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In musicology, it has always been difficult to name the transitional period after the Baroque. Terms such as InchsentimentalismInch, InchSturm und DrangInch or Inchpre-classicalInch are usually borrowed from other art forms and are potentially fraught with judgements or preconceptions. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach is one of the key figures of this Inchin-between timeInch and one of the representatives of a radical change in musical aesthetics. The philosopher and aesthetic theorist Johann Georg Sulzer described the ideal InchsoulfulInch trio sonata in his InchGeneral Theory of the Fine ArtsInch (1771-1774) as follows InchThe actual trio has three main voices, which concert against each other, and as it were maintain a conversation in tones.Inch In his opinion, music should reflect Incha sensitive conversation in merely passionate tones among characters that are the same or different from one anotherInch. InchSinging accompaniment of the theme, appropriate to each instrument; free imitations; unexpected and melodious entrances, in which one voice falls, as it were, into the speech of the other; throughout, a comprehensible and well-cadenced singing and interjections in all voices, without one being obscured by the other; even difficulties and passages of importance, for a change, fill out the remaining part of the piece, and make the trio one of the most pleasant pieces of chamber music.Inch Sulzer also noted, InchGood trios of this kind, however, are rare.Inch According to Sulzer, the sonatas of Inchour Hamburg BachInch were a prime example of this genre. They Inchare so eloquent that one thinks one hears not tones but an intelligible language that sets our imagination and sensibilities in motion, and entertains. [...] The sonatas by this same author, with two concertante main voices accompanied by a bass, are truly passionate conversations in tone...Inch
