E Bach s Influence On The Empfindsam Style And Future...

C.P.E Bach’s Influence on the Empfindsam Style and Future Composers Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach is listed in many history books as an important transitional composer between the baroque style and the classical style without giving specific reasons why. This essay focuses on the significant contributions C.P.E Bach made to music theory and the way music was performed. This essay will also cover his influence on the emerging empfindsam style and the inspiration he gave his musical successors, such as Haydn and Mozart. C.P.E Bach believed music should achieve a connection with listeners on the emotional level. He himself was influenced by the Enlightenment and it came out in his view of music and his very individual compositional style. He†¦show more content†¦His sonatas effectively capture the idea of continuously changing emotions, which is a key feature of empfindsam style. C.P.E. Bach’s genius in his contributions to keyboard playing and composition are often skimmed over. He is gets lost in the transition between his father J.S. Bach to Haydn and Mozart. By the time Haydn and Mozart came to the forefront of the new classical music Bach’s fingering for scales and fundamental bass was widely used. C.P.E. Bach did not agree with many of the existing treatises on music theory including a leading music theorist Rameau. His largest disagreement was with Rameau’s ideas on fundamental bass. Fundamental bass is what is known as the root of chords today. Bach recognized t hat there were more chords than Rameau having only one root but having several qualities. Lester says that Rameau’s ideas are regarded as an important predecessor to music theory but is criticized about his idea that chords had two different roots (157). According to Mitchell, William J., Bach recognized twenty chords some of which are variations of chords including subtypes and chromatic alterations. Bach also disagreed with Rameau on the behavior of chords. He believed that the intervals in the transitions between chords were important beyond the base notes of the chords. He emphasized context and