AHJ, Vol. 7 No. 4, Winter 1980

C.P .E. Bach's
Harp Sonata
by Darrell M. Berg
Darrell Berg is the author of a number of studies on the
keyboard works of C.P.E. Bach including her doctoral dissertation
and an article recently published in the Journal of
the American Musicological Society. She is presently completing
a study of Bach's methods of revising his sonatas and is
preparing a facsimile edition of all of his solo keyboard
works for Garland Publishing, Inc. and a three-volume
urtext edition of the sonatas for G. Henle Verlag in Munich.
Dr. Berg was graduated from the Juilliard School of Music
as a violinist and has been a member of several major
orchestras including the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
She also holds an M.A. from Smith College and a Ph.D. in
musicology from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
She is Professor of Music History at the St. Louis
Conservatory of Music where she teaches music history and
literature and is co-director of the collegium. During the
past summer she was a member of the Aston Magna
Academy where she delivered lectures on musical developments
in north Germany in the eighteenth century.
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Sonata in G Major for the
Harp, Wq 139, 1 is his only composition for this instrument
and one of a handful of works for the harp
by respected and famous composers of the eighteenth
century. 2 Five editions of Wq 139 have appeared
since 1940 all of which are based on the single extant
eighteenth-century source, a manuscript (S. 13287) in
the library of the Brussels Conservatory. 3 The title
page of the manuscript (fig. 1) attributes the work to
C.P.E. Bach. In the upper left-hand comer are numberings
which suggest that the manuscript has belonged
to more than one collection. There is no date
anywhere on the manuscript and no clue as to why or
for whom the sonata was composed. The manuscript,
moreover, is not in C.P.E. Bach's hand, and questions
have been raised about the authenticity of the
sonata. Lack of knowledge about eighteenth-century
compos1t1ons is not unusual, but we need not be
content, in the case of the harp sonata, with such
doubts and scanty information. We can prove
Emanuel Bach's authorship and the year of composition
beyond any doubt. We shall also look at the
ambience in which the harp sonata originated and
entertain some conjectures about the circumstances
of its origin. And since most of Bach's music has
survived, we shall consider the Sonata for Harp in
relation to his other works. 4
Winter/1980
C.P.E. Bach (1714-1788) was not only a distinguished
composer, but a keen businessman who kept
meticulous records. On manuscripts of some compositions
he entered the year of origin (and, occasionally,
the year of revision); to most of his instrumental
works he assigned numbers which indicate a sequence
of composition. He was tireless in his efforts
to control the distribution of his works and to prevent
circulation of unauthorized materials bearing his
name. Letters from Bach in Hamburg to out-of-town
buyers reflect his passion for keeping accounts and
his relish for shrewd business deals. Bach's mercenary
ways, in fact, have frequently been deplored by
historians. But his writings also reveal another facet
of his personality. He was a collector. He took pleasure
in amassing information for its own sake and for
the sake of posterity; he kept an archive of music by
many generations of Bachs, and he acquired a portrait
collection of famous musicians from Pythagoras to
Haydn.
Towards the end of C.P.E. Bach's life, probably in
the mid-1780's, Johann Joachim Heinrich Westphal,
an organist in Schwerin who was an admirer of Bach,
began to collect his works and to correspond with
him. The two musicians recognized kindred spirits in
each other, and an enthusiastic exchange of musical
materials and portraits ensued. From the activities of
these collectors came two extremely valuable thematic
catalogues of C.P.E. Bach's works. In 1790, little
more than a year after Bach's death (December 14,
1788), his widow, Johanna Maria, published a
NachlajJ Verzeichnis-a catalogue of his musical estate.
5 We know that some parts of the NachlajJ
Verzeichnis had been completed by Emanuel Bach in
the last years of his life, and it is very likely that the
entire catalogue was prearranged by him. The
NachlajJ Verzeichnis purports to list all works which
Bach acknowledged as his own and copies of which
(according to a note on its title page) could be purchased
from his widow in Hamburg. Dates and places
of composition are given for most of the instrumental
works; for each work not published in Bach's
lifetime, this information is followed by an incipit
(the beginning notes of the initial melody) of the first
movement. The Sonata for Harp is listed under Soli as
"no. 18. B. lBerlin] 1762, fur die Harfe" (fig. 2), and
following this entry is an incipit of the true first
movement.
Westphal carried on his correspondence with the
Bach family after Emanuel's death, obtaining scores
and information from Bach's widow and his daughter,
Anna Carolina Philippina. 6 Between 1809 and
1825 (the year of Westphal's death), the Schwerin
organist completed a catalogue of his own collection
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