ABSTRACT
It is in the introductory movements of his suites that Mattheson lays down most clearly his credentials to ‘be universal’. These movements, taken as a whole, contribute strongly to the overall impression that Pièces de clavecin is a work that has an element of didacticism woven through it, a work that is intended to educate and enlighten, just as the moral weeklies and Das neu-eröffnete Orchestre were intended to do in literary form. The introductory movements are like a compendium of contemporary approaches drawn eclectically from across contemporary musical experience.
