CPE Bach Damensonaten

Not sure you could get away with a title like this nowadays: “Damensonaten”.

Sheet music facsimile Bach Carl Philipp Emanuel Six harpsichord sonatas for the use of ladies (editions-classique.com)

Leaving aside matters of political correctness, what was it that CPE saw as making these fitting for ladies?

1 Like

“Ladies” were amateurs.

Here’s an Italian edition:
https://vmirror.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/f/f8/IMSLP96447-PMLP198342-cpe_bach_wq54_dames.pdf

1 Like

@SFrankel Were all men then by definition not amateurs? Even worse!

1 Like

This was a particular class of vaguely upper-class ladies (ones who could afford harpsichords) who learned to play simple pieces. (In the case of Maria Barbara, of course, not vaguely, and not simple pieces, either). I think the men of that class spent their time in philosophizing.

1 Like

Similar to how 19C girls learned to play piano and sing.

1 Like

Presumably, although CPE’s dames were rich enough to afford harpsichords - the next generation after Couperin’s pupils. The 19thC girls merely had to be ‘respectable’ (in the economic sense, not in the moral sense).

1 Like