Jon Gallant <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Does anyone know anything about a Bach contemporary named Johann Mattheson?
>I've never seen a recording of his music, but have played some of his
>keyboard pieces.  They are good fun and sometimes harmonically rather
>adventurous for the baroque period--suggesting that Bach was not alone in
>this characterstic.  I wonder if this means that Bach was simply the most
>far-ranging member of an adventurous North German "school" within the
>Baroque.  If this is so, it certainly would be interesting to hear more
>music by members of this tradition, like Mattheson.

Mattheson (1681-1764) was of the Baroque period, and of Germany, but was
not a "North German", as he lived his entire life in Hamburg.  His Grove's
entry identifies him as "(that city's) first native musical genius" and
runs to nine columns of text, plus two illustrations!

Mattheson is one of the few Baroque composers for whom we an
autobiographical account, published in "Gruendlage einer Ehren Pforte." He
was a child prodigy, and at 9 was concertzing on the organ and singing as
a boy soprano in the Hamburg Opera.  It was in this capacity that he met
the young Handel, and the duel which William Hong describes took place in
1704.  Fortunately, the two patched up their differences, and came away
lifelong friends.

By 1706, Mattheson was in the employ of Sir John Wick, England's Ambassador
to Hamburg, which afforded him a lifestyle a damn sight easier than that of
the average German composer, and left the Opera for good the following
year.  However, he resumed his career in 1715, accepting the post of the
musical director of the Hamburg Dom, which he kept until incipient deafness
forced his resignation in 1728.  By 1735, Mattheson was completely deaf,
and unlike Beethoven chose not to struggle with composition afterward,
though he lived another thirty years.

However, it is not as a composer that Mattheson comes still highly regarded
today, but as a writer on subjects concerning musicianship in the German
baroque.  His books begin in 1715 and extend near to the end of his life;
among them no one title can be singled out, since all of them provide
invaluable information on Baroque practices and historical data.  His
compositions have not fared so well.  Most of them are Oratorios and
Passions of the period when he worked at the Hamburg Dom.  While there
is Opera in his worklist, the inserts and single arias far outnumber the
complete operas which bear his name.  Outside of that, there are 18 Italian
Secular Cantatas and a scattering of instrumental pieces, which would
doubtless include the Organ works to which you refer.

Oddly enough, I myself have never heard a recording of Mattheson's music
either, but have played some of the organ pieces out of a collection (on
the piano.) Perhaps even the same ones.  And I had the very same experience
you described!  The harmony IS adventurous, and fun to play.  Makes me
wonder what his Trio Sonatas and Secular Cantatas are like (I can wait
on the Oratorios and Passions....)

Uncle Dave Lewis
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