Today, J.
S. Bach overshadows his musical relatives, but that wasn’t always the case.
During the 1700s the modern music of J. S. Bach’s sons Carl Philipp Emanuel, Wilhelm
Friedemann, Johann Christian, and Johann Christoph Friedrich was popular while
the works of Johann Sebastian, aka “Old Bach” were left on the shelf.
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| A portrait of C. P. E. Bach By Franz Conrad Löhr. A public domain image. Source. |
Carl
Philipp Emanuel Bach, the second son of J. S. Bach, was likely the most noted
composer of the Bach family during his time—and he knew it. Even Mozart
appreciated C. P. E. Bach’s work, and he wrote: “[C. P. E.] Bach is the father.
We are the children!” C. P. E. Bach liked to think of himself as influential,
and to secure his musical legacy, he wrote himself an autobiography.
Unfortunately,
the music of C. P. E. Bach is little known today. But he did leave a huge
imprint on the musical world with his book: Essay on the True Art of
Playing Keyboard Instruments. In C. P. E. Bach’s time, the thumb was never used
when playing keyboard instruments. C. P. E. Bach, however, disagreed with
convention and wrote Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard
Instruments, which introduced a revolutionary new keyboard technique
featuring the thumb. C. P. E. Bach’s keyboard technique is still used today.
C. P. E.
Bach was the model son of the Bach family. He was an honorable musician who
helped preserve his family's good name. The same could not be said about C. P.
E. Bach’s older brother, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.
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| A portrait of W. F. Bach. A public domain image, Source. |
W. F.
Bach’s career started well. He was gifted at musical improvisation and
composition, and was possibly the most musically gifted of J. S. Bach’s sons.
J. S. Bach wanted his gifted eldest son to be successful, so he wrote a job application
for Wilhelm, such an impressive application that W. F. Bach was accepted as the
organist of Liebfrauenkirche in Halle without even an interview or audition.
Sadly, it seems that W. F. Bach relied on his father a little too much. After
J. S. Bach died in 1750, Wilhelm’s life started to fall apart. He lost his job
and ended up destitute, reduced to selling his father’s compositions—entrusted
to him for safekeeping—just to get by. Many of J. S. Bach's works are lost due
to his son's reckless behavior.
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| Portrait of J. C. Bach by Thomas Gainsborough. A public domain image. Source. |
Johann
Christian Bach, the youngest of J. S. Bach’s sons, was also a shame to the Bach
family, not because he was destitute, but because he became a Catholic. The
Bach family was Lutheran, and at the time the Lutheran and Catholic churches
did not get along at all. When J. C. Bach converted to Catholicism, 1760 his
family was horrified and stopped speaking to him. However, becoming a Catholic
ended up being a smart move for J. C. Bach as it secured him a spot the Italian
Catholic music world.
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| J. C. Bach's memorial in Old St. Pancras Churchyard, London. A creative commons image. Source. |
J. C. Bach
spent the latter half of his career as a fashionable opera composer in England
and music master for Queen Charlotte. But, fashions changed, and J. C. Bach
died unknown in 1782 and was buried in a mass grave.
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| Portrait of J. C.F. Bach by Georg David Matthieu. A public domain image. Source. |
Johann
Christoph Friedrich Bach was not a shame to his family like his two brothers.
J. C. F. Bach lived a respectable life as a composer and worked for Count
Wilhelm in his Bükeburg court for the entirety of his career. Count Wilhelm was
partial to Italian music, and to please him J. C. F. Bach wrote many
Italian-influenced works including the strange cantata Die Amerikanerin.
Die Amerikanerin was first titled A Moor’s Song. It was renamed after
the American Revolution in 1776, though the cantata has nothing to do with
America or revolution at all—it is about a lovesick man pining after his
beloved—and the reason for the title change is unclear.
I recently
heard Die Amerikanerin, and the work of Bach’s other composing sons,
for the first time at All in the Family: Music of Bach’s Sons, an
ARTEK Concert conducted by Gwendolyn Toth and you can listen to the music of
Bach’s sons here:
