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 Also intimately connected with theory were various discursive writings, often controversial, that now began to appear, indicating the rise of true criticism.

Johann Mattheson of Hamburg (d. 1764) was much the most prolific writer of this class, his books on musical topics alone aggregating about 8000 pages. His purpose vibrated between the didactic, the polemic, the critical and the historical. His works on theory or method extended through 20 years (1719-39). Of the rest, the first was Das neu-eröffnete, Das beschützte, and Das forschende Orchester (3 vols., 1713, '17, '21, over 1700 pp.), treating didactically of music as a part of elegant culture, satirizing those who still clung to the antiquated scales (especially Buttstett), and discussing problems of intervals. Then came the Critica musica (1722-5, 748 pp.), essays in part reprinted or translated from various sources, issued periodically (including a diatribe against Handel's first Passion), and Der musicalische Patriot (1728, 376 pp.), a similar publication, issued weekly for a short time (including an account of the Hamburg opera). To the new interest in biography he contributed through his Ehren-Pforte (1740, 475 pp.) and his Life of Handel (1761). His vigorous attacks on conventional notions did good, but his judgment was not infallible and his method often spiteful, while his pedantry and prolixity are wearisome. Mattheson's advocacy of dramatic church cantatas stirred up a strenuous debate between Joachim Meyer (d. 1732) of Göttingen (1726-8) and Fuhrmann (d. after 1740) of Berlin (1728-30), the latter on Mattheson's side. Mattheson's experiment with periodical publications was imitated by Mizler of Leipsic and Warsaw (d. 1778), in his Bibliothek (monthly at intervals, 1736-54), containing much valuable matter, often directed against Mattheson, and another short-lived venture (1739-40); and also by Johann Adolf Scheibe (d. 1776), from 1736 at Hamburg, in his Der critische Musicus (weekly, 1737-40, enlarged ed. 1745), made up of superficial and often bitter original articles (as an attack on Bach's vocal writing, 1737), aiming in part to combat the growing use of acoustics in theory.

Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (d. 1795) was a much abler critic than Mattheson. His Der critische Musicus an der Spree (weekly, 1749-50) was succeeded by the important Historisch-critische Beyträge (at intervals, 1754-62, '78), which, besides contributed and original discussions, included notices of events and persons, with some careful biographies. His Critische Briefe (weekly, 1759-63), besides similar matter, also included extensive theoretical essays.

Other critical writers of varying importance were Benedetto Marcello (d. 1739), the sacred composer, with an attack upon Lotti as a madrigalist (1705) and a satire on the Italian opera (1720?), besides a MS. work on theory (1707); J. J. Rousseau (d. 1778), always too ready with his pen, with articles and pamphlets (1743-54); Charles Avison (d. 1770), organist at Newcastle, with an Essay on Musical Expression (1752), which William Hayes (d. 1777), professor at Oxford, criticised (1753); Christian Gottfried Krause (d. 1770), a Berlin lawyer, with good discussions of lyric poetry (1753) and other essays; Colin de Blamont (d. 1760), superintendent at Versailles, with an essay on French opera-texts (1754); and Francesco Algarotti (d. 1764), an erudite Italian, from 1739 under the patronage of Frederick the Great at Rheinsberg and Berlin, with a notable book on the opera (1755).