ABSTRACT
Modulation, whether expressed in the explosive confrontation between alien tonal fields or in the barely perceptible negotiation between compatible ones, is the abstraction from which the dramaturgy of the Classical style draws its sustenance and vigor. The modulatory action of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Heilig acquired an even wider critical acclaim in the 1770s. And yet Forkel was evidently not insensitive to Bach's criticism, for, if he could find no way to express analysieren in his system, he sought, as critic, to put into practice Bach's advice on the teaching of master-pieces. The specificity of the reference, whether or not the insight is Voss's own, illuminates that quality of tonal relationship in Bach's Heilig which seems to have struck the sensibilities of his contemporaries. The dates in the Nachlassverzeichniss have a special authority, for the annotations that give the place and date of composition invariably agree with annotations in just that form that Bach entered on nearly all his autographs.
