Symphony in D Major, Wq. 183, No. 1

Composer: BACH, Carl Philipp Emanuel
  • This is the first of four symphonies contained in C.P.E. Bach’s Orchester-Sinfonien mit zwölf obligaten Stimmen (Orchestral Symphonies with Twelve Obbligato Parts), Wq. 183.1
  • Bach wrote this symphony while he was living in Hamburg, serving as Kapellmeister of the city’s principal churches.2
  • Bach was commissioned to write the Wq. 183 symphonies in 1775-6, and the set was published in 1780.3
  • The name of the patron who commissioned this set has been lost to history, but we know that C.P.E. Bach had some high-profile clients in Hamburg. He wrote another set of symphonies on commission from Baron van Swieten.4
  • Bach’s Wq. 183 symphonies are his most lavishly orchestrated. Unlike his earlier symphonies, which stay closer to the Italian opera overture or sinfonia model, the Wq. 183 symphonies look forward to the Classical-era symphony in their use of a fuller orchestra.5

Sources

  1. Peter Wollner, Preface to Symphonies, from C.P.E. Bach: The Complete Works: Vol. III/1: Berlin Symphonies, ed. Ekkehard Krüger and Tobias Schwinger (Cambridge, MA: The Packard Humanities Institute, 2008).
  2. Christoph Wolff and Ulrich Leisinger, “Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed October 25, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-6002278185.
  3. Wollner, Preface to Symphonies, from C.P.E. Bach: The Complete Works: Vol. III/1.
  4. Ibid.
  5. Ibid.

Cut IDs

20881 45332