Lost in Translation?
Posted: 12 Feb 2026, 16:26
I've been studying William Mitchell's 1949 translation of CPE Bach's Essay on Keyboard Instruments and referencing a German 1906 Leipzig edition edited by Walter Niemann. Interestingly, the Niemann edition deleted the Bach fingerings.
Were Bach's fingerings ubiquitous in Wilhelmine Germany, or considered outdated?
I'm assuming the Mitchell edition fingerings are authentic.
I'm studying figured-bass referencing Rameau's Treatise in French and a 1779 English translation and reading CPE Bach for comparison since figured-bass uses many more chords that just those commonly used to define modern inversions. Intriguingly, Rameau uses the French Violin and F-bass clefs. Niemann uses a unique C-soprano and the familiar F-bass clef, while the 1779 Rameau translation and Mitchel uses the modern G-treble and F-bass clef notation.
https://x.com/MagisterTekton/status/202 ... A-pdg&s=19
I like Niemann's publisher's C-clef, elegant and easy to hand-write as calligraphy. Niemann refers to it as Descant clef.
Were Bach's fingerings ubiquitous in Wilhelmine Germany, or considered outdated?
I'm assuming the Mitchell edition fingerings are authentic.
I'm studying figured-bass referencing Rameau's Treatise in French and a 1779 English translation and reading CPE Bach for comparison since figured-bass uses many more chords that just those commonly used to define modern inversions. Intriguingly, Rameau uses the French Violin and F-bass clefs. Niemann uses a unique C-soprano and the familiar F-bass clef, while the 1779 Rameau translation and Mitchel uses the modern G-treble and F-bass clef notation.
https://x.com/MagisterTekton/status/202 ... A-pdg&s=19
I like Niemann's publisher's C-clef, elegant and easy to hand-write as calligraphy. Niemann refers to it as Descant clef.