All the Bach children were musical, and probably not by choice. Most musicians agree that Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was the best composer among them. After all, when Mozart said “Bach is the father, and we are his children,” he was not referring to J.S., but C.P.E.
C.P.E.’s music is a perfect midpoint between the Baroque and Classical musical eras, combining the ornateness and richness of the baroque with the transparency and grace of the classic. This isn’t the heavy, confusing sound of his father’s late compositions, nor is it the mindless, simple noodling of Scarlatti.
Shortly after graduating with a degree in law (like any good musician does), he was appointed a musical post in the court of Frederick the Great, who was known as a great patron of the arts, and was himself a flutist. It’s easy to imagine this flute concerto being performed by Frederick, with C.P.E. conducting and playing the keyboard, as is portrayed in this painting.
A friend of mine called the German hymn Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern “the Queen of Chorales.” The hymn was written in the first century after the Protestant Reformation, and remains a staple of Lutheran hymnody to this day (well, sort of.) There’s something about the shape of the melody and the dance rhythms that make it stick.
I adore the cantata that Bach wrote which features this chorale. The spirit of joy is captured perfectly, and is found in every movement, even though the chorale itself is only found in the first and final choruses. The piece speaks for itself, so I’m going to sit back and let you listen:
side note: BWV is a catalog of Bach’s works. BWV 1 doesn’t mean it’s the first piece he wrote – in fact, he was middle-aged when he wrote it – it just happens to be the first piece listed in the catalog.
Quick music lesson. “Rondo” (or its spelling variants) means round. Not round as in “row-row-row your boat”, but round as in circle. A Rondo is a musical form where you travel around in a circle – always coming back to the same point where you began.
There are tons of pieces in Rondo form. Often, the final movement of a classical symphony or piano sonata is a rondo. For today, here’s the mother of all rondos, from one of Bach‘s partitas for solo violin. The two phrase melody you hear in the first twenty seconds is the main theme – you might call it a refrain. The violin then plays something different for a bit, then returns to the refrain. Again, something new; again, refrain. Different keys, different rhythmic motifs; the refrain keeps coming back.
Rondos are very satisfying to listen to, I believe, because it satisfies two opposing desires we all have: to explore new exciting territory, and to be able to come home to something comfortable that we know.
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