Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was a German composer of the transitional period between the Baroque and Classical eras, born in Weimar as the second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach. He served the Prussian court in Berlin from 1738 to 1768, earning the nickname “the Berlin Bach,” before succeeding his godfather Telemann as music director in Hamburg, where he remained until his death. His output centers on keyboard sonatas—nearly 200 written during his Berlin years—alongside symphonies, concertos, chamber music, sacred oratorios and passions, and the influential treatise Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments. He died in Hamburg in 1788.

A principal exponent of the expressive empfindsamer Stil, C.P.E. Bach is regarded as a pivotal transitional figure whose keyboard sonatas and treatise shaped the emerging Classical style and directly influenced Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, with Mozart reportedly remarking, “Bach is the father, we are the children.” After a period of relative neglect in the nineteenth century, his music underwent a significant revival from the 1960s onward, and today he is recognized as a major composer in his own right, distinct from his father’s legacy.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Philipp_Emanuel_Bach