Johann Mattheson’s Pièces de clavecin and Das neu-eröffnete Orchestre

In this important study, Margaret Seares places Johannes Mattheson’s Pièces de clavecin (1714) in the context of his work as a public intellectual who encouraged German musicians and their musical public to embrace a universalism of style and expression derived from contemporary currents in music of the leading European nations. Seares’s understanding of Mattheson’s ideas is based on a thorough study of his non-musical writings, especially Das neu-eröffnete Orchestre of 1713, the third part of which is offered here in English translation for the first time.