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Johann Mattheson

Johann Mattheson (September 28, 1681 - April 17, 1764) was a German composer, writer, lexicographer, and music theorist.

He was born and died in Hamburg. He was a close friend of George Frideric Handel, although he nearly killed him in a sudden quarrel, during a performance of Mattheson's opera Cleopatra in 1704—Handel was saved only by a large button which turned aside Mattheson's sword. The two were afterwards reconciled.

Mattheson is mainly famous as a music theorist. He was the most thorough writer on performance practice, theatrical style, and harmony of the German Baroque. In addition to some original work--particularly on the relationship of the disciplines of rhetoric and music--he was a compiler of most of the ideas current at the time.

The bulk of his compositional output was vocal, including eight operas, and numerous oratorios and cantatas. He also wrote a few sonatas and some keyboard music, including pieces meant for keyboard instruction. Unfortunately, all of his music except for one opera, one oratorio, and a few collections of instrumental music were destroyed in the bombing of Hamburg and subsequent firestorm during World War II; the works had mostly remained in manuscript, and were all kept in the Hamburg Stadtbibliothek.