Author Description

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), the best known son of Johann Sebastian Bach, was the most original composer of the period between the Baroque era and the Classical period. He was one of the most brilliant keyboard players of his day and created the modern expressive school of piano writing which particularly influenced the two great Classical masters: Haydn and Mozart. C.P.E. Bach's music was widely known during his lifetime and is highly esteemed in testimonials of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and many others. In the twentieth century, the music of this unique artistic personality has received increasing attention, but of the composers's seven hundred or so vocal and instrumental works, nearly half are unavailable in modern editions and approximately one third have never been published. The need for a complete Urtext has long been recognized but not possible until all of the manuscript sources had been located and evaluated, a task completed by Professor Helm in 1981. Now, in the bicentennial year of the composer's death, the musical edition is well under way and should prove to be a major contribution to both historical performance and musical scholarship.