C. P. E. Bach Studies (review)

That winds of change in C. P. E. Bach research are actively blowing across folios of his music and pages of words written about him become imminently evident in this volume of essays edited by Annette Richards. Its nine articles explore themes that have received minimal treatment until recent years—namely, Bach's lively connections with North German literary circles, aesthetic concerns, issues of his reception, treatment of his vocal music and contrapuntal compositions, and the intriguing discovery of the 1772 catalog of his keyboard works.

The concept of the book emerged from a conference of papers and concerts, German Orpheus: C. P. E. Bach and Musical Culture in the Late 18th Century, held in February 1999 at Cornell University. Though this volume is not a publication of those papers, essays appearing in it by Richard Kramer, Annette Richards, and Richard Will originate from earlier versions presented at the conference.

Given the delightful ingenuity of C. P. E. Bach, a more imaginative title for this volume might have been in order. More important, the existing title duplicates that of another collection of essays and a standard staple in Bach literature, C. P. E. Bach Studies, edited by Stephen L. Clark (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988). One hopes this duplication of titles, whose volumes stand beside each other on library shelves, will not create confusion among readers.

Kramer's essay, "Diderot's Paradoxe and C. P. E. Bach's Empfindungen," thoughtfully treats ideas of these two contemporaries who nearly met in 1774 and who held similar ideas about sensibility (Empfindsamkeit). Kramer explores the eighteenth-century notion of music as a language of feeling (Empfindung) through a discussion of Diderot's Paradoxe and two of Bach's related late works, Fantasia in F-sharp Minor for clavier, Wq. 67 / H. 300 and Sonata in F-sharp Minor for violin and keyboard, Wq. 80 / H. 536 ("Empfindungen"). The performer, Kramer concludes, "must then convince us that we are hearing not the player in mask but rather the beating heart of the music and its living soul" (p. 24). Kramer's careful, clear writing assists the reader through a complex topic.

Tobias Plebuch focuses on the debate about aesthetics of instrumental music in his fascinating lengthy study, "Dark Fantasies and Dawn of the Self: Gerstenberg's Monologues for C. P. E. Bach's C Minor Fantasia." In 1787, H. W. Gerstenberg, Sturm und Drang poet, set two different texts—one from Hamlet, the other from Plato—to movement three of Bach's Sonata for keyboard (1753), Wq. 63.6 / H. 75. In his two-part essay, Plebuch delves in considerable depth on the disintegration of poetic language surrounding the keen interest in Shakespeare in the 1770s and provides an analysis of the experiment. He also considers interpretive questions dealing with images of light and darkness. An appendix contains a reprint of the entire music and texts of the experiment.

Richards's contribution, "An Enduring Monument: C. P. E. Bach and the Musical Sublime" concentrates on Bach's stylistic achievement of sublimity. She discusses epitaphs by Empfindsamkeit poet F. G. Klopstock on a monument honoring Bach. In an earlier comparison of their styles, J. F. Reichardt states that Bach stood as a musical counterpart to Klopstock, who was known for his irregular meter, difficult syntax, and emotive language, just as Bach used surprising twists and turns, abrupt changes in harmonic syntax, and expression of feelings. Richards examines two of Bach's choral works, Heilig, Wq. 217 / H. 778, and Klopstocks Morgengesang, Wq. 239 / H. 779, to understand the relationship between his musical syntax and sublimity as well as the perceptions of sublimity in his music by contemporary listeners.

Richard Will considers literary and theological issues in his chapter, "Reason and Revelation in C. P. E. Bach's Resurrection Oratorio." Because C. W. Ramler wrote the text for Bach's Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu, Wq. 240 / H. 777, Will investigates...