantz, and even though Bach composed a number of works for flute (including some beautiful sonatas) Frederick clearly preferred performing the music of Quantz.

Emanuel applied for posts in other cities over the years; finally, Frederick gave him permission to go to Hamburg, where Emanuel succeeded his godfather, Georg Philipp Telemann, as director of church music for that city. He remained in Hamburg until his death, at the age of seventy-five, from a pulmonary complaint. 

As a composer, Emanuel is considered an important exponent of the Empfindsamer Stil, which, loosely translated, means "sensitive style." This was characterized by an emphasis on nuance and on the expression of several sentiments within a movement (avoiding both the Baroque use of a single "affect" and the extremes of passion of the Sturm und Drang movement).

Emanuel wrote a great deal of keyboard music, including many sets of keyboard sonatas. His favorite instrument was the clavichord; his last few keyboard sonatas, however, were written for the fortepiano, the predecessor of the modern piano. Bach's other works include 52 concertos with orchestral accompaniment, sonatas for violin and piano, trios, 22 Passions, and many cantatas and oratorios. He also wrote many songs that were prized in their day. His Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen ("Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments") was the first methodical treatise on keyboard playing and the rules it sets forth for the execution of musical ornaments are still authoritative today. 

Emanuel's flute concertos may have presented a considerable challenge for Frederick: it was said that Frederick played the flute "respectably" — his performances of slow movements were highly praised, but in fast movements he supposedly took undue liberties with the tempos. This A minor flute concerto, one of five extant works for solo flute and orchestra, also exists as a cello concerto and a harpsichord concerto.

© 2002 Megan Lyden