*_The liner notes for this recording 1/2_* Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's "Sei sonate per il cembalo" were published at Nuremberg in 1742. Because of their dedication to Frederick the Second (the "Great"). of Prussia, they have come to be commonly known as the "Prussian" sonatas. Frederick II had just succeeded to the throne of Prussia and Bach had just entered his service, where he remained for twenty-seven years: The sonatas, numbers 21 through 26 in Beurmann's chronological listing of Bach's solo sonatas, were composed between 1740 and 1742 and represent his Opus One, his first significant publication and his coming of age as a creative artist. They are also an Opus One for the history of the solo keyboard sonata as a genre. True "sonatas" in the modern, not the Baroque, sense, they are all in three movements, fast-slow-fast, connected by strong, if often intangible, threads of texture and rhetoric. Their forms and musical speech are founded on the modern principle of multiplicity and contrast unfolding in the dimension of time: even in such a relatively unified and, in the ordinary sense, undramatic first movement as that which opens Sonata 5, there is a Haydnesque opposition between, on the one hand, the two rather similar " themes" and, on the other, a short motive, first heard in the "bridge" passage, which is used for developmental passages. Formal members, opening themes and closing phrases for example, use specialized kinds of material, and are clearly set off from their surroundings. Opening themes are usually set off by the kind of internal repetitions which Wilhelm Fischer (Mozart Jahrbuch 1960/61, p.7) traces back to Pergolesi's trio sonatas of ca. 1731 : abb or abbr (each letter representing an equal length of time, usually two bars). The first movements are unmistakable sonata forms, differing from the sonata forms of the "Viennese Classics" in their smaller scale and in their use of the principle of recapitulation. The "second theme" or "contrasting subject," so important to the pedagogical model of sonata form (based largely on Mozart and early Beethoven), is rare in Emanuel Bach. We may take the first movement of Sonata 3 as an illustration of Bach's "sonata allegro": an eight-bar opening sentence, abbr, ends in a dear tonic cadence and rest. The following paragraph modulates to and establishes the secondary key, the dominant. The Closing follows, set off in this movement less by a preceding cadential articulation than by its distinctive texture and material. The second section (after the double bar) begins, as virtually always in C. P. E. Bach, with a statement in the dominant of the opening idea (Ralph Kirkpatrick's "closed sonata," Domenico Scarlatti, p. 266). There is a passage of development (based on the dosing material) which moves to the tertiary key, as in the middle of a concerto movement. After a cadence in this relative minor, there is an abrupt return to the opening theme in the tonic. This return is handled in the manner of a Baroque Da Capo ; there is none of that flow of energy toward the tonic reprise of the main theme that we expect in a "Classical" sonata movement. The real burden of recapitulation is carried by the "rhyme" of the latter part of the exposition (Kirkpatrick's "crux," Domenico Scarlatti, p. 253ff) , in this case the closing paragraph. In this particular movement, the recapitulation of the first part of the exposition has the effect of a nostalgic reminiscence. This is made possible by the particular shape of the modulating paragraph, with its minoreecho of the opening. In the first movements of Sonatas 4 and 6, the opening sentences conclude with a half, not a full, cadence, and the recapitulations begin away from the tonic, as "false reprises," re-establishing the tonic at the half-cadence. (The apparent tonic reprise in bar 90 of the first movement of Sonata 6 is an optical illusion. ) In these movements there is indeed a powerful drive toward the re-establishment of the tonic key, but tonic and reprise of opening do not coincide as they characteristically do in Classical sonata movements. The recapitulation of the first movement of Sonata 5 begins with its exceptional "second theme," which functions as it did in the exposition, as a point of arrival and repose. The finales, generally shorter than the first movements, are like the first movements in using a statement of the opening idea in the secondary key to begin the second section of the movement, but then, instead of cadencing on a tertiary key, they often make a more or less direct return to the recapitulatory rhyme ("cr4x"). This kind of "rhyming binary" in its elementary form, with the movement divided into two equal halves, is to be seen in, e.g. the first movement of Sonata 5 (1772) in Kenner und Liebhaber Volume I ; the closest approximation to this in the "Prussian" set is the finale of Sonata 1.
@@HarpsichordVinylGallery Indeed. A good colleague of mine was his student when she was very young. These videos are a great resource and do a tremendous part to honour pioneering performers and keep their memory very much alive.
@@GilbertMartinezHarpsichord That was our initial idea before all recordings which are not digitalized, are gone forever. The revival of playing styles and instruments is also very interesting. So we try to map as many recordings that were not digitalized as possible. There is no commercial market for most of these recordings, but they are part of a long and solid musical history, a treasure of artistry.
Wow! Another gorgeous upload. 😊 This time some C.P.E. Bach, what a brilliant son of J.S. Bach. Different from his father musically, but not less fantastic in his own right. Thank you, Harpsichord Vinyl Gallery.
*_The liner notes for this recording 2/2_* Thus, there are two distinguishable form models, the rhyming binary (A in tonic, B in secondary key, double bar, A in secondary key, B in tonic), and the sonata, with tertiary key and recapitulation of the opening idea. There is, however, no sharp demarcation between them, and the binary model underlies both. Bach's forms are never mechanical, but, on the basis of the "rhyming binary" framework and its "sonata" expansion, each piece evolves in response to the suggestions of its own material and the interactions of its own characters. In the first movement of Sonata I the modern "sonata" articulation of the movement and the abb structure of its opening idea are lightly concealed under the flowing surface appearance of a J. S. Bach " Invention," and the music has the motivic density and coherence (if not the polyphony) that Emanuel learned from his father. (Rudolf Steglich discusses this in the preface to his edition of the sonatas.) The following Andante is a kind of operatic scena with vocal recitative literally transferred to the keyboard, along with the harmonic freedom characteristic of expressive recitative. Apart from a short passage suggesting recitativo accompagnato in the middle of the Adagio of Sonata 6, this Andante has the only actual recitative in the set, but the slow movements in general are declamatory in nature, with little trace of Italianate cantabilita or Gallant grazia. The Adagio of Sonata 3 resembles a Baroque trio, but orchestral tortes interrupt the serene flow, distancing the trio and placing it on a dramatic stage. Extremes of abrupt dramatic opposition are displayed in Sonata 6, particularly in its opening, which abandons the "Pergolesi" model described above, and in its finale, the allegro tempo of which is not felt until a rude torte interrupts its placid two-part counterpoint. Bach's abrupt gestures of this sort were not entirely assimilated into the general language of later music, and they retain for us a certain characteristically quirky color. The proper meaning of the term cembalo on the title page of the "Prussian" sonatas is, of course, harpsichord, but in manuscript sources of Bach's keyboard works it also has the general meaning of the German term Clavier, i.e. any stringed keyboard instrument: harpsichord, sometimes piano, and with Emanuel Bach more often than not clavichord. In the introduction to Part One of his Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen (1753), Paragraph 15, Bach assigns public and private roles to harpsichord and clavichord respectively, and in Chapter Three, paragraph 29, he explains that it is necessary on the harpsichord to ignore dynamic indications that are placed on single notes. Detailed clavichordistic dynamic markings of this kind do not occur in the "Prussian" sonatas; apart from a few pianissimo dying falls in the slow movements (e.g. Sonata 3 second movement), the only indications are forte and piano which undoubtedly represent the manuals of a two manual harpsichord. These works exploit the " terrace" dynamics available on a two-manual harpsichord, as does no other music. "Terrace" dynamics symbolize an objective difference in sound source: distance, as in echo effects (note the complex and subtle echos in the first movement of Sonata 4), or performing forces, tutti and solo, or characters on a musical stage, as in the already mentioned Sixth Sonata of our set. The subjective dynamics of speech and song, the nuances dictated by rhetorical expression of the passions, tan also be suggested on the harpsichord, as the literature for that instrument abundantly testifies, but only with a great deal of help from the composer. C. P. E. Bach's later works for solo keyboard, with their increasing reliance on rich, frequently even mannered dynamic inflection of a single line, grow away from the harpsichord. If, for example, one were to read the pianos and fortes in the slow movement of Sonata I (1773) of Kenner und Liebhaber, Volume I as indications of harpsichord manual changes, the result would be plain nonsense, since these dynamics symbolize not changes of sound source but shadings in a single voice. On the other hand, the clavichord is not to be excluded as an historically and aesthetically appropriate medium for the "Prussian" sonatas. There are passages which strain the expressive capacities of the harpsichord to their utmost. It is typical of the mid-eighteenth century situation with regard to keyboard music and instruments that the rather clavichordistic Andante of Son~ta 5 is followed by a highly cembalistic Allegro which is the most literal transcription in the set of orchestral tutti-solo texture. Bach's later keyboard sonatas evolve in a number of different directions, including, it must be said, a blandly "commercial" one. Among the more interesting later sonatas there are some which explore further the grandly orchestral style of the sixth of our set. On the other hand, we have the extreme intimacy and concentration of the late clavichord sonatas. The beginnings of both these styles are clearly present in these early masterpieces.
*_The liner notes for this recording 1/2_*
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's "Sei sonate per il cembalo" were
published at Nuremberg in 1742. Because of their dedication to
Frederick the Second (the "Great"). of Prussia, they have come
to be commonly known as the "Prussian" sonatas. Frederick II
had just succeeded to the throne of Prussia and Bach had just
entered his service, where he remained for twenty-seven years: The
sonatas, numbers 21 through 26 in Beurmann's chronological listing
of Bach's solo sonatas, were composed between 1740 and 1742
and represent his Opus One, his first significant publication and
his coming of age as a creative artist. They are also an Opus One
for the history of the solo keyboard sonata as a genre. True
"sonatas" in the modern, not the Baroque, sense, they are all in
three movements, fast-slow-fast, connected by strong, if often intangible,
threads of texture and rhetoric. Their forms and musical
speech are founded on the modern principle of multiplicity and
contrast unfolding in the dimension of time: even in such a
relatively unified and, in the ordinary sense, undramatic first movement
as that which opens Sonata 5, there is a Haydnesque opposition
between, on the one hand, the two rather similar " themes"
and, on the other, a short motive, first heard in the "bridge"
passage, which is used for developmental passages. Formal members,
opening themes and closing phrases for example, use
specialized kinds of material, and are clearly set off from their
surroundings.
Opening themes are usually set off by the kind of internal
repetitions which Wilhelm Fischer (Mozart Jahrbuch 1960/61,
p.7) traces back to Pergolesi's trio sonatas of ca. 1731 : abb or
abbr (each letter representing an equal length of time, usually
two bars). The first movements are unmistakable sonata forms,
differing from the sonata forms of the "Viennese Classics" in
their smaller scale and in their use of the principle of recapitulation.
The "second theme" or "contrasting subject," so important
to the pedagogical model of sonata form (based largely on Mozart
and early Beethoven), is rare in Emanuel Bach.
We may take the first movement of Sonata 3 as an illustration
of Bach's "sonata allegro": an eight-bar opening sentence, abbr,
ends in a dear tonic cadence and rest. The following paragraph
modulates to and establishes the secondary key, the dominant. The
Closing follows, set off in this movement less by a preceding
cadential articulation than by its distinctive texture and material.
The second section (after the double bar) begins, as virtually
always in C. P. E. Bach, with a statement in the dominant of the
opening idea (Ralph Kirkpatrick's "closed sonata," Domenico
Scarlatti, p. 266). There is a passage of development (based on
the dosing material) which moves to the tertiary key, as in the
middle of a concerto movement. After a cadence in this relative
minor, there is an abrupt return to the opening theme in the tonic.
This return is handled in the manner of a Baroque Da Capo ;
there is none of that flow of energy toward the tonic reprise of
the main theme that we expect in a "Classical" sonata movement.
The real burden of recapitulation is carried by the "rhyme" of
the latter part of the exposition (Kirkpatrick's "crux," Domenico
Scarlatti, p. 253ff) , in this case the closing paragraph. In this
particular movement, the recapitulation of the first part of the
exposition has the effect of a nostalgic reminiscence. This is made
possible by the particular shape of the modulating paragraph,
with its minoreecho of the opening. In the first movements of
Sonatas 4 and 6, the opening sentences conclude with a half, not
a full, cadence, and the recapitulations begin away from the tonic,
as "false reprises," re-establishing the tonic at the half-cadence.
(The apparent tonic reprise in bar 90 of the first movement of
Sonata 6 is an optical illusion. ) In these movements there is
indeed a powerful drive toward the re-establishment of the tonic
key, but tonic and reprise of opening do not coincide as they
characteristically do in Classical sonata movements. The recapitulation
of the first movement of Sonata 5 begins with its exceptional
"second theme," which functions as it did in the exposition, as a
point of arrival and repose.
The finales, generally shorter than the first movements, are
like the first movements in using a statement of the opening idea
in the secondary key to begin the second section of the movement,
but then, instead of cadencing on a tertiary key, they often make
a more or less direct return to the recapitulatory rhyme ("cr4x").
This kind of "rhyming binary" in its elementary form, with the
movement divided into two equal halves, is to be seen in, e.g. the
first movement of Sonata 5 (1772) in Kenner und Liebhaber
Volume I ; the closest approximation to this in the "Prussian"
set is the finale of Sonata 1.
thanks for posting.
the liner notes were another advantage of vinyl.
@@macbird-lt8de And the graphical design of the recordings. No tiny plastic miniatures.
This channel is a TREASURE. Thank you!
Sometimes, such as in this case, the circumstances are very sad with this in memory of Louis Bagger, still I hope you will enjoy the performance
@@HarpsichordVinylGallery Indeed. A good colleague of mine was his student when she was very young. These videos are a great resource and do a tremendous part to honour pioneering performers and keep their memory very much alive.
@@GilbertMartinezHarpsichord That was our initial idea before all recordings which are not digitalized, are gone forever. The revival of playing styles and instruments is also very interesting. So we try to map as many recordings that were not digitalized as possible. There is no commercial market for most of these recordings, but they are part of a long and solid musical history, a treasure of artistry.
@@HarpsichordVinylGallery Many thanks for taking up the cause.
Wow! Another gorgeous upload. 😊 This time some C.P.E. Bach, what a brilliant son of J.S. Bach. Different from his father musically, but not less fantastic in his own right. Thank you, Harpsichord Vinyl Gallery.
Enjoy!
@@HarpsichordVinylGallery Thank you so much for the upload. I did enjoy. 🥰
*_The liner notes for this recording 2/2_*
Thus, there are two distinguishable form models, the rhyming
binary (A in tonic, B in secondary key, double bar, A in secondary
key, B in tonic), and the sonata, with tertiary key and recapitulation
of the opening idea. There is, however, no sharp demarcation
between them, and the binary model underlies both. Bach's forms
are never mechanical, but, on the basis of the "rhyming binary"
framework and its "sonata" expansion, each piece evolves in
response to the suggestions of its own material and the interactions
of its own characters.
In the first movement of Sonata I the modern "sonata"
articulation of the movement and the abb structure of its opening
idea are lightly concealed under the flowing surface appearance
of a J. S. Bach " Invention," and the music has the motivic density
and coherence (if not the polyphony) that Emanuel learned from
his father. (Rudolf Steglich discusses this in the preface to his
edition of the sonatas.) The following Andante is a kind of
operatic scena with vocal recitative literally transferred to the keyboard,
along with the harmonic freedom characteristic of expressive
recitative. Apart from a short passage suggesting recitativo
accompagnato in the middle of the Adagio of Sonata 6, this
Andante has the only actual recitative in the set, but the slow
movements in general are declamatory in nature, with little trace
of Italianate cantabilita or Gallant grazia. The Adagio of Sonata 3
resembles a Baroque trio, but orchestral tortes interrupt the serene
flow, distancing the trio and placing it on a dramatic stage.
Extremes of abrupt dramatic opposition are displayed in
Sonata 6, particularly in its opening, which abandons the "Pergolesi"
model described above, and in its finale, the allegro tempo
of which is not felt until a rude torte interrupts its placid two-part
counterpoint. Bach's abrupt gestures of this sort were not
entirely assimilated into the general language of later music, and
they retain for us a certain characteristically quirky color.
The proper meaning of the term cembalo on the title page of
the "Prussian" sonatas is, of course, harpsichord, but in manuscript
sources of Bach's keyboard works it also has the general meaning
of the German term Clavier, i.e. any stringed keyboard instrument:
harpsichord, sometimes piano, and with Emanuel Bach more
often than not clavichord. In the introduction to Part One of his
Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen (1753), Paragraph
15, Bach assigns public and private roles to harpsichord and
clavichord respectively, and in Chapter Three, paragraph 29, he
explains that it is necessary on the harpsichord to ignore dynamic
indications that are placed on single notes. Detailed clavichordistic
dynamic markings of this kind do not occur in the "Prussian"
sonatas; apart from a few pianissimo dying falls in the slow
movements (e.g. Sonata 3 second movement), the only indications
are forte and piano which undoubtedly represent the manuals of
a two manual harpsichord. These works exploit the " terrace"
dynamics available on a two-manual harpsichord, as does no other
music.
"Terrace" dynamics symbolize an objective difference in sound
source: distance, as in echo effects (note the complex and subtle
echos in the first movement of Sonata 4), or performing forces,
tutti and solo, or characters on a musical stage, as in the already
mentioned Sixth Sonata of our set. The subjective dynamics of
speech and song, the nuances dictated by rhetorical expression of
the passions, tan also be suggested on the harpsichord, as the
literature for that instrument abundantly testifies, but only with
a great deal of help from the composer.
C. P. E. Bach's later works for solo keyboard, with their increasing
reliance on rich, frequently even mannered dynamic inflection
of a single line, grow away from the harpsichord. If, for
example, one were to read the pianos and fortes in the slow
movement of Sonata I (1773) of Kenner und Liebhaber, Volume I
as indications of harpsichord manual changes, the result would be
plain nonsense, since these dynamics symbolize not changes of
sound source but shadings in a single voice.
On the other hand, the clavichord is not to be excluded as
an historically and aesthetically appropriate medium for the
"Prussian" sonatas. There are passages which strain the expressive
capacities of the harpsichord to their utmost. It is typical of the
mid-eighteenth century situation with regard to keyboard music
and instruments that the rather clavichordistic Andante of Son~ta 5
is followed by a highly cembalistic Allegro which is the most
literal transcription in the set of orchestral tutti-solo texture.
Bach's later keyboard sonatas evolve in a number of different
directions, including, it must be said, a blandly "commercial"
one. Among the more interesting later sonatas there are some
which explore further the grandly orchestral style of the sixth of
our set. On the other hand, we have the extreme intimacy and
concentration of the late clavichord sonatas. The beginnings of
both these styles are clearly present in these early masterpieces.
does anybody suggest an approximate year of recording, or a range?
This LP was published in 1974 according to WorldCat.
Thank you for answering!