Printing the Probestücke: An Eighteenth-Century Music Publication by C.P.E. Bach

摘要

COMPOSER OF ROUGHLY A THOUSAND WORKS OF DIVERSE TYPES, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), the second son of Johann Sebastian Bach, was also the author of a comprehensive treatise on keyboard instrument performance that remained influential into the nineteenth century and is now an important source on eighteenth-century practices. Issued in two volumes in 1753 and 1762, the treatise was one of several works published at mid-century that represented the extension of Enlightenment-era encyclopedism to music; others included books on the flute by Johann Joachim Quantz and on the violin by Leopold Mozart, father of Wolfgang.1 The treatise by Emanuel Bach was unique, however, in being accompanied by a musical supplement (Exempel) that contained not only numerous musical examples but six unusual sonatas for solo keyboard instrument, which the author called Probestücke or "practice pieces"2 The latter remain among the best-known works 1 Bach's treatise: Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1753-1762); critical edition by Tobias Plebuch, in CPEB:CW, VII/1-3; trans. by William J. Mitchell as Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments (New York: W.W. Norton, 1949). To facilitate reference to any of the various editions, citations to this work take the form of volume, chapter, and paragraph numbers. Johann Joachim Quantz, Versuch einer Anweisung die Fl?te traversiere zu spielen (Berlin: Johann Friedrich Voss, 1752); facsimile of the third edition (Breslau: Johann Friedrch Korn the elder, 1789) ed. Hans-Peter Schmitz (Kassel: Barenreiter, 1974); trans. by Edward R. Reilly as On Playing the Flute, 2nd ed. (New York: Schirmer Books, 1985); and Leopold Mozart, Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule (Augsburg: Johann Jacob Lotter, 1756); ed. Greta Moens-Haenen （Kassel: B?renreiter, 1995）; trans. by Edith Knocker as A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing, 2nd ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1985).