Johann Mattheson (28 September 1681 – 17 April 1764)
Early life and career
Johann Mattheson was born on 28 September 1681 in Hamburg.
The son of a prosperous tax collector, Mattheson received a broad liberal education and, aside from general musical training, took lessons in keyboard instruments,
violin, composition and singing.
By age nine he was singing and playing
pipe organ in church and was a member of the chorus of the Hamburg opera. He made his solo debut with the Hamburg opera in 1696 in female roles and, after his voice changed, sang
tenor at the opera, conducted rehearsals and composed operas himself. He was cantor at St. Mary's Cathedral, Hamburg from 1718 until increasing
deafness led to his retirement from that post in 1728.
Mattheson's chief occupation from 1706 was as a professional diplomat. He had studied English in school and spoke it fluently. He became tutor to the son of the English ambassador Sir John Wich and then secretary to the ambassador. He went on diplomatic missions abroad representing the ambassador. In 1709 he married Catharina Jennings, the daughter of an English clergyman; they did not have any children.
Friendship with Handel
Mattheson was a close friend of George Frideric Handel, although he nearly killed Handel in a sudden quarrel during a performance of Mattheson's opera
Die unglückselige Kleopatra, Königin von Ägypten in 1704. Handel was saved only by a large button which turned aside Mattheson's sword. The two were afterwards reconciled and remained in correspondence for life: shortly after his friend's death, Mattheson translated
John Mainwaring's biography of Handel into
German language and had it published in Hamburg at his own expense ("
auf Kosten des Übersetzers") in 1761.
[ Georg Friderich Händels Lebensbeschreibung, nebst einem Verzeichnisse seiner Ausübungswerke und deren Beurtheilung; übersetzet, auch mit einigen Anmerkungen, absonderlich über den hamburgischen Artikel, versehen vom Legations-Rath Mattheson, Hamburgh, auf Kosten des Übersetzers, 1761 (accessible for free online as a Google ebook).]
Death
After his death in 1764, Johann Mattheson was buried in the vault of Hamburg's St. Michaelis' Church where his grave can be visited.
Literary and musical legacy
Mattheson is mainly famous as a music theorist. He was the most abundant writer on performance practice, theatrical style, and harmony of the German
Baroque music.
He is particularly important for his work on the relationship of the disciplines of
rhetoric and music, for example in
Das neu-eröffnete Orchestre, Hamburg 1713,
[ Das neu-eröffnete Orchestre, extracts, koelnklavier.de] and
, Hamburg 1739.[ Der vollkommene Capellmeister, extracts, koelnklavier.de] However his books raise more and more attention and suspicion because Mattheson was a brilliant polemicist and his theories on music are often full of pedantry and pseudo-erudition.[Agathe Sueur, Le Frein et l'Aiguillon. Eloquence musicale et nombre oratoire (XVIe–XVIIIe siècle), Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2014 ——. "Johann Mattheson et le pédantisme: des usages de l'érudition dans la théorie musicale allemande au XVIIIe siècle", ], 2014, 100/1, pp. 3–36.
The bulk of his compositional output was vocal, including eight operas, and numerous and . He also wrote a few sonatas and some keyboard music, including pieces meant for keyboard instruction. All of his music, except for one opera, one oratorio, and a few collections of instrumental music, went missing after World War II, but was given back to Hamburg from Yerevan, Armenia, in 1998. This includes four operas and most of the oratorios. The manuscripts are now located at the .
Selected works
Operas
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Die unglückselige Kleopatra, Königin von Ägypten (1704)
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Boris Goudenow (1710)
Oratorios
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Die heilsame Geburt (1715), Christmas oratorium
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(1720), Christmas oratorium
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Der gegen seine Brüder barmherzige Joseph (1727), oratorium
-
Der liebreiche und geduldige David
See also
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Doctrine of the affections
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Letters and writings of George Frideric Handel
Further reading
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-
Stephen Stubbs. "Johann Mattheson—the Russian Connection: The Rediscovery of Boris Goudenow and His Other Lost Operas". Early Music 33, no. 2 (May 2005): 283–92.
External links
