Manon
ASO123 (1989).
- Loisel, Joseph. Manon de Massenet: Étude historique et critique, analyse musi-
cale.Paris: Mellotée, 1922. 170p. MT100 .M26 M2.
Not examined.
See also Casini (#465).
Thaïs
ASO109 (1988).
Werther
ASO61 (1984).
Johann Mattheson (1681–1764)
1169.New Mattheson Studies. Ed. George J. Buelow and Hans J. Marx. New York:
Cambridge U.P., 1983. xiv, 495p. ISBN 0-521-25115-4. ML55 .M327 N5.
A useful collection of 23 papers, in German or English, given at a symposium
in Wolfenbüttel in 1981. Topics include the place of Mattheson’s work in the
context of his times, the composer’s ideas on performance, and the uncertain
relationship between him and J. S. Bach. An essay by Buelow deals with Affek-
tenlehre(finding no formal system of them); one by Hans Wilhelm Eckardt is
on Hamburg during Mattheson’s period there. The Mattheson manuscripts
had been thought lost in the bombing of Hamburg during World War II, but
Hans Joachim Marx reports on many that survived.- Cannon, Beekman C. Johann Mattheson, Spectator.Yale Studies in the History
of Music, 1. New Haven, Conn.: Yale U.P., 1947. xi, 244p. Reprint, New
Haven: Archon, 1968. ISBN (Archon) 0-20800-311-8. ML423 .M43 C3.
The Hamburg background, a Mattheson biography, and a survey of his
numerous critical writings. Detailed, annotated worklist. Footnotes, bibliogra-
phy of about 100 items, index. - Buelow, George J. “An Evaluation of Johann Mattheson’s Opera Cleopatra
(Hamburg, 1704).” In Studies in Eighteenth-Century Music(#73), 92–107.
Of Mattheson’s 15 operas, only 1 has survived in complete score; it is in the
Library of Congress. Buelow finds the music “worthy of his greatest contem-
poraries, Keiser and Handel.” He describes the aria style in detail and prints
one in full. The music follows Mattheson’s theory of key characteristics: C
major being rude, bold, and joyful; C minor sweet; D major harsh (good for
alarms and war scenes); E major sounding like “despair and sadness”; and so
on. Tonal design is discussed, as is influence on Handel, with whom Matthe-
son—so the story goes—had a duel during a performance of Cleopatra,as they
disputed who should be playing when on the harpsichord.
Johann Mattheson 225