AHJ, Vol. 7 No. 4, Winter 1980

Fig. 3. J.J.H. Westphal, "Catalogue thematique des oeuvres de Charles Philippe Emmanuel Bach"
(Brussels Royal Library, Ms. II 4140).
the manuscript bears no marks of Bach's supervision
(dates, numberings, etc. in his hand) suggests that
this only surviving copy of the harp sonata may have
been prepared by Michel after Bach's death-perhaps
in response to a request from Westphal to Bach's
widow and daughter.
If it is interesting to speculate about whether
C.P.E. Bach's harp sonata once existed in at least two
copies, it is even more worthwhile to ponder the
strong probability that at least one other source once
existed: a manuscript (or manuscripts) prepared for
the harpist (or harpists) for whom Bach wrote the
sonata in Berlin. For although not all eighteenthcentury
compositions were written for particular
performers or occasions, few were written with no
prospects of being performed. The study of keyboard
instruments was a popular pastime for amateurs
during Emanuel Bach's lifetime, and there was always
a demand for keyboard pieces. Bach could compose
and publish works for solo keyboard with the
assurance that they would be played. For some of the
chamber music which remained unpublished in his
lifetime and did not circulate widely, Bach probably
did have particular musicians in mind. But in any
event, he could count on finding flutists, oboists,
violinists, violists, cellists, and keyboard players in
generous supply in and around the Berlin of Frederick
the Great. 12
In the case of compositions for the harp, the situation
was altogether different. Little music was written
for the instrument by eighteenth-century composers
before the l 760's because, we can surmise, there
were few harpists who played instruments suited to
the chromatic changes normally required by
eighteenth-century styles. 13 Double and triple harps
had existed since the end of the sixteenth century,
but we do not know how commonly they were used.
The single action pedal harp invented by
Hochbrucker in 1720 does not seem to have attracted
much attention at first; no report has come to light of
the impression it made when Simon Hochbrucker (a
son or nephew of the inventor) brought it to the court
in Vienna in 1728. After its introduction to Paris in
1749 by George-Adam Goeppfert, the popularity of
the pedal harp increased rapidly in France. In 1762,
the year Emanuel Bach wrote his harp sonata, the
first volume of music in France was published in
Paris by Christian Hochbrucker (a younger brother of
Simon). Several other French publications for harp
followed during the l 760's. The vogue of the instrument
was assured when Marie-Antoinette, who
played the harp, came to France in 1770; playing an
elegantly decorated pedal harp became the ultimate
chic. 14 Far less is known of the history of Hochbrucker'
s invention or any other kind of harp in
German-speaking countries prior to the nineteenth
century. The time for the harp may have been approaching
in 1762, but there were not a great many
performers at that time who had mastered it, nor had
many composers written for it. On the rare occasions
when works were composed for harp, they were probably
written for or inspired by a specific performer.
Who were the harpists who might have come to the
attention of C.P.E. Bach in 1762? Among royal patrons
of music with whom Bach was well acquainted,
only two have been touted as accomplished performers.
The frst of these, Frederick the Great (1712-
1786), was primarily a skilled flutist who allegedly
had a slight command of the keyboard. Frederick,
moreover, had no contact with his musicians between
1756 and 1763, the waging of the Seven Years' War
being, at that time, his only concern. 15 Nor is there
Winter/1980
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