Bach's work underwent profound changes after 1750. The period immediately after his father's death that year saw relatively little composition, but Bach's output soon diversified and expanded. He would remain prolific to the end of his career, although with his move to Hamburg in 1768 the nature of his output would shift drastically: he would remake himself as primarily a composer of vocal music. The transition began during the later 1750s, when Bach's production of numerous songs (lieder) was the first signal that he was no longer to be almost exclusively a composer of instrumental music. Already by then, however, he probably was composing less than previously for his own performances.

Bach was shifting from being primarily a court musician, working in a few genres favored by the king and in small “academies” modeled on court practice, to an independent entrepreneur cultivating a broadening public. The latter eventually included purchasers of printed music across northern Europe as well as church congregations in the great cities of the region. Bach would also become something of a public intellectual, not only by publication of the Versuch but through other writings, including those of other authors who cited his observations on musical matters. Although after 1750 Bach would be commonly praised for his “originality,” probably a smaller proportion of his works were as distinctive or compelling as among his compositions of the 1740s—doubtless by design.