He was one of the originators of sonata form. Mozart knew and admired him. He spent the last 21 years of his life in Hamburg. He represented the North German form of Empfindsamkeit style in his music as a reaction against the stricter, old style of his predecessors. His keyboard music is characterized by certain unusual features.
Restlessness is juxtaposed with calm, virtuosity with simplicity.
He had a direct influence on Haydn and Beethoven as keyboard writers. Most of his concertos are in minor keys. In several of his later concertos, as in his symphonies, the movements follow without a break and sometimes, material from one movement recurs in another. CPE Bach wrote 18 symphonies and in them he represents a musical parallel to the great Sturm and Drung literary figures. He is known as the English Bach.