Professor of Music Theory Translates Part II of C. P. E. Bach’s Essay

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Essay on the True Manner of Playing Clavier, published in two volumes in 1753 and 1762, stands as a monument in the history of musical pedagogy and aesthetics, bridging the gap between Baroque thoroughbass practices and classical keyboard expression. By prioritizing affect and expressive delivery over mere technical facility, the treatise transformed keyboard instruction and heavily influenced subsequent masters such as Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Furthermore, its meticulous cataloging of fingering, ornamentation, and performance execution established a foundational methodology for interpreting eighteenth-century keyboard music that remains indispensable to modern scholarship and historical performance practice.

The new digital translation provides a more literal, accurate alternative to William J. Mitchell's 1949 English version. Drawing on the complete critical text established in Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: The Complete Works, the modern project incorporates all revisions and additions Bach made over nearly thirty-five years. Presented as an open-access website, it offers side-by-side German and English texts, corrects structural renumbering and labeling discrepancies introduced in earlier editions, and integrates musical examples directly within the context of the paragraphs to serve modern scholars and performers.