Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), a German composer, keyboard performer, and theorist, was a prolific composer of vocal and instrumental music, especially for keyboard instruments. He contributed to the formation of the so-called Viennese classical style.

The second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach studied with his father and musically was the most important and influential of the sons. His career as a whole has been said, by E.F. Schmid, to mark a development "halfway between the world of his father and that of the Viennese classics." After schooling at Leipzig, he took a law degree at Frankfurt an der Oder in 1735. He moved to Berlin in 1738 and became keyboard player for the young crown prince, Frederick of Prussia, who in 1740 became King Frederick II. Bach remained in Frederick's service until 1767 as keyboard performer, composer, and accompanist to other members of the royal...