Johann Mattheson (1681-1764)
- Suite in G-moll (c.1705)
Performers: Richаrd Egаrr (cembalo); Pаtrick Ayrtοn (cembalo)
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German composer, critic, music journalist, lexicographer and theorist.
He was the third and only surviving son of Johann Mattheson, a Hamburg
tax collector, and Margaretha Höling of Rendsburg (Holstein). Details of
Mattheson’s life come largely from his autobiography published in the
Grundlage einer Ehren-Pforte. His education was exceptionally broad,
perhaps because his parents hoped he would gain a position in Hamburg
society. At the Johanneum he received a substantial background in the
liberal arts, including musical instruction from Kantor Joachim
Gerstenbüttel. He also had private instruction in dancing, drawing,
arithmetic, riding, fencing, and English, French and Italian. At six he
began private music lessons, studying the keyboard and composition for
four years with J.N. Hanff, taking singing lessons from a local musician
named Woldag and instruction on the gamba, violin, flute, oboe and
lute. At nine Mattheson was a child prodigy, performing on the organ and
singing in Hamburg churches. His unusual talent attracted the court
circle and he was frequently asked to play and sing. Having previously
sung mainly in the chorus and in minor roles, Mattheson made his solo
début in female roles when the opera company visited Kiel in 1696. By
the following year his voice had changed, and he began to take tenor
roles in which he had considerable success up to 1705. Mattheson led an
exceedingly rich musical life in these 15 years with the Hamburg opera;
he sang and conducted rehearsals under such composers as J.G. Conradi,
J.S. Kusser and Reinhard Keiser. He testified to learning the new,
Italian manner of singing from Kusser. In 1699 he wrote and had
performed his first opera, Die Plejades. Mattheson met Handel in 1703,
and a mutually beneficial friendship developed over the next three
years: Mattheson said that he influenced the growth of Handel’s musical
style, particularly by teaching him how to compose in the dramatic
style; he also probably obtained for Handel a position in the opera
orchestra as second violinist and harpsichordist.
During his professional career Mattheson not only performed in some 65
new operas but wrote several of his own. He became a virtuoso organist
and found time to become involved in numerous social and musical
activities, including teaching. In 1703 he was invited (as was Handel)
to apply for the position of organist to succeed Dietrich Buxtehude at
the Marienkirche in Lübeck. Mattheson and Handel travelled together to
Lübeck for the auditions. They both turned down the position. Mattheson
also declined invitations to other important positions as organist,
including one at the Pfarrkirche in Haarlem and, as successor to the
distinguished J.A. Reincken, at the Catharinenkirche in Hamburg. In 1704
Mattheson became a tutor of Cyrill Wich, son of the English ambassador
to Hamburg, Sir John Wich. This position was the turning point in his
career, offering him employment with social status and a considerable
salary. He proved himself so capable that in January 1706 he was made
secretary to Sir John Wich, a position he retained for most of his life,
continuing with the same responsibilities when Wich’s son was appointed
his father’s successor in 1715. In 1709 Mattheson married Catharina
Jennings (?-1753), daughter of an English minister. In 1715 he became
music director of Hamburg Cathedral. He was forced to resign this
position in 1728, primarily as the result of increasing deafness; he was
completely deaf by 1735. In 1719 Mattheson was appointed Kapellmeister
to the court of the Duke of Holstein. During the extraordinarily
productive years between 1715 and 1740 he wrote not only numerous
important scores and treatises but also many translations from English
of books. He also translated several English histories, novels and
philosophical works, and produced a steady flow of articles for journals
published in Hamburg. In 1741 Mattheson received the title of Legation
Secretary to the Duke of Holstein, and in 1744 was promoted to
‘Legations-Rat’. After the death of his wife, he decided to donate the
bulk of a considerable fortune, some 44,000 marks, to the
Michaeliskirche in Hamburg for the rebuilding of the great organ
destroyed by fire. He requested that in return he and his wife be buried
in the church.
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