Exner takes a look at the background for the appointment of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach as Hamburg's music director for the city's five main churches in the late 1760s. The composer was 54 and had served as cembalist in the Royal Prussian Kapelle at the court of Frederick II in Berlin for nearly 30 years. The new position became available following the death of Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), Bach's godfather. Bach remained at Telemann's former post for the rest of his life, often reperforming his godfather's compositions and following in his entrepreneurial footsteps. Taking the new job marked a new beginnign in Bach's career, but was also the culmination of a journey that began over a baptismal font in Weimar more than a half century earlier.