The Musical Dilettante

Johann Friedrich Daube, Edited by Susan P. Snook-Luther

This is an English translation of Johann Friedrich Daube’s Musical Dilettante: A Treatise on Composition (Vienna, 1773). Written as a practical, comprehensive guide for aristocratic dilettantes wishing to compose instrumental chamber music for their social entertainment, the treatise covers genres from duets to double fugues, and includes the earliest instruction in string quartets and idiomatic orchestration of symphonies. Daube’s Musical Dilettante has long been overlooked due to his better-known Thorough-Bass in Three Chords (1756). Nevertheless, Musical Dilettante is the keystone of Daube’s theoretical writing, and offers a most comprehensive view of galant composition available in a single volume. The signature of Musical Dilettante is its unique textural emphasis and Daube’s examples sparkle with concertante interplay, conversational part-writing and idiomatic instrumentation. These features combine to create a volume which is not only a theoretical treatise but a record of the aesthetic and musical values of the day.

Bibliographic Details

Contents

• Foreword Ian Bent
• Translators preface
• Introduction
• The musical dilettante: a treatise on composition (1773)
• Preface
• 1. Harmony in general
• 2. The three different motions of the voices
• 3. Combining two voices
• 4. Combining three voices
• 5. Combining four voices
• 6. Composition in five and more parts
• 7. Variation
• 8. Imitation
• 9. Canon
• 10. Simple fugue
• 11. Double counterpoint
• 12. Double fugue
• Bibliography
• Index.