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Title: The Letters of C.P.E. Bach by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Stephen L. Clark, William R. Clark ISBN: 0-19-816238-3 Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr Pub. Date: October, 1997 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $98.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)

Rating: 4
Summary: Scholarly edition of an important composer's letters
Comment: This thoroughly-annotated volume is a necessary corollary to any biographical study done on C.P.E. Bach. It is, however, not by any means as complete a picture as one would like; only four of the 338 numbered letters in Prof. Clark's volume date from before 1760, when the composer was 46 years old; some of the known letters survive only in fragments quoted in old auction catalogues, the originals subsequently being lost; and many of the letters whose full texts survive are to the publisher Breitkopf, with whom C.P.E. sustained a working relationship spanning more than two decades.

Thus a great deal of the book involves Emanuel's communicating his wishes to Breitkopf (Breitkopf's answers are occasionally summarized in Prof. Clark's extensive footnotes) regarding publications which Breitkopf would print on the composer's behalf and then help him distribute. Emanuel's occasional bursts of irritation at the publisher (e.g., "You, shameful compatriot! How can you bring your heart to let me roast in uncertainty over a slow fire, wondering whether you have received my manuscript sent right after the holidays?" [Letter 238, 4 Feb. 1784]) are amusing, and seeing how a composer of the time planned, proof-corrected, and distributed an 18th century publication is intriguing. There are also a couple of letters to J.N. Forkel, the early biographer of J.S. Bach, where Emanuel shares information regarding his celebrated father.

Those who hope for a detailed portrait of Emanuel will likely be less than satisfied due to the fact that so much of the correspondence has undoubtedly been lost. But Prof. Clark's book is everything that could be wished for in a detailed edition in English of this correspondence. My awarding this book less than five stars is by no means to be understood as a reflection on Clark's work, which is uniformly excellent, but to the high price relative to the size of the book--which is just over three hundred pages including bibliography and index--and the specialized nature of the book. General readers should investigate the *New Grove Bach Family* for an overview of Emanuel before tackling this kind of scholarly work.