Book Description

This is the first complete English translation of F. E. Niedt's influential Musicalische Handletung. The first volume, a treatise on thorough-bass, attracted the attention of J. S. Bach, who apparently modelled his teaching after it. The second and third volumes, both revised and edited by Johann Mattheson, deal with, respectively, variation (including a chaconne and two complete suites as models and a musical term dictionary) and counterpoint. These volumes, bound together here in one volume, together with an introduction and explanatory notes by Professor Poulin, provide valuable insights into the theory and practice of eighteenth-century music.