"How did he form his style? It is difficult to say. He had neither inherited it nor acquired it from his father, who was his sole master; for that worthy musician, whom no one has equalled in knowledge and invention, thought it necessary to concentrate in his own two hands all the harmony of which he could avail himself; and undoubtedly in his system he sacrificed melody and expression."
Nothing could be more characteristic than the promptitude with which the sons of Johann Sebastian—who, for that matter, venerated him—denied his
Burney's portrait of him is the best ever drawn. I cannot resist the temptation of quoting some part of it.
Philipp Emmanuel Bach had invited Burney to dine with him. Burney was shown up "into a music-room, large and elegantly adorned with pictures, drawings and engraved portraits of more than a hundred and fifty famous musicians, of whom several were English, and some portraits in oil of his father and grandfather. Philipp Emmanuel sat down to his Silbermann harpsichord. He played three or four very difficult pieces with all the delicacy, accuracy and passion for which he was so justly distinguished among his compatriots. In the pathetic and tender movements he seemed to draw from his instrument cries of grief and lamentation, such as he alone could produce. The dinner was good, elegant and cheerful. There were present three or four friends, well-bred people, and his family; Frau Bach, his elder son, a student (a law-student—the younger was a painter) and his daughter. After dinner Philipp Emmanuel played again, almost uninterruptedly, until eleven o'clock at night. He became animated to the point of appearing to be inspired. His eyes were fixed, the lower lip drooping, and his whole body was soaked in perspiration. He said that if he often had occasion to force himself to work thus he would grow young again. He is fifty-nine years of age. He is rather short of stature; his hair and eyes are black and his complexion brown; he is full of fire and is of a very gay and vivacious temper."
Burney was convinced that Philipp Emmanuel was not only one of the greatest composers for the harpsichord, but "the best and most skilful artist in the matter of expression. … He could play in every style, but he confined himself more especially to the emotional style. He was a learned writer, even more so than his father when he chose to be so, especially in the variety of his modulations." Burney compared him with Domenico Scarlatti: "Both, being sons of celebrated composers, dared to attempt new paths. It is only now that the ear is becoming accustomed to Domenico Scarlatti. Philipp Emmanuel Bach seemed likewise to have outstripped his period. … His style is so out of the common that one has to be in some degree accustomed to it in order to appreciate it." And Burney, justly enough, recognised, in his inspired passages, "the effusions of a cultivated genius."
