ABSTRACT
The dance movements of Mattheson’s Pièces de clavecin have, in common with the introductory movements, an eclectic approach, albeit on a more limited musical canvas. The majority of the allemandes tend to illustrate the common central German type of Kuhnau and Krieger, with their free-voiced textures, brief interplay of figures between the hands, asymmetrical phrasing, and binary structures with the second section normally longer than the first (Examples 7.1 and 7.2). However, there is an increasing tendency in the middle of the collection towards a more elaborate approach closer to that of the stylus fantasticus of the north German organ school (Example 7.3 below).
